Grassroots participatory disaster management online training

Course description

“If sufficient a number of management layers are superimposed on top of each other, it can be assured that disaster is not left to chance.” -Norman R. Augustine 

The occurrence of disasters appears to be on the rise, and despite several technological advancements, they still cause major damage and destruction to our societies. In order to minimize these damages and save lives, disaster management plans must adopt a participatory strategy with an increasing focus on the grassroots level. Small initiatives, such as creating awareness and educating vulnerable communities on simple and easy disaster management techniques, may mitigate the conditions that exacerbate disasters and help reduce losses. Therefore, there is a need for a participatory and broad-based approach in order to increase the scope of disaster management and utilize local knowledge and means of communication and organization. Instead of looking at crises from the delivery end as outsiders, we need to focus on understanding the requirements of the sufferer, the victim, the community and design disaster management plans accordingly. 

The course mainly focuses on victim-centric, micro-level planning in disaster management and predominantly discusses the techniques that are useful at the individual/family/community level. 
It focuses on actions to be taken during and after the occurrence of disasters, rather than focusing on the mitigation.

Course Format 

All IISD online courses are organized in a seminar format with weekly readings, presentations and assignments along with discussion among participants. While participants are not required to access the courses at specific times it will be necessary to access the course at least two or more times each week to download assignments, post reactions, and give feedback to other course participants. 

Materials 
All content and readings required for IISD courses will be downloadable from within the online course or linked to from the course. Participants will not be required to purchase any additional materials. |

Grading 
All IISD online courses are non-credit but are graded on a Pass/Fail basis. The criteria for passing or failing will be determined by each instructor and should be clearly explained in the course syllabus or course description. Following the completion of each course, students will be mailed a letter indicating their grade which should be retained for your records. To be awarded the Certificate in Community-Based Development students must pass the required course, Approaches to Community-Based Development along with three (3) other elective courses in the program. 

Academic Credit 
CEUs or Professional Development Units (PDUs) are awarded for participation. Each CEU represents 10 hours of instruction; a PDU represents one hour of instruction. These units are respected in many industries as proof of commitment to continuous learning and accepted for recertification requirements as a measure of in-service activities in professional fields. CEUs and PDUs do not, however, count toward a degree nor are they recorded on an official transcript.
 
Technical Requirements 
IISD online trainings are based on the Blackboard (TM) system. The minimum requirements to use this system include the following: Mozilla Firefox Version 2.0 or later OR MS Internet Explorer version 6.0 or later. Cookies are enabled Javascript is enabled Pop-up blocker is turned off Java 2 Runtime Environment version 1.6.0_03 (Sun Microsystems Inc.) To test to determine if your browser is compatible click here. Additionally, many IISD courses share documents using the freely available Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you don't have a reader installed you can download one for free at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

Funding 
IISD encourages participants with no funding to seek sponsorship in their respective countries, as we are currently unable to provide scholarships for online courses. The following donor agencies have funded international training opportunities in the past: Governments International NGOs International Development Assistance: EU, USAID, DANIDA, SDC Development Banks: World Bank, Asian Development Bank UN agencies: UNDP, WFP, WHO