Ask any city that has rebuilt after a major flood or earthquake, and the same lesson comes up: recovery is rarely just about the disaster itself — it's about how well resources, information and coordination were managed before, during and after. That combination of planning, communication and risk management is what determines whether a disaster becomes a temporary setback or a long-term one.

This course treats disaster management as a cross-cutting field rather than a single specialism, precisely because disaster problems cut across every line — technological, environmental, social and political. No institution can address them effectively by focusing on isolated problems of one kind alone; real progress depends on the coordinated activity of independent organisations at both the national and international level.

Who Should Attend?

• Managers of public relations departments in institutions.
• Disaster management managers and relief work crews.
• Workers in humanitarian organizations.

Course Objectives

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Describe the effects, dimensions and characteristics of different types of disasters.
• Explain the role governments play in complex emergencies.
• Identify the international and national agencies involved in disaster relief and humanitarian assistance.
• Improve their own ability, as professionals, to strengthen disaster response.

• The Many Faces of Disaster

  • Technological hazards, and dangerous or toxic materials
  • Tsunamis, tropical cyclones, floods, droughts, environmental pollution, deforestation and desertification
  • Epidemics and chemical or industrial accidents, plus human epidemics and exotic animal diseases

• Classifying and Tracing a Disaster's Course

  • Disaster classification and disaster levels
  • Causal factors behind disasters
  • The stages a disaster typically moves through

• Prevention, Risk Analysis and Control

  • Disaster prevention and control
  • Disaster risk analysis and management
  • Hazards as a central concern for planners

• Disasters and the Development Agenda

  • The relationship between disasters and development
  • Nature, humanity and development in the face of disaster
  • How disasters disrupt sustainable development

• The Human Cost: Society, Health and Displacement

  • Social and political impacts, including displaced persons and refugees
  • Complex emergencies
  • Public health and disasters: body systems, the nervous system, reproduction, the immune system, and the biological effects of massive chemical exposure