Disaster Prevention and Contingency Planning Course
1Summary
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.
2Objectives and target group
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.
3Course Content
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