The Damage and Reconstruction Needs Assessment course is a joint offering of National Institute of Disaster Management, New Delhi and World Bank Institute, Washington.It is part of the Comprehensive Natural Disaster Risk Management Program developed by the World Bank Institute with support from WB Hazard Management Unit and ProVention Consortium. The course aims at enhancing participants’ understanding and capacity in assessing the social, economic and environmental effects of natural disasters. It reviews methodologies and instruments used to quantify direct damages and indirect losses and the overall macroeconomic consequences of catastrophic events, in order to determine the damages and the reconstruction needs.

This course offers a set of diagnostic tools to measure the type and extent of damage and losses caused by a specific disaster. It can be used immediately after the emergency stage to assess the direct and indirect effects of a catastrophic event, and its implications for the social well-being and economic performance of the affected area. This comprehensive methodology covers the broad range of effects and their cross implications for the economic and social sectors, physical infrastructure, and environmental assets. Based on its estimates, it is possible to determine the reconstruction requirements and identify appropriate reconstruction programs and projects.

The course is based on the Handbook developed by the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and Caribbean. It incorporates both the conceptual and methodological aspects of measuring the damage caused by disasters to capital stocks, losses in the flows of goods and services, and temporary effects on the main macroeconomic variables. The presented methodology can be also used to estimate whether there is a sufficient domestic capacity for dealing with reconstruction tasks, or whether international cooperation is required.

 

Language

The language of the course is English.

 

Course Format

The course consists of self-paced modules, discussion forums, exercises, readings, case studies, tests and learning via interaction with program faculty and peers. Moreover, for each module there are 2 to 3 audio sessions of expert lectures for 40–45 minutes each. The Course materials shall be provided in a CD to each participant.

 

Course Expectations

Participants are expected to commit 8–10 hours per week in order to gain the most out of this course in addition to:

• Complete the required reading assignments.
  
• Participate in all online activities. Participation involves posting a minimum of two messages per week that are substantive in nature. The message can be either a new topic or a reply to someone else's message.
  
• Participants are encouraged to post more often than twice a week in order to be involved more deeply into topics.
  
• Participate in videoconferencing and asynchronous chat sessions (if applicable)
  
• Complete assignments and end of course project
  
• Complete course evaluation at the end of the course

 

Certificate
Joint certificate from NIDM and WBI shall be issued to all successful participants of the course.

 

System Requirements of the Course
Participants must have access to computers with the following specifications:

·   Hardware: Pentium 166 or faster, 64Mb Memory, CD-ROM, Sound Card.

• Software: Windows 95,98,ME,NT 4,2000 or XP Internet Explorer 4 or higher, Netscape 4 or higher Microsoft Office 2000 (Word,Powerpoint) Acrobat Reader 5.

Fees
Rs.1000 to be paid by Demand Draft to the National Institute of Disaster Management payable at New Delhi. For more details, kindly log on to www.nidm.net   

 

The course introduces basic tools that can be used to assess the damages and losses caused by natural disasters. The accompanying analysis provides guidance for long-term policy decisions that aim at reducing disaster risk and vulnerability.

The course provides a better understanding of:

• The concept of disaster valuation,
• Links between disasters, post-crisis management and development,
• Tools for socioeconomic and environmental valuation of disasters and
• Disaster assessment process in developing countries 
  

The course consists of presentations, case studies, readings and an end of course exercise. During the course, instructors and facilitators from National Institute of Disaster Management and the World Bank Institute will guide the participants and evaluate the project work. The course consists of one modules and an end of course exercise. The module covers following sessions:

•  Session 1: Introduction to Damage and Needs Assessment Methodology and Basic Concepts
  
  This session briefly reviews the concepts associated with disasters: their nature and causes, phases and cycle.  It elaborates on the causal link between exposure and vulnerability as they relate to the damage and reconstruction needs assessment. The session attempts to create a common language of basic terms and concepts that can be used by specialists from different disciplines who are involved in disaster assessment. It introduces the terminology used in ECLAC methodology and discusses the basic elements of disaster valuation. It also presents potential uses of the damage and reconstruction needs assessment in policy formulation.

 

•  Session 2: Valuation of the Impact of Disasters
  
  Disasters impact the welfare of people, in terms of lives and injuries that are difficult to quantify. Damage assessment therefore mostly focuses on socio-economic and environmental damages that occur as a consequence of natural catastrophes. These losses of assets and the impact on flows of goods and services vary according to local circumstances and the time, strength and duration of the disastrous event. Effects can be direct and indirect, and affect different sectors of the economy in distinct ways. Thus, assessment must be done carefully to avoid possible duplication. The session summarizes the methodology used to assess the overall impact of damages, in the short- and medium-term, on the main economic variables, social systems and the environment.

 

• Session 3: Prevention and Mitigation: Post-disaster Management
  
  Post-disaster response is an opportunity to reconstruct in a way that makes the affected population and region less vulnerable to disaster risk. The choice of prevention and mitigation tools - structural, organizational, financial – and the process of choosing itself have long-term effects on vulnerability. The session reviews the mitigation and prevention measures that should be considered, the necessity of stakeholder involvement, the costs of mitigation and the challenges to its implementation.

• End of Course Project
  
  To meet the course completion requirement the participants are required to submit an end-of course case study/project. The objective of the course project is to apply newly acquired knowledge to build a case study of a natural disaster risk management system in a selected city. In the course project participants should provide a critical assessment of risks present in the city and the specific ways in which the current city disaster risk management system addresses or doesn’t address these risks. The project should be prepared in a case study format. 
  

National Institute of Disaster Management, New Delhi, India

Once the course has ended, participants from training institutions are welcome to replicate this training for their staff, for central and local government officials. Donors working in hazard and disaster related projects could also apply to attend the course. Only applicants who attended the Comprehensive Disaster Risk Management Framework course will be accepted.  

 

Best end-of-course projects:

End-of-course project by Arun Sahdeo(Pdf file, 16kb)
End-of-course project by Inderpal Kaicher (Pdf file, 33kb)
End-of-course project by K.K.Miglani (Pdf file, 36kb)
End-of-course project by Ratna Akash Sud (Pdf file, 24kb)