This course addresses basic questions such as “Why are disasters a development issue?” and “What are the components of comprehensive disaster risk management?” It provides an overview of all the major issues discussed in detail in the subsequent specialization courses. The course also reviews the institutional arrangements and financing mechanisms of disaster management systems, and identifies the role of national and local actors in the processes related to risk assessment, mitigation and financing.

Language
The language of the course is Turkish.
 
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
  

System Requirements of the Course

• 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  

The Comprehensive Natural Disaster Risk Management Framework Course* is designed to raise awareness and appreciation of prevention and mitigation of natural disasters among a diverse range of professionals who are best suited to mitigate the impacts of disasters.  Following successful completion of the Framework course, participants may also choose to complete other WBI courses in this series:

1. Financial Strategies for Managing the Economic Impacts of Natural Disasters.
2. Damage and Reconstruction Needs Assessment.
3. Safe Cities.
4. Community-based Disaster Risk Management.

* The Framework Course is mandatory for participants who wish to attend any of the four additional courses.

Presenters
The course materials have been prepared by a resource team drawn from academics and practitioners involved in various facets of disaster risk management from different parts of the globe.

• Module 1: Introduction to Natural Disaster Risk Management
  
  It is increasingly recognized worldwide that the devastating effects of natural disasters can be linked to shortcomings of development policies. First, because certain natural phenomena tend to have greater effects in developing countries than in developed ones. Second, because several structural factors associated with a low level of development exacerbate disasters’ effects. Third, because the negative impact of natural phenomena on the prospects for long-term development is considerably greater in less developed countries. Thus, confronting disaster issues in a systematic and coherent fashion must be an explicit objective of development strategies. This introductory module reviews worldwide trends in disaster occurrence, regional distribution, and links to global trends such as persistent poverty, environmental degradation and growing urban density.
  
  
• Module 2: National Disaster Risk Management Systems
  
  Poorly planned development turns recurring natural phenomena into human and economic disaster. Allowing dense population on a floodplain or permitting poor or non-enforced building codes in earthquake zones increases not only the vulnerability of the exposed population, but also makes increased losses due to natural hazards more likely. In recent years, the traditional approach to disaster management – which focused almost exclusively on actions taken immediately before, during and shortly after a disaster in order to avoid loss of life and reduce economic damage – has evolved toward a broader concept of disaster risk management. Instead of diverting financing through budget reallocation from ongoing projects in order to finance recovery and reconstruction efforts, pro-active mechanisms are sought to reduce the economic costs and impacts of disasters, improve countries’ response capacity, decrease vulnerability and improve communities’ resilience to disasters. This module reviews different approaches countries take to creating national disaster management systems; diverse methods of transferring disaster risks; options available to governments in financing disaster recovery through risk-sharing tools; costs and benefits of policy options; methods of determining the financing needs for recovery, using damage and reconstruction needs assessment etc.
  
  
• Module 3: The Role of Local Actors
  
  Democratization and decentralization are global trends that are causing policymakers to rethink the institutional setup of governments, and the roles and responsibilities of different levels of government in achieving developmental objectives. Disaster risk management is not exempt from these global trends and actors such as local governments, municipal authorities and local communities play an increasingly important role in emerging national disaster risk management systems. This role deserves not only recognition, but it should be viewed as an integral part of the national systems. This means that the central government must provide appropriate resources to localities, coordinate national efforts and create an enabling environment for local initiatives. This module examines the evolving role of local actors in the context of city management and community-based disaster mitigation.
  
  
• Module 4: Turkey’s Perspective
  
  Turkey is one of the most disaster prone countries. Due to its geographical structure the country is exposed and vulnerable to natural disasters from earthquakes to landslides. The module summarizes the most common natural hazards in Turkey, reviews the main issues and trends in Turkey’s disaster risk management system and highlights the impacts of previous major earthquakes happened in the country. There is also a discussion on the roles and responsibilities of the different segments of the society in disaster risk reduction. 
  
  
• 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 the knowledge that was gathered during the course to a specific situation in participant’s country. In the course project the participants should provide a critical assessment of the disaster risk management system in their countries. The evaluation should be presented in the context of a recent natural disaster event. The case study should draw upon information from the course materials, data specific to the case study and the selected disaster event.  
  

WBI is pleased to offer this training series as a result of partnerships with the Middle East Technical University, Istanbul Technical University, Bosphorus University and Gazi University.

 Best End-of-Course Project by Ali Tolga Özden (.pdf file, 650K)