The consequences of natural disasters for economic activity, property, human welfare and natural resources can be devastating. These events greatly affect the productive sectors of the economy, not to mention the impacts on communities, in particular the poor.

With increasing frequency, countries face situations in which scarce resources that were earmarked for development projects have to be diverted to relief and reconstruction. A recent World Bank Study on Jamaica, Dominican Republic and OECS countries confirms that long-term economic growth recovers slowly after major natural disasters. If sustainable development is to be achieved, countries will have to take effective measures to manage natural hazard risks.
 
Effective disaster risk management requires close coordination of all activities and the participation of all sectors in the economy: national disaster agencies, sector ministries, business and private sector organizations, as well as community level organizations. Since low-income households and communities are often more vulnerable to natural hazards than the population at large, their active involvement in risk reduction, based on local knowledge and measures tailored to local conditions, offers to complement national disaster management initiatives. The role of local actors – municipal governments and communities – is being increasingly recognized. Decentralization of disaster risk management implies delegation of competencies and resources to the local level keeping in mind the subsidiary principle.

Language
The language of the course is Turkish.
 
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. The course includes 6 audio sessions of expert lectures for 30–35 minutes each.
 
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 objective of Community Based Disaster Risk Management course is to introduce the basic concepts, tools, and mechanisms that help the design and implementation of community-based disaster risk management programs. The course highlights the flexibility and inventive character of community-based initiatives. Further, it underscores the need for greater engagement with people and a better understanding of their risks and resources.  

Course Overview

The human causes of natural disasters find greater recognition today in the theory and practice of disaster management, and there is a discernible shift in the nature of disaster preparedness and mitigation activities. While governments, supported by other actors—international agencies, academia, and non-governmental organizations—play a key role in organizing and funding disaster management programs, the content and implementation of these initiatives now include communities as prime actors. This approach has evolved in the last two decades. It is based on the recognition that the socio-economic vulnerability of communities, rather than physical hazard, explains the impact of disasters and that interventions must therefore aim at reducing vulnerability at the community level.

Successive disasters in different parts of the world have demonstrated time and again that the impact of a disaster in terms of life, assets, and potential for recovery is borne disproportionately by developing countries and within them by the poorest segments. A community-based approach aims to reduce their socially constructed vulnerability by involving communities as active participants in a disaster program. There is also a broadening consensus that it is cost-effective to train and educate communities about risks they face, provide them access to resources and knowledge, and to develop community-based preparedness and mitigation programs. This approach has emerged as a complement to structural mitigation (dams, dykes, levees, etc.) and even certain types of non-structural mitigation programs (land use, building codes, development regulations, etc.).

A community-based disaster risk management program does not follow a standard course of action or a master plan. Instead, it is a series of action plans that allow methods to be less normative, procedures less standardized and intervention mechanisms more innovative and improvised. The key issues are creating access to resources for protecting shelter and livelihoods, greater knowledge and choices for hazard mitigation, and reducing socio-economic vulnerability.

The course consists of two modules, presentations, case studies, readings and an end of course exercise.

• Module 1: Global Perspective
  
• Module 2: Turkey’s Perspective
  
• 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 enable the participants to apply the newly acquired knowledge to create natural disaster preparedness program. The program should draw upon information from the course materials and data specific to selected society.   
  

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.

This course is offered to a group of up to 40 local government officials, policymakers, consultants, researchers and professors of training institutions in Turkey, who are interested in development challenges and issues related to natural disaster risk management. 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.