National Institute of Disaster Management New Delhi and World Bank Institute, Washington is offering on-line training course on Comprehensive Disaster Management Framework. This course is meant for development practitioners, central, state and local government officials, NGO representatives, community leaders and others interested in the challenges and issues related to disaster risk reduction and management.


Course Overview
This course addresses basic questions such as “why are disasters a development issue?” and “what are the components of comprehensive disaster risk management?” The course 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. This course targets general development practitioners to raise their awareness and sensitivity in prevention of natural disasters, and consists of three modules and End of Course Exercise.


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 (per module) 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. The successful participants shall also be eligible for specialized courses which shall be launched in January 2008 and 2009. 

The increased demand for both disaster assistance and mitigation capacity building calls for a structured, comprehensive and global risk management framework, one that can be used by regional and national authorities and by partner institutions. The World Bank Institute Natural Disaster Risk Management Program was developed to address the above needs. The WB Hazard Management Unit and ProVention Consortium supported the program development. The program comprises a series of five web-based courses, which aim at (i) awareness raising and (ii) advancing the participants’ analytical skills and professional knowledge in the specific area of disaster risk management. Comprehensive DRM framework course is the first in the series.  

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.   

National Institute of Disaster Management, New Delhi 

This course is offered to a group of general development practitioners, central and local government officials, policymakers, consultants, researchers and professors of training institutions, NGO representatives and community leaders, 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, NGOs and community leaders.