emi

EMI, in collaboration with the World Bank Institute (WBI) and National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC), is set to deliver the WBI Global Distance Learning Program on Natural Disaster Risk Management (NDRM) in May 2008. Two additional courses will be offered this year, namely, (1) Climate Change and Disaster and (2) Reducing Disaster Risk through Land Use Planning.

EMI first delivered the Program in July 2006, attracting 77 participants from the local government, academe, private sector and civil society. This time, 200 participants are targeted to enroll in the Comprehensive Disaster Risk Management Framework course, which is a pre-requisite for the other specialized courses.

Aside from the new courses, the Program includes the following specialized courses:

1. Safe Cities
2. Earthquake Risk Reduction
3. Financial Strategies for Managing the Economic Impact of Natural Disasters
4. Damage and Reconstruction Needs Assessment
5. Community-Based Disaster Risk Management

The Program will be delivered online using the Moodle platform, with each course lasting from 3-5 weeks. A formal launching and orientation workshop is tentatively set on May 2 for Metro Manila participants.

Training of Trainors

In a related development, a "Training of Trainors (TOT)" will be held in March 2008 to enhance the Program's pool of WBI-certified facilitators. The three-week intensive online training is intended for participants who have completed all six courses in 2006-2007 and other nominees from WBI's partner institutions.

Only those who have successfully undergone the TOT are allowed to facilitate WBI courses.