INTRODUCTION

Disasters, whether due to natural, socio-natural or technological occurrences or phenomena, have an adverse effect on efforts aimed at sustainable development. Both Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Human Health Resilience are key pillars of achieving peace and sustainable development. The course falls completely within the human security discourse, which forms the basis of much of the environmental security and peace thinking.

The course will be taught at the University for Peace campus in Costa Rica (Ciudad Colón) and in neighboring communities.

The course purpose is to equip student practitioners in environment, peace and security with enhanced knowledge, skills, resources and technical abilities in disaster risk reduction and human health resilience. It will therefore provide the tools either to prevent such disasters, to mitigate their impacts or to resolve conflicts between different social groups that occur as a result of disasters.

UPEACE has available five scholarships for practitioners from the Central American or Caribbean regions to attend this course, please select the registration tab above for further details.

Some of the main topics developed will be: Nature of risks, especially for the most vulnerable populations; links between disaster risk, health and development particularly vulnerability reduction, human coping, trauma management, and the theoretical and practical ways in which resilience to disaster is established at the local level; DRR and its mainstreaming into sustainable development policy and planning; DRR processes and structures; introduction to varied social survey techniques, people-centered monitoring and evaluation, environmental analyses, and the application of appropriate methodologies to people-centered development issues; skills in conducting educational and training workshops.

The course will be a mix of lectures by invited experts and student involvement in the learning process, by sharing their experiences, investigating about difficult concepts, preparing and delivering seminars, and participating in simulation and field exercises and web-interactions.