e-Shelter in Urban Emergencies

Overview

RedR’s urban courses are designed using a modular approach, with our WASH and Shelter modules building on existing learning from our Urban Humanitarianism course. It is therefore a pre-requisite that you have attended either our face to face or on-line Urban Humanitarianism course before attending either the WASH or Shelter in Urban Emergencies modules. However, in certain circumstances where someone has extensive experience and knowledge of Urban Humanitarian response we may waive this pre-requisite. In this situation there will be substantial pre-reading before attending the additional urban module. Decisions regarding this waiver will be made on a case by case basis. If you wish to waive the pre-requisite attendance of the Urban Humanitarianism course, please [email protected]

ABOUT THE COURSE

Aid agencies have struggled to effectively respond to recent urban emergencies, with many of their shelter staff lacking the necessary knowledge and expertise in urban response. An urban emergency is much more complex than many rural or camp-focused emergencies. The kind of response required is greatly affected by the type of disaster and the different urban environments, whether huge cities; medium sized towns; peri-urban or slum areas. Aid agencies must adapt their work dramatically in urban responses, as their available resources are often dwarfed by those of existing service providers.

It is crucial for effective urban disaster response to build strong relations with national and municipal authorities as well as private sector service suppliers, and to work within existing legislation and long term plans for the cities.

Working with communities is as important as ever, but communities are less tightly defined and engagement becomes more complex: communities are unlikely to be geographically-identified but instead based around common interests or, for instance, income opportunities. Typical emergency Shelter responses are often inappropriate in urban areas: local authorities and existing infrastructure must be respected; camp setups are not always an appropriate solution or physically possible as space is limited and land ownership disputed.

This on-line Shelter in Urban Emergencies course has been developed with the support and guidance of experienced Shelter practitioners from leading humanitarian agencies. It will help Shelter humanitarians with limited experience of working in an urban context to explore and develop the necessary skills and knowledge to work effectively in the early stages of an urban emergency.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

The target audience for this course are Shelter humanitarians, with practical experience in the field.

COURSE CONTENT

This course builds upon the material covered in our Urban Humanitarianism course which participants must have previously attended.

Sessions covered will include:
- Shelter standards & guidelines
- Housing, land and property issues
- Partnerships
- Reconstruction and recovery
- Technical shelter solutions in urban contexts

COURSE METHODOLOGY

The duration of the facilitated on-line course is 6 consecutive weeks. All activities take place on-line, but it is expected that you spend around 1 hr per working day or five hours per week on participating in team activities and completing individual tasks.

All the activities are asynchronous, so there aren’t fixed times when you need to be on-line to meet with all the others in the group. Yet, with plenty of discussions it often feels like real time, with the added advantage that you can take a little longer to formulate your contributions. The asynchronous model means that you can log in when convenient for you, whether that is during the working day, in the evening at home or while traveling. However, you need to work on the same topics in the same weeks as other participants so you will need to access the on-line learning site regularly to contribute.

The most important thing is that participants are fully committed to completing the course and sharing their own experiences with the other participants they will be working with. The maximum number of participants is 24.

Terms and Conditions

For full RedR UK terms and conditions, click here

Cost

Band A (those working for southern national or local NGOs) £50.00 Band B (those working for organisations with an annual turnover of less than £1 million or individuals funding themselves) £88.50 Band C (those working for organisations with an annual turnover of more than £1million) £156.65 Band D (those working for governmental organisations) £277