Disaster Risk Reduction Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Disaster Risk Management Officers, Climate Adaptation Specialists and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 7 Nov 2026 Course code SD-DRM-002

Before you join: Participants should have basic experience in planning, operations, emergency management, climate adaptation, development programming, infrastructure management or related public-service work.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Disasters become crises when known hazards meet exposed people, fragile infrastructure, weak services and unprepared institutions. Climate-related extremes, earthquakes, disease outbreaks, industrial incidents and cascading infrastructure failures can interrupt operations, displace communities and reverse development gains. Disaster risk reduction gives public authorities, humanitarian organisations, utilities, financial institutions and businesses a disciplined way to identify these risks before an emergency occurs and reduce their consequences.

This course develops practical competence in disaster risk assessment, risk governance, prevention, mitigation, preparedness, early warning, anticipatory action and recovery planning. Participants apply the Sendai Framework, ISO 31000 principles, multi-hazard assessment methods and risk-informed planning techniques to realistic public-service, community and organisational decisions. They learn to interpret hazard, exposure, vulnerability and capacity data; prioritise interventions; establish measurable actions; and connect risk evidence to investment, continuity and recovery decisions.

Delivered over five instructor-led days in the classroom or live online, the course combines focused briefings with sector-based case work, group analysis, simulations and structured application planning. Each training day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. Participants leave with a usable disaster risk reduction action-plan package, including a risk assessment model, prioritised interventions, early warning procedures and implementation roadmap. A certificate of completion is issued to participants who complete the course.

The course suits professionals who already contribute to planning, operations, resilience, emergency management, climate adaptation, infrastructure, development or community programmes and need a stronger basis for making risk-informed decisions.

What you will be able to do

  • Conduct a multi-hazard risk assessment using hazard, exposure, vulnerability and capacity data
  • Interpret Sendai Framework priorities and translate them into accountable DRR actions
  • Develop risk statements, scenarios and prioritisation matrices for critical services and assets
  • Select prevention, mitigation, preparedness and risk-transfer measures using cost-benefit criteria
  • Design people-centred early warning procedures with thresholds, alerts and response actions
  • Prepare a risk-informed DRR strategy with targets, indicators, budgets and assigned owners
  • Apply business impact analysis and continuity planning to essential services and operations
  • Produce an implementation roadmap linking disaster risk evidence to investment and recovery decisions

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Confidence to explain disaster risk drivers to senior decision-makers
  • Practical methods for prioritising prevention and preparedness investments
  • Stronger capability to assess risks affecting communities and essential services
  • Usable early warning and anticipatory action design skills
  • Evidence-based material for DRR, continuity and recovery planning roles

For your organisation

  • Clearer prioritisation of disaster risk reduction investments and budgets
  • Better protection of critical services, facilities and vulnerable populations
  • Earlier action triggered by defined warning thresholds and responsibilities
  • Stronger alignment between climate adaptation, emergency preparedness and development plans
  • Documented risk evidence supporting funding proposals, governance reviews and recovery decisions

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can explain disaster risk concepts and assign core DRR governance responsibilities.

  • Sendai Framework priorities translated into national and organisational DRR responsibilities
  • Risk terminology: hazard, exposure, vulnerability, capacity, resilience and disaster loss
  • Distinguishing disaster risk reduction, preparedness, response, recovery and climate adaptation
  • Risk governance roles from local authorities to national disaster management agencies
  • Stakeholder mapping identifies duty bearers, affected groups, service providers and partners
  • Problem framing links development decisions, inequality, environmental degradation and disaster risk

Participants can identify and assess relevant hazards using multi-hazard evidence sources.

  • Multi-hazard screening combines geophysical, hydrometeorological, biological and technological threats
  • Historical loss databases reveal event frequency, severity, location and affected assets
  • Seasonal calendars identify recurrent hazards, livelihood pressures and service disruptions
  • Climate projections interpreted with uncertainty, scenarios, return periods and planning horizons
  • Hazard maps assessed for scale, provenance, resolution, currency and decision suitability
  • Compound and cascading risk pathways connect hazards, infrastructure dependencies and failures

Participants can assess who and what is at risk, including capacities that reduce harm.

  • Exposure inventories classify people, housing, critical facilities, livelihoods and ecosystems
  • Vulnerability assessment examines physical, social, economic, environmental and institutional factors
  • Capacity assessment records coping assets, local knowledge, networks and response resources
  • Disaggregated data identifies differential risk by gender, age, disability and income
  • Participatory risk assessment gathers community evidence without transferring technical decisions
  • Risk matrices rank likelihood and consequence using documented scoring criteria

Participants can turn assessment data into credible risk scenarios and priority decisions.

  • Risk statements connect hazard scenarios, exposed elements, vulnerabilities and consequences
  • Scenario planning estimates plausible impacts on people, services, assets and operations
  • INFORM Risk Index indicators interpreted alongside local evidence and uncertainty
  • Criticality analysis prioritises hospitals, water systems, roads, power and communications
  • GIS risk layers combine hazard, exposure and vulnerability for decision maps
  • Validation protocols reconcile technical findings, community accounts and administrative records

Participants can select and prioritise risk reduction measures against defined risk drivers.

  • Prevention, mitigation, preparedness and risk transfer matched to assessed risk drivers
  • Structural measures appraised through design standards, maintenance needs and residual risk
  • Nature-based solutions assessed for hazard reduction, biodiversity, tenure and maintenance
  • Land-use controls reduce exposure through zoning, setbacks, building codes and enforcement
  • Cost-benefit analysis compares mitigation options, avoided losses and distributional effects
  • Prioritisation matrices weigh effectiveness, feasibility, equity, cost and implementation ownership

Participants can prepare accountable DRR strategies linked to planning and investment processes.

  • DRR strategies define outcomes, targets, actions, owners, budgets and timelines
  • Sendai targets adapted into measurable national, municipal or organisational indicators
  • Results chains link activities, outputs, outcomes and reduced disaster losses
  • Risk-informed public investment screens projects before design, approval and procurement
  • Budget tagging tracks prevention, preparedness, response and recovery expenditure
  • Coordination mechanisms clarify mandates, escalation routes, information flows and accountability

Participants can design early warning arrangements that trigger timely protective action.

  • People-centred early warning systems connect risk knowledge, monitoring, communication and response
  • Warning thresholds relate forecast probabilities, impact levels and predefined actions
  • Standard operating procedures assign alert authority, dissemination channels and response tasks
  • Last-mile communication reaches remote communities, persons with disabilities and language groups
  • Anticipatory action protocols trigger early measures using forecast-based thresholds
  • Evacuation planning specifies routes, transport, shelters, registration and protection measures

Participants can strengthen operational preparedness and continuity for essential functions.

  • Continuity planning identifies critical services, maximum downtime and recovery priorities
  • Business impact analysis quantifies disruption consequences, dependencies and recovery time objectives
  • Incident command structures coordinate decisions, operations, logistics, planning and public information
  • Resource inventories match emergency needs with suppliers, stockpiles, mutual aid and contracts
  • Tabletop simulations test decisions, handovers, communications and escalation arrangements
  • After-action reviews convert response observations into corrective actions and owners

Participants can plan recovery actions that reduce future risk rather than recreate it.

  • Post-disaster needs assessment separates damage, losses, recovery needs and reconstruction requirements
  • Build Back Better principles guide safer reconstruction, inclusion, sustainability and accountability
  • Recovery governance coordinates housing, livelihoods, infrastructure, services and social protection
  • Environmental and social safeguards prevent recovery projects creating new risks
  • Monitoring frameworks track risk reduction outcomes, implementation quality and unintended effects
  • Learning loops update risk assessments, plans, standards and investment priorities

Participants can produce an implementable DRR action plan for their workplace context.

  • Integrated DRR action plans sequence priority measures, owners, budgets and milestones
  • Decision briefs present risk evidence, recommended actions, trade-offs and approvals required
  • Financing pathways combine public budgets, contingency funds, insurance and donor support
  • Partnership plans define contributions from communities, government, business and civil society
  • Implementation roadmaps assign quarterly actions, dependencies, governance reviews and reporting cycles
  • Personal application commitments identify workplace decisions, stakeholders and first actions

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Multi-hazard risk assessment template
  2. Exposure, vulnerability and capacity assessment matrix
  3. DRR intervention prioritisation model
  4. Early warning standard operating procedure template
  5. Business continuity and critical-service checklist
  6. Risk-informed DRR action-plan roadmap

Who should attend

  • Disaster Risk Management Officers — need defensible methods for assessing and reducing priority risks
  • Climate Adaptation Specialists — need to connect climate risk evidence with practical DRR measures
  • Emergency Management Managers — need prevention and preparedness plans before incidents occur
  • Infrastructure and Utility Managers — need to protect critical services from disruption and cascading failures
  • Humanitarian and Development Programme Managers — need risk-informed programme design and community planning
  • Business Continuity and Resilience Managers — need to align organisational continuity with local disaster risks

Skills and tools covered

Multi-hazard assessmentVulnerability analysisRisk-informed planningEarly warning designContinuity planningRecovery planning

Tools and standards

Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, ISO 31000:2018 Risk Management, INFORM Risk Index, Post-Disaster Needs Assessment

How the course runs

Training methodology

Teaching combines short instructor briefings with realistic cases from public services, infrastructure, humanitarian programmes and business operations. Participants work in groups to interpret hazard and vulnerability information, build risk scenarios, compare mitigation options and draft decision materials. Simulations test early warning, continuity and incident coordination choices under time pressure. Facilitated discussion connects methods to participants' own mandates, constraints and stakeholders. The final application-planning session converts course learning into defined workplace actions, owners and review points.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have basic experience in planning, operations, emergency management, climate adaptation, development programming, infrastructure management or related public-service work. They should be comfortable reading simple tables, maps and risk information and discussing decisions with multiple stakeholders. Familiarity with local hazards or organisational continuity arrangements is useful but not essential. The course does not require prior disaster management certification, GIS expertise, advanced statistics, engineering qualifications or specialist climate modelling knowledge.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants should have some professional exposure to planning, operations, resilience, emergency management, infrastructure, climate adaptation or development work. No prior DRR qualification, GIS experience or technical modelling background is required.

Participants should bring a laptop if attending online and, where permitted, a current risk register, continuity plan, hazard map or planning document from their workplace. Course materials and templates are provided.

It is suited to professionals responsible for reducing disaster impacts before emergencies occur, including government, utility, humanitarian, development and corporate resilience staff. It is especially useful for staff who must turn risk information into funded actions and accountable plans.

Emergency response training concentrates on managing an incident after it occurs, while business continuity training focuses on maintaining organisational functions. This course starts earlier by identifying risk drivers and selecting measures that prevent, reduce or prepare for disaster impacts.

Participants can use the assessment templates to review priority hazards, exposed assets and vulnerable groups. They can then prepare a practical DRR action plan, improve warning procedures or strengthen investment and continuity decisions.

The five days provide about 32.5 contact hours, running 08:30 to 16:30 each day. Time is divided between risk assessment, risk reduction options, governance, early warning, preparedness, recovery and workplace application planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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