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Training
Courses
Interagency
and interdisciplinary collaboration is the core of institutionalising
efforts by DMI. Institutionalisation is initiated through a series
of National Courses on Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards
in Disaster Response.
Bringing
people of different institutional backgrounds together increased
opportunities of coming up with new ways of institutionalising the
Sphere Standards.
Training
Courses:
It is often said that the problem
of relief response in India is not one of inadequate resources or
expertise, but of a lack of coordination between various disaster
managers. This handy directory of humanitarian agencies and workers
is an effort towards bridging that gap.
The Disaster Mitigation Institute (DMI) tries to enhance the quality
of relief in India through its national training courses, local
capacity-building cycles, the livelihood relief fund and the learning
resources. In the course of these efforts, DMI has found that without
rating each relief performance, one cannot improve its quality.
But since rating is not possible without establishing standards,
DMI turned to a set of universal minimum standards called the Sphere
Standards, as one of the important ways of promoting quality in
relief.
With improvement of quality of relief in mind, DMI developed a national
course module on Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster
Response. So far, with support from Oxfam (GB) and CARITAS India,
three national courses, reaching out to disaster managers have been
conducted. All these courses were based on the same module, but
each course was improved upon to suit the specific requirements
of the participants and was enriched by intense local experience
sharing.
Even after the training, contact between the trainees and DMI continued
to flourish. Not surprisingly, as trainees began to use and apply
the Sphere Standards in the course of their work, invaluable suggestions
towards making the standards more effective in India, came pouring
in from all corners of the country. Furthermore, some trainees started
looking at these universal minimum standards as a source of academic
study, while others took them on as a funding-approval checklist.
The Sphere Standards are the latest effort to establish core areas
for humanitarian assistance, as well as an attempt to improve the
quality of response by humanitarian agencies. By the end of the
fourth session of the twelve-session course module, it was heartening
to note that the process of incorporating the Sphere Standards into
their work was both dynamic and interactive.
So why publish a directory? DMI has found that as this deeply committed
pool of individuals-well trained in Sphere Standards-grows, they
would benefit greatly by sharing their experiences with each other.
The role of this directory is to keep them all connected. Further,
it will be an invaluable source of information for the general public,
international and national NGOs, local authorities and others who
will have a handy source of professionals to turn to in times of
need.
Of course, the data in such a directory is only good if it is constantly
evaluated and updated. User feedback is, as always, crucial to its
success, so any and all suggestions regarding the performance of
agencies or individuals listed here are most welcome. Also welcome
are any inquiries regarding training, ways of sharing experiences,
and keeping abreast of current activities.
- Second
National Course on The Sphere Project: Humanitarian Charter
and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response
- Third
National Course on The Sphere Project: Humanitarian Charter
and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response
- Eighth
National Course on The Sphere Project: Humanitarian Charter
and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response
- Sixteenth
Local Course on The Sphere Project: Humanitarian Charter and
Minimum Standards in Disaster Response
- Twenty Second Local Course Urban Water Audit
and Resource Assessment with Sphere Standards
- Twenty Third Local Course on The Sphere Project:
Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response
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