15 June 2011, Geneva, Switzerland – UNOSAT trainers celebrated the first successful master level training delivered by the team in Geneva. The UNOSAT premises housed at CERN include a training facility that for first time hosted a 3-week intensive training to students of the Master Course on Disaster Management of the Universities of Copenhagen and Lund. The UNOSAT course is worth 6 ECTS credits.
This Master course has become rapidly popular among professionals involved with humanitarian response and disaster management. The Master’s objective is to provide national and international aid workers, government officials and other professionals interested in any or all parts of disaster management with a solid holistic interdisciplinary background so that they can respect and understand the complex context of acting and working before, during and after a disaster. This course enjoys considerable success only two years after its creation by the Universities of Copenhagen and Lund (Sweden).
After successful training experience with Universities in the US and in Europe and in training professionals from Africa and Asia, UNOSAT made the strategic choice in 2010 to engage in Master level training. The first course, which was completed by 7 students in March 2011, was an intensive set of modules tailored to fit the requirements of this particular audience. Geo Information in Disaster Situations is based on a successful formula combining formal training and experience based knowledge transfer directly from UNOSAT experts and analysts.
This successful methodology has already been used in several capacity development projects run by UNOSAT for UN member states and a few international organizations. The methodology combines capacity development in situ with transfer of knowledge, including UNOSAT generated best practices, and technical assistance when needed.
The Geospatial Information course offered within the curriculum of the Master of Disaster Management at Copenhagen University is open each year to applicants taking the Master course in Copenhagen. UNOSAT is planning to offer soon a similar course to a larger audience given the growing interest by disaster response professionals to benefit from the knowledge and experience built at UNOSAT in generating geospatial information and satellite analysis for disaster response since 2003.
UNOSAT has consistently increased its training offer since 2008, driven by increasing demand and constantly renewed experience in several operational areas.
For more information on the Master Course, please visit: http://www.mdma.ku.dk/