Health Disaster Recovery Needs Assessment and Recovery Planning (HDRNA) Online Course
About the course
This fully online self-paced short course focuses on familiarising participants with the approach of conducting systematic post-disaster needs assessments and recovery planning and their application to health hazard-related disasters such as the Coronavirus 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic, for which the COVID-19 Recovery Needs Assessment (CRNA) guidance was prepared. It is based on the Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) and Disaster Recovery Framework (DRF) methodologies and tools.
While the training may focus on addressing Covid-19-related issues, the general principles, theories, tools and assessment methods taught throughout this course should be applicable to similar health/sanitary hazards and emergencies (such as an Ebola epidemic, cholera outbreak or potentially even mass contamination such as radiation or chemical spills) so those who participate and complete these courses can apply these same lessons to other situations. The design, content development and operationalization of this course was funded by the European Union through the “Strengthening Capacities for Post-Disaster Needs Assessment and Recovery Planning - PDNA Roll Out III Project”, and the Government of Sweden through the UNDP “Sahel Resilience Project”.
The course is designed to be a fully online self-paced short course in which no in-person or virtual engagement with trainers or other participants will take place. The course is estimated to take approximately eight to ten hours of study time to complete. The course will consist of ten core lessons, which will provide participants with access to all training materials, readings, recordings and other educational media. The online self-paced course will be hosted on the Stellenbosch University short course teaching and learning platform, SUNOnline. On this platform, participants will have access to all the necessary learning materials and tools to complete the course through this platform. Participants with limited access to the Internet may download readers and other learning materials to study online and at their own time.
Who can participate?
This short course is open to practitioners, students, technical experts and government officials across the globe. Anyone who wants to understand more about the basics of conducting an assessment to determine the impact and recovery needs of a community, region or country that has experienced a major public health-related disaster, or who is simply interested in better understanding how to conduct such assessments, is eligible to participate in this course.