“Cases in Disaster Risk Management and Decision Making

On the 9th of February 2022, colleagues from the University of Geneva together with Sustainable Caucasus held a number forth virtual webinars with the participation of representatives of higher education institutions from the countries of the Caucasus Mountain Region.
Anna Scolobig, from the University of Geneva, introduced a learning unit focused on “Cases in Disaster Risk Management and Decision Making. 

The objectives of this unit were to expose students to real cases of disaster risk management and to train them to make difficult risk management choices by developing their abilities to apply formal analytic methods for disaster risk management but also to appraise good risk management choices from bad ones; To develop strong arguments in favor of the choice one has selected, but also to question one’s own arguments as well as listening to countervailing views and to ground one’s choices in scientific/analytical methods, approaches, frameworks or theories but also question the applicability of the scientific theory to the choice at hand. 
With the proposed method, the students repeat the practice of appraising a risk management problem, coming up with ideas about how to solve that problem, and reflecting on the process, in terms of what worked and did not work. In class, students either discuss the cases -that they have read before - or present their assignments and reflect on lessons learned. Different tools, methods, and indications for student group work were also provided. 
Regional workshops on teaching-learning practice improvement respond to the growing demand for qualified teaching in Disaster Risk Management (DRM) and hazard mapping (DRM-HM) and contribute to capacity building for instructors in higher education institutions in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia and are organized within the project Strengthening the Climate Adaptation Capacities in the South Caucasus: Enhancing regional cooperative action for the benefit of the Caucasus mountain region (SCAC), financially supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).
At the end of the webinar, representatives of higher education institutions discussed the proposed learning unit and shared regional experiences.