In the recently concluded Module Writeshop for the joint project with the Humanitarian Leadership Academy (HLA) entitled “Blended Learning Approach to STrengthen Disaster Risk Reduction and Management” or BLAST DRRM, Disaster Risk Reduction and Management champion organizations participated in a 3-day workshop that aimed to identify the needed capacity building interventions for civil society organizations (CSOs).

Participants from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao across a wide array of representatives of CSO practitioners of DRRM including Partnership of Philippine Support Service Agencies (PHILSSA), National Confederation of Cooperatives (NATCCO), Iloilo Caucus of Development NGOs (ICODE), Mindanao Coalition of Development NGO Networks (MINCODE), Agri-Aqua Development Coalition (AADC), Fellowship for Organizing Endeavors (FORGE), Cordillera Network of Development NGOs and POs (CORDNET), and Philippine Partnership for the Development of Human Resources in Rural Areas (PhilDDHRA) Mindanao came together to brainstorm ways on how to enhance the CBDRRM Course provided by the Caucus of Development NGO Networks (CODE-NGO) to local CSOs. The training is geared to be digitized, repackaged, and rolled out to a wider audience of CSOs through “Blended Learning” or education which utilizes both digital/online and face-to-face/offline medium.

The training aimed to capacitate CSOs in basic DRRM-CCA (Climate Change Adaptation)Concepts, Community Based DRRM, and Mainstreaming DRRM in the workplace and community, among others. It will also come with a Training of Trainers component ultimately fortifying existing DRRM Champions and generating new ones for communities.

This module development session is the first among a two-part approach to strengthening DRRM to be used by the BLAST DRRM Project. The second approach is a Service Continuity Planning (SCP) workshop for existing DRRM Hubs of CODE-NGO which aims to help better coordinate humanitarian response for CSO Networks. The SCP Workshop will be co-developed among the leaders in the SCP community.

The training will soon be available online via kayaconnect.org and will be piloted in the regions of Cordillera Autonomous Region (CAR), Central Visayas, and Caraga Administrative Region (CARAGA) in the first quarter of 2018.

Be sure to check out the training schedule soon and browse other available online training modules thru kayaconnect.org.

John Joel de Guzman is the Project Officer of the BLAST DRRM Project.