The 3rd Basic Disaster Management Course (BDMC) started on 23rd May 2016 and will be for a duration of 11 days. U. Man Johnny, Honorable Chief Minister of Ayyerawaddy Division graced the opening ceremony of the 3rd basic disaster management course at DMTC Hinthada. He has extended a warm welcome to all the dignitaries and participants. Global Climate is changing drastically and is going to have serious implication on the community. “Our planet is warming, Myanmar witnessed many cyclones in the recent times viz. Cyclone Nargis in 2008, Cyclone Thiri followed by devastating floods and landslides in 2015. Considering the disaster vulnerability of the country and to reduce the risk and impacts disaster management has been enacted. This law cover all phases of disaster management preparedness, mitigation, relief and recovery. Government of Myanmar already set up an Emergency Operation Centre.”

The basic disaster management course is been organized to enhance the knowledge and skills of the Government officials as CSOs to reduce disaster risks and promote resilience. He advised the participants to actively participate in the training sessions as group activities so that they can transfer their learnings once they go back to their respective organizations. This year due to El Nino there is water scarcity and there can be strong wind and storms as well, so systematic preparedness form government, Civil Society and Community. To prevent loss of lives and promote resilience pay keen interest and learn as much as possible. He also requested and invited INGOs and UN agencies for their continued support for enhancing the disaster resilience of Myanmar.

MCCDDM developed a new facilitator guidebook based on the feedback from the 1st and 2nd Basic Disaster Management Course. This facilitator guidebook will be used for the upcoming ToT courses. The revised DMC is comprehensive with 5 modules namely Introduction to Disaster Management, Disaster Risk Reduction and Mitigation, Preparedness, Disaster Response, Recovery and field visit. The new DMC modules are interlinked and built on the preceding modules developed previously. MCCDDM Secretariat and Curriculum Development Team of the consortium is providing technical support to DMTC for delivering the 11 days training as well for conducting the course in a more systematic manner. Fifty six participants from Govt. and CSOs attending this training programme.