The 15th Annual Block Course workshop

19 Aug 2024, 08:00 → 28 Aug 2024, 18:00 Africa/Johannesburg

 

The University of the Free State – Disaster Management Training and Education Centre for Africa (UFS – DiMTEC), in collaboration with the United Nations University – Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU – EHS), presents:

The 15th Annual Block Course workshop

Themed: “Building Resilience in a Changing World: Innovative Approaches to Disaster Risk Reduction.”

19th August – 28th August 2024

Venue: Bloemfontein, South Africa

Hosted at The University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, Free State Province, South Africa

Southern Africa faces increasing disasters, which often occur together, leading to a chain reaction of impacts. International market and inflationary pressures further complicate the situation. The 15th Annual Block Course organised by UFS-DiMTEC, in Bloemfontein, South
Africa, in collaboration with UNU-EHS, in Bonn, Germany, aims to address these complex interconnections of compound and cascading catastrophes. The workshop’s theme is “Building Resilience in a Changing World: Innovative Approaches to Disaster Risk Reduction.”

Tailings dam failures in Free State Province, with the most recent one on 11 September 2022 in Jagersfontein, highlight the importance of the workshop’s theme. The collapse of the diamond mine waste storage facility known as the tailings dam caused a mudflow that killed three people, injured over 300, and destroyed several homes. For the past 14 years, this annual joint capacity development workshop has combined scientific theory with practical crisis preparedness and response methodologies.

Participants in the workshop will conduct socio-ecological and economic surveys and studies to better understand the issues and challenges related to disasters. The Jagersfontein tailings dam collapse provides a realistic context for participants to conduct their research, which may lead to later advanced scientific projects.

 

INVITATION BLOCK COURSE - FINAL.pdf