A Disaster Management Course for Officials of the Civil Affairs Bureau of Henan Province was conducted from 28 May-4 June. The course was attended by 17 officials from various parts of the Henan province.

Opening ceremony of the course held on 28 May, was participated by Dr. Suvit Yodmani, the Executive Director of ADPC and Mr. Merrick Chatfield, Director of Technical Service Division and the ADPC staff. Professor Krasae Chanawongse, Chairman of the ADPC Board of Trustees and a Minister in the Prime Minister's Office was the chief guest. He welcomed the Henan Civil Affairs Officials to Thailand and emphasized the importance of disaster management in national development. Dr. Suvit in his address expressed ADPC's commitment to serve China in disaster management through cooperation in various fields including provision of training and technical assistance.

The course was designed to enhance the knowledge and skills of the participants on disaster management concepts and practices and to improve their operational capability. Course syllabus was comprised upon three modules as follows: Disaster situation in China and Henan and the current disaster management approach, Risk assessment and Disaster Risk Management. In the first module the participants and resource persons discussed about disaster situation in China and Henan province and the nature of government response. They were than introduced to the concepts and strategies for hazard, vulnerability and capacity assessment. This was followed by a session on tools for community based risk assessment. The course than covered discussions and workshops on principles, strategies and elements of mitigation and preparedness and described the key aspects of warning systems and public awareness. The participants than worked out post disaster information needs and problems and solutions in this regard through a one workshop titled "damage assessment and needs analysis". Various methodologies were used during the course, including workshops, plenary discussions, lectures, video showing, field visit, individual presentations, and buzz group discussions.

The participants extremely enjoyed the course and they were very happy with the outcomes. They were specifically happy with the various teaching methods used in the course.

In the closing ceremony, Dr. Suvit, on behalf of ADPC, congratulated the participants for completing the course and presented them Certificates of Attendance. Mr. Wei Shuangzhi, the leader of the delegation, also the Vice Director of the Disaster Relief Division of the Civil Affairs Department of Henan Province, presented souvenirs to Dr. Suvit for appreciation. They both expressed the desire to continue cooperation between the two agencies and the need for training of more staff of Civil Affairs Bureau in Henan.