Reducing Risk: Participatory teaming activities for disaster mitigation in Southern Africa

In 1991 -92 Southern Africa was severely affected by the region's "worst drought in living memory". The response which followed drew together the international community with Southern Africa's governments, NGOs, and private companies to mitigate the drought's impact. In partnership with the Department of Adult and Community Education at the University of Natal, the Regional Delegation of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Cross Crescent Societies designed a training project to address those needs. This project, which has lead to Reducing Risk began in 1993, after a process of consultation with Southern Africa's NGOs and National Red Cross Societies. Over the course of the next eighteen months, sixteen NGO and Red Cross representatives from ten Southern African countries completed a series of six one-week workshops in disaster management. Reducing Risk is based on that six week course.