United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Mar 2018
The Workshop on Emergency Management (WEM) was conducted in Thiès, Senegal from 20 February – 2 March 2018. Hosting arrangements for the WEM in Thiès were hosted at the Senegalese Army training grounds at the Centre d’Entraînement Tactique no. 7 (CET7) in Thiès. Overall coordination, planning and administration for the event was done by the UNHCR Global Learning Centre (GLC) supported in particular by the UNHCR Division of Emergency, Security and Supply (DESS) Emergency Services (ES) for core content, the Regional Office in Dakar, and other UNHCR content experts from different Divisions of UNHCR relating to their areas of expertise. Preparation of workshop materials was done by InterWorks with overall guidance from the GLC. The workshop was co-facilitated by staff from the GLC and InterWorks. The field simulation was coordinated by the GLC with support from the wider UNHCR training team and InterWorks. Financial support was provided by UKAid/DFID.
This workshop was conducted entirely in the French language, with French training materials and presentations. Most of the participants also were fluent in English (and/or Arabic) and some discussions were interspersed with English. However, the intent of this WEM is not to be a Francophone West Africa focused WEM but to provide an opportunity for primarily Francophone colleagues to participate more fully in the WEM training to facilitate their learning and experience. The participants were from countries and operations around the globe and not primarily in West Africa.
The intensive and demanding course prepared the participants for emergency deployment focusing on three areas of emergency management: managing yourself, managing relationships, and managing your operational role through all phases of the deployment. The course was interactive and work-oriented, and employed a variety of methodologies, including simulation exercises, presentations and case study, as well as group and plenary discussions. The agenda included sessions on team-building, operations planning, financial and administrative systems, operational partnerships, communication and negotiation skills, security, coordination and information-sharing, telecommunications, and humanitarian protection.
Fantastique ! Personnellement, j’avais appris plus que ce que j’attendais d’apprendre avant mon départ. C’est formation riche, diversifiée et bien organisée. [Fantastic ! Personally, I had learned more than I expected to learn before I left. It is rich, diversified and well organized training.]
– Workshop participant
