On 17 April in Mauritius, the President of Mauritius Red Cross, alongside representatives from the Indian Ocean Commission and the European Union delegation, officially inaugurated a training of trainers regional course. Training, which took place over 5 consecutive days, focused on enhanced vulnerability and capacity assessment (EVCA) for epidemic risk.
PIROI/French Red Cross was organising this course for the very first time, having added a module covering the inclusion of epidemic risk into EVCA tools. This is aimed at improving Indian Ocean National Societies coordinators’ knowledge, and developing their expertise in vulnerability and capacity assessment.
Using a new EVCA training package developed by the IFRC¹ that includes a module on epidemic risk, French Red Cross trainers addressed roadmap to community resilience concepts as well as the implementation of key EVCA stages and tools, such as the historical profile of a community, which entails creating a graph showing how the main aspects of life in that community have changed over time.
VCA is a participatory method for collecting and analysing information about a community’s vulnerabilities and then developing sustainable solutions that stakeholders can perfect and deploy themselves using the resources at their disposal.This comprehensive method of analysis has been used by the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement since the early 1990s. EVCA is an enhanced VCA process which has been updated to reflect extensive feedback from field teams. .
Training also included modules on the trainer’s position and on andragogy². Over the five days the 20 participants – 8 women and 12 men, employees and volunteers from Indian Ocean National Societies as well as the Democratic Republic of Congo – went from being trainees to trainers.
Based on a participatory approach, and by means of practical sessions with tools, group work, interaction with peers and serious games, the course taught attendees about EVCA concepts and how to use relevant resources.
During one of the simulation exercises, trainees assumed the role of trainer, creating and delivering a training module on key EVCA concepts and presenting a specific tool.
Participants are now in a position to tailor the content they have been provided with in order to adapt courses to their country’s context, meaning they can implement cascade training with other employees and volunteers from their organisation or a partner National Society.
¹ International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
² Science and practice of teaching adults.
This course was organised as part of the Indian Ocean Commission’s Resilience Building and Disaster Response Management regional programme, and received financial support from the European Union.
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