SA Disaster Management Conference in Durban

The annual conference of the Disaster Management Institute of Southern Africa is being hosted at the Elangeni Hotel in a city and a province with first-hand experience of the tragedies triggered by major accidents and disasters.

The more than 300 delegates from Southern Africa and further afield will be interacting on a wide variety of topics that relate to the protection of lives, property and the environment from the threat and the impact of natural and man-made hazards that could, if not mitigated, result in disaster.

The Disaster Management Institute of Southern Africa (DMISA) is a non-profit, professional association that supports the disaster management profession in Southern Africa by providing learning and networking opportunities for its practitioners and researchers. The annual conference of the institute has been presented in various South African towns and cities for 23 years and routinely attracts more than 300 delegates who are passionate about managing the risk and the impact of disasters.

Mr Pat Adams, President of DMISA, said that the Institute is proud of the wide variety of papers that will be presented by a diversity of speakers to its members and the conference attendees - topics and speakers that all contribute to the learning experience that DMISA is always keen to provide.

Topics that will be discussed and debated at the conference include:

• Pandemic response and disaster risk reduction in healthcare systems
• Institutional Capacity - from organisational resilience to incident management systems to learning from experience
• Poverty and resilience, household and food security and community coping mechanisms with references to the global economic crisis and its influence on patterns of malnutrition and vulnerability as well as stokvels as survival systems
• Systems and software for disaster management
• Understanding perspectives on disaster risk
• Responses to water scarcity and climate change
• Military conflict and disasters
• The 2010 FIFA World Cup? and mass events - risk reduction at mass events through implementing standards
• Psychoanalysis - Experiences of a group of psychotherapists in the response to the xenophobic crisis in 2008

The Mayor of the Ethekweni Municipality, Councillor Obed Mlaba, will open the two-day conference on Wednesday, 7 October. The Mayor's Office will provide further information in this regard.

The South African National Disaster Management Centre, which falls within the National Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, will be sharing information on its activities and the general state of disaster management in South Africa.

Invitation to Members of the Media:
Members of the media are invited to attend the conference opening and selected presentations. Please contact Ms Erika Swart to confirm arrangements on cell 082 774 5508.

Issued by:
Disaster Management Institute of Southern Africa
PO Box 7130
Primrose Hill
1417
www.disaster.co.za