Africa Continent. Sustainability. Climate Crisis.

 

Prof PLO Lumumba on the Past, Present and Future of Pan Africanism.

Wednesday, Nov 29. FEMA Hazus Webinar . Register Now.

 Learn more about Hazus

Hazus Webinar  Hazus 6.1 Enhancements and Live Demo

FEMA's Hazus Team invites you to join us on Wednesday, November 29th, for our Hazus Quarterly Webinar. The Hazus Team is excited to announce our release of Hazus 6.1, featuring significant enhancements in inventory data, methodology, and software capabilities. Released on November 15th, Hazus 6.1 includes: Earthquake Enhancements: With over 4,000 new capacity and fragility functions, our earthquake model is now more precise than ever. Wind Building Updates: Revised General Building Stock (GBS) data bolsters our hurricane loss modeling. Caribbean Hurricane Model Improvements: New topographic speedup parameters ensure optimal data and methodologies for hurricane-wind damage estimation. New Earthquake Advance Engineering Building Module (AEBM) Features: Introducing site-specific annualized loss estimation for earthquake scenarios. CDMS & Geodatabase Upgrades: Superior support for file geodatabase imports, refining our data management system. Improvement to Tsunami Damage Precision: Enhanced depth and velocity measurements for accurate tsunami damage assessments. Flood Damage Library Growth: Hundreds of new damage functions amplify the model's flood assessment capabilities. Installation Experience Enhanced: A streamlined process complemented by a new user-friendly interface. And more! To learn more about the Hazus 6.1 release and to watch members from the Hazus Team go through the enhancements in real time, sign up for our webinar by registering here. For additional information, feel free to read more about our latest enhancements in the Hazus 6.1 Release Notes. Please share with all who may be interested. We look forward to connecting with you! Sincerely, The Hazus Team If you have any issues using the link above to register for the webinar, please use this alternative link to sign up.

FEMA Celebrates International Day of Persons with Disabilities

In 1992, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed Dec. 3 as the annual observance of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. This observance is designed to promote the rights and well-being of people with disabilities in every aspect of life, as well as to increase awareness in their communities.

 

The 2023 theme of the observance is united in action to rescue and achieve sustainable development goals for, with and by persons with disabilities. The goals were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to action to balance social, economic and environmental sustainability. Many of the goals align with FEMA’s commitment to equity.

 

"Lived experiences that involve disabilities are universal; culture, language, and social attitudes play a critical role in making space for people with disabilities to see their greatest potential," said FEMA Disability Integration and Coordination Director Sherman Gillums, Jr. “How one navigates life when using a wheelchair, sign language, screen reader, or other assistive aids to function independently has evolved over time, and people with disabilities around the world are becoming more self-determined once they see, understand, and appreciate the fullest expanse of what they can do with the right help and support when they need it. This also positions those same people to help others by potentially making their lived experiences a chapter in someone else’s survival guide.” 

 

FEMA is committed to equitably delivering programs and services, as well as shortening the disaster lifecycle for people with disabilities. The agency works with state, local, tribal and territorial stakeholders to provide innovative solutions for identifying and addressing concerns and barriers to access for people with disabilities.

 

FEMA includes people with disabilities in trainings, exercises and community-level preparedness activities to ensure the agency is delivering programs and services in an effective and accessible way. In fact, FEMA is commemorating this year’s campaign with the launch of an updated training course, Including People with Disabilities in Disaster Operations, for all personnel involved with disaster operations to learn more about including people with disabilities in disaster operations. 

FEMA Releases Updated Training Course on Including People with Disabilities in Disaster Operations

FEMA is marking this year’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities with the release of a new version of its training course: IS:368 A. Including People with Disabilities in Disaster Operations, led by the agency's Office of Disability Integration and Coordination (ODIC). 

 

“The Office of Disability Integration and Coordination remains committed to ensuring that first responders at every level are equipped with the tools and knowledge necessary to infuse equity in emergency management,” said ODIC Director Sherman Gillums, Jr. “The release of this course signifies that our commitment to make disability inclusion a part of every program office in the agency.”

 

The course is designed for all personnel involved in disaster operations. It provides an introductory overview of information and strategies on how to include people with disabilities during mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery efforts.

 

The course focuses on:   

• The difference between disabilities and access and functional needs. 
• FEMA’s actions supporting the integration of people with disabilities in disaster operations and ways to shorten the disaster cycle for them. 
• The differences between equity vs equality.
• Ways to ensure terminology is in alignment with the needs of people with disabilities. 
• Messaging to ensure inclusivity and accessibility to all emergency managers.
• Guidance to FEMA staff on how to ensure physical, program and communication access to the whole community.

 

The course is live now and can be accessed on FEMA.gov. The self-paced course should take two hours to complete. 

High School Students. Disaster Mind Simulation Wednesday, December 6, 2023 | 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm ET

Please join the Region 2 and Region 8 National Preparedness Division for a webinar on disaster mind simulation. Join the Region 8 National Preparedness Division for a demonstration of the new Disaster Mind simulation. The new simulation, available on FEMA's website, is a new game aimed at teaching high school students (ages 13-17) about decision-making in the face of a disaster. The simulation can be played on any PC-based web browser and is ideal for educators and emergency managers looking for a free, yet meaningful way to implement disaster preparedness programming and curriculum into their classrooms and other educational spaces. At the webinar, you'll learn how to play the simulation, how to implement the game into existing preparedness curriculum or programming, and get educational resources for parents/guardians, teachers, and emergency managers. Who should attend: Whole community, family, caregivers, Local, State and Federal Emergency Managers, community and faith-based organizations and NGO's. Register now using this link: https://fema.connectsolutions.com/disastermindsimulation/event/registration.html

Dialysis in Disaster Wednesday, December 13, 2023 | 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm ET

Please join the Region 2 National Preparedness Division and Quality Insights Renal Network for a webinar on Dialysis in Disaster. This webinar will address the role of the Access and Functional Needs (AFN) Planner at the NJ Office of Emergency Management (NJOEM) in assisting County AFN Coordinators, dialysis providers and patients, and other stakeholders before, during and after disasters. An overview of NJOEM's Register Ready will be provided as well. The End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Network 3 - Regional Emergency Preparedness Coordinator will cover what dialysis is and how receiving treatment can be impacted by an emergency event. Learn from firsthand experiences and lessons learned during hurricanes Irma and Maria. Additional topics will include preparedness and planning considerations for dialysis patients, their families, emergency responders, and dialysis facility staff. Who should attend? The whole community - general public, families, organizations, NGOs, local, state, federal government and private sector. Register now using this link: https://fema.connectsolutions.com/dialysisdisaster/event/registration.html This event will have Live Captioning and ASL.

Global Health: Joint Action Plan to advance a shared vision to strengthen public health systems and deliver improved health outcomes in Africa. November 2023

 Joint Statement on the United States and Africa CDC’s New Joint Action Plan

11/28/2023 

Office of the Spokesperson

The text of the following statement was released by the Government of the United States of America and the African Union’s Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) on the announcement of the U.S.-Africa CDC Joint Action Plan as an annex to the U.S.-African Union Memorandum of Cooperation to Promote Public Health Partnership.

On November 28, on the sidelines of the Third International Conference on Public Health in Africa in Lusaka, Zambia, the U.S. government and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) announced a Joint Action Plan to advance a shared vision to strengthen public health systems and deliver improved health outcomes in Africa.

The Joint Action Plan outlines key activities between the U.S. government and Africa CDC to achieve the objectives identified in the Memorandum of Cooperation to Promote Public Health Partnership, signed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki in March 2022.

The Joint Action Plan represents a significant step toward stronger and deeper U.S.-Africa CDC collaboration, building on both U.S. and Africa CDC health investments and partnerships across Africa. It will facilitate institutional strengthening, expert exchanges, and knowledge-sharing in support of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the Africa CDC Strategic Plan 2023-2027. Additionally, it will promote integrated health systems, strengthen public health emergency response capacity, enhance clinical and laboratory systems, and expand innovation and local manufacturing of health products.

The U.S. government and Africa CDC intend to convene regular meetings of technical experts in Addis Ababa and Washington to operationalize, review, and update this Plan to support shared public health needs and global health security requirements.