The Science faculty's Disaster Mitigation for Sustainable Livelihoods Programme (DiMP) has scored a first for Africa. In receiving a Certificate of Merit from the United Nations' Sasakawa Awards for Disaster Reduction, DiMP is the first educational programme on the continent to be so honoured.

The annual global award was given to DiMP in recognition of their work and achievements in disaster risk reduction. Since its inception in 1996, the programme has been involved in many areas of risk reduction, including the training of development and disaster management practitioners in risk reduction, post-event impact research on extreme weather events and the promotion of social activities that contribute to the strengthening of disaster risk reduction.

"Africa has been slow to engage with risk reduction as a core area of scholarship," says DiMP co-ordinator Dr Ailsa Holloway. "But across the continent, we are at last beginning to see the emergence of really exciting and locally relevant disaster risk management academic programmes".