The DESS Multidisciplinaire en GRC is a graduate training programme (masters) on Disaster Risk Management established at FACDEGS of the University of Antananarivo. Planned to open this year (February 2009), it was conceived and will be run by three Faculty partners within the University of Antananarivo; namely Faculty of Sciences, Faculty of Medecine and FACDEGS which is the project leader.

Due to political turmoil in Madagascar since January 2009, the opening date has had to be postponed, although administrative agreements and legal authorizations have been completed.

Supported by United Nations Agencies after an obvious and agreed lack of specialized human resources in the field, this programme is the first of the kind in southern African francophone countries. Courses are given in French and will start in the second half of 2009.

The programme will give priority to capacity building/development, of a strong understanding of disaster risks associated with natural and technological hazards. All phases - prevention, management and mitigation – will be covered in order to give to students a groundded capacity to deal with disaster and risk issues.

DESS Multidisciplinaire en GRC programme has already signed a partnership agreement with CERED established at the Department of Economics of the University of Antananarivo which became therefore the first official research centre to host students for the practical aspects of their training through extensive applied research and resulting to their final reports.

Contacts with a diversity of stake-holders have been positively initiated and will  continue including those with national and international nongovernmental organizations.

DESS Multidisciplinaire en GRC has been a member of “Periperi U” network since January 2009 and the first francophone training programme to have joined this project.