NDEA Level 4 cheat sheet

Risk = Hazard × Exposure × Vulnerability ÷ Capacity; reducing any numerator term or raising capacity lowers risk.

Hazard is a potentially damaging physical event; vulnerability is the conditions that make an element susceptible to loss; capacity is the resources available to reduce or cope with risk.

The disaster risk equation distinguishes intensive risk (high-probability, low-severity, frequent small events) from extensive risk (low-probability, high-severity, rare events).

Return period T relates to annual exceedance probability p as T = 1/p; a 100-year event has a 1% annual exceedance probability, not a guaranteed 100-year interval.

The Hyogo Framework (2005-2015) and Sendai Framework (2015-2030) set global DRR priorities; Sendai has seven global targets and four priorities for action.

Hazard analysis methods include historical frequency analysis, probabilistic modeling, scenario analysis, and participatory community hazard mapping.

The disaster risk management cycle separates pre-event activities (mitigation, preparedness) from post-event activities (response, recovery); mitigation is structural or non-structural.

Vulnerability is disaggregated by physical, social, economic, and environmental dimensions; social vulnerability includes poverty, age, disability, gender, and marginalization.

The preparedness cycle comprises planning, organizing, training, equipping, exercising, evaluating, and taking corrective action.

A contingency plan specifies scenario, assumptions, activation triggers, roles, resources, coordination structures, and communication protocols.

Exercise types escalate in complexity: orientation/seminar, drill, tabletop, functional, and full-scale exercise; each builds on the previous.

The planning cycle uses an all-hazards approach with hazard-specific annexes; plans should be living documents reviewed on a defined cycle.

Early warning systems comprise four components: risk knowledge, monitoring and forecasting, dissemination and communication, and response capability.

Standard operating procedures define who does what, when, and with what resources; they must be tested before an event.

Business continuity planning identifies critical functions, maximum tolerable downtime, and recovery priorities for essential services.

Community-based preparedness relies on local volunteers, drills, and pre-identified evacuation routes and assembly points.

The incident command system (ICS) has five functions: command, operations, planning, logistics, and finance/administration.

Span of control in ICS is typically 3 to 7 subordinates per supervisor, with 5 as the target.

The cluster approach groups agencies by sector (e.g., health, WASH, shelter, logistics) under a lead agency to improve coordination and accountability.

Humanitarian coordination structures include the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), and the Humanitarian Country Team.

The response phase prioritizes life-saving actions: search and rescue, emergency medical care, evacuation, and immediate needs assessment.

A rapid needs assessment informs response priorities; it uses standardized tools and triangulates data from multiple sources.

Coordination principles include unity of command, clear reporting lines, and a single incident action plan per operational period.

Information management during response requires common data standards, situation reporting, and a shared operational picture.

Recovery phases include relief, rehabilitation, reconstruction, and development; the goal is building back better (BBB).

Build back better integrates DRR into reconstruction to reduce future risk rather than restoring pre-disaster vulnerability.

Damage and loss assessment (DaLA) quantifies direct damage to assets and indirect losses in economic flows to guide recovery financing.

The post-disaster needs assessment (PDNA) combines damage, loss, and needs estimation across sectors to inform recovery planning.

Recovery governance requires clear institutional mandates, financing mechanisms, and timelines; recovery often outlasts the response phase.

Rehabilitation restores basic services and livelihoods; reconstruction rebuilds physical infrastructure and housing.

Recovery should address social dimensions including psychosocial support, livelihoods, and protection of vulnerable groups.

Owner-driven reconstruction and community participation improve sustainability and reduce dependency in housing recovery.

Humanitarian logistics covers procurement, transport, warehousing, and distribution of relief items; it is often the largest cost component of relief operations.

The humanitarian supply chain differs from commercial chains by demand unpredictability, short lead times, and high uncertainty.

Pre-positioning of stock and framework agreements reduce response lead times for rapid-onset disasters.

The Sphere Standards set minimum technical and quality standards for water, sanitation, shelter, health, and food security in humanitarian response.

Resource management includes needs-based allocation, tracking of pipeline and stock, and transparency in distribution.

The logistics cluster, led by the World Food Programme, coordinates logistics capacity when national systems are overwhelmed.

Distribution modalities include in-kind, cash, and voucher assistance; modality choice depends on market function, access, and beneficiary preference.

Last-mile delivery and local procurement strengthen local economies and reduce transport costs.

The health impact of disasters includes trauma, communicable disease outbreaks, non-communicable disease exacerbation, and mental health consequences.

Mass casualty management uses triage systems (e.g., color-coded) to prioritize treatment by severity and survivability.

Epidemic-prone diseases after disasters include cholera, typhoid, and respiratory infections; risk rises with displacement and crowding.

Essential health services must be maintained during emergencies, including maternal and child health, immunization, and chronic disease care.

The WHO Emergency Medical Teams (EMT) framework classifies teams by capability (Type 1, 2, 3) and requires coordination with national authorities.

Health surveillance and early warning systems detect outbreaks; syndromic surveillance is used where laboratory capacity is limited.

Mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) is a core health response component, integrated across sectors.

Waterborne and vector-borne disease control depends on safe water, sanitation, and vector management.

Shelter responses include emergency shelter, temporary shelter, transitional shelter, and permanent housing, sequenced by need and time.

Sphere Standards: minimum 3.5 square meters of covered living space per person in shelter; at least 15 liters of water per person per day.

Sphere Standards: maximum 20 persons per latrine initially, reducing to 50 persons per latrine over time; latrines separated by sex.

WASH interventions include water supply, sanitation, hygiene promotion, and solid waste management; hygiene promotion is a core activity.

Water quality must meet standards for potability; chlorination and safe storage reduce waterborne disease risk.

Shelter site planning requires attention to drainage, access, fire safety, and distance to services; sites should avoid hazard-prone land.

Sanitation design must consider cultural norms, gender, disability, and safety, especially for women and girls.

WASH and shelter are interdependent: drainage and wastewater management protect shelter and public health.

Protection principles include do no harm, impartiality, and the centrality of the rights of affected persons.

The IASC defines protection as all activities aimed at ensuring full respect for the rights of the individual under international law.

Inclusion requires removing barriers for persons with disabilities, older persons, children, women, and marginalized groups in all phases.

The principle of participation means affected communities are engaged in decisions that affect them, not merely informed.

Accountability to affected populations (AAP) includes information sharing, participation, feedback mechanisms, and complaints handling.

Sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) prevention requires codes of conduct, reporting mechanisms, and survivor-centered response.

Community engagement uses participatory approaches such as community meetings, feedback committees, and two-way communication.

Protection mainstreaming integrates protection into all sectors, including shelter, WASH, health, and logistics.

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 has four priorities and seven global targets adopted by UN member states.

The Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Agreement, and Sendai are interlinked; DRR supports climate adaptation and sustainable development.

National disaster management laws define institutional mandates, coordination bodies, and financing mechanisms.

The Hyogo Framework (2005-2015) preceded Sendai and established DRR priorities; Sendai extends and updates it.

International humanitarian law and human rights law apply during disasters and armed conflict; protection of civilians is a core obligation.

The cluster system was formalized through the 2005 Humanitarian Response Review and IASC structures.

Governance requires clear roles for national and local authorities, civil society, and the private sector, plus accountability mechanisms.

Policy coherence links DRR, climate change adaptation, and development planning at national and local levels.

Core humanitarian principles: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, and independence.

The Sphere Handbook provides minimum standards and indicators for humanitarian response across sectors.

The Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) sets nine commitments on quality and accountability to affected populations.

Do no harm requires assessing how assistance may create or exacerbate conflict, harm, or dependency.

Accountability includes transparency, feedback and complaints mechanisms, and learning from monitoring and evaluation.

Ethical practice requires informed consent, confidentiality, and protection of personal data of affected persons.

Codes of conduct prohibit sexual exploitation and abuse and set standards for staff behavior.

Monitoring and evaluation use indicators, baselines, and targets to measure outcomes and ensure accountability to beneficiaries and donors.

Risk = Hazard × Exposure × Vulnerability ÷ Capacity; reducing any numerator term or raising capacity lowers risk.

Hazard is a potentially damaging physical event; vulnerability is the conditions that make an element susceptible to loss; capacity is the resources available to reduce or cope with risk.

The disaster risk equation distinguishes intensive risk (high-probability, low-severity, frequent small events) from extensive risk (low-probability, high-severity, rare events).

Return period T relates to annual exceedance probability p as T = 1/p; a 100-year event has a 1% annual exceedance probability, not a guaranteed 100-year interval.

The Hyogo Framework (2005-2015) and Sendai Framework (2015-2030) set global DRR priorities; Sendai has seven global targets and four priorities for action.

Hazard analysis methods include historical frequency analysis, probabilistic modeling, scenario analysis, and participatory community hazard mapping.

The disaster risk management cycle separates pre-event activities (mitigation, preparedness) from post-event activities (response, recovery); mitigation is structural or non-structural.

Vulnerability is disaggregated by physical, social, economic, and environmental dimensions; social vulnerability includes poverty, age, disability, gender, and marginalization.

The preparedness cycle comprises planning, organizing, training, equipping, exercising, evaluating, and taking corrective action.

A contingency plan specifies scenario, assumptions, activation triggers, roles, resources, coordination structures, and communication protocols.

Exercise types escalate in complexity: orientation/seminar, drill, tabletop, functional, and full-scale exercise; each builds on the previous.

The planning cycle uses an all-hazards approach with hazard-specific annexes; plans should be living documents reviewed on a defined cycle.

Early warning systems comprise four components: risk knowledge, monitoring and forecasting, dissemination and communication, and response capability.

Standard operating procedures define who does what, when, and with what resources; they must be tested before an event.

Business continuity planning identifies critical functions, maximum tolerable downtime, and recovery priorities for essential services.

Community-based preparedness relies on local volunteers, drills, and pre-identified evacuation routes and assembly points.

The incident command system (ICS) has five functions: command, operations, planning, logistics, and finance/administration.

Span of control in ICS is typically 3 to 7 subordinates per supervisor, with 5 as the target.

The cluster approach groups agencies by sector (e.g., health, WASH, shelter, logistics) under a lead agency to improve coordination and accountability.

Humanitarian coordination structures include the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), and the Humanitarian Country Team.

The response phase prioritizes life-saving actions: search and rescue, emergency medical care, evacuation, and immediate needs assessment.

A rapid needs assessment informs response priorities; it uses standardized tools and triangulates data from multiple sources.

Coordination principles include unity of command, clear reporting lines, and a single incident action plan per operational period.

Information management during response requires common data standards, situation reporting, and a shared operational picture.

Recovery phases include relief, rehabilitation, reconstruction, and development; the goal is building back better (BBB).

Build back better integrates DRR into reconstruction to reduce future risk rather than restoring pre-disaster vulnerability.

Damage and loss assessment (DaLA) quantifies direct damage to assets and indirect losses in economic flows to guide recovery financing.

The post-disaster needs assessment (PDNA) combines damage, loss, and needs estimation across sectors to inform recovery planning.

Recovery governance requires clear institutional mandates, financing mechanisms, and timelines; recovery often outlasts the response phase.

Rehabilitation restores basic services and livelihoods; reconstruction rebuilds physical infrastructure and housing.

Recovery should address social dimensions including psychosocial support, livelihoods, and protection of vulnerable groups.

Owner-driven reconstruction and community participation improve sustainability and reduce dependency in housing recovery.

Humanitarian logistics covers procurement, transport, warehousing, and distribution of relief items; it is often the largest cost component of relief operations.

The humanitarian supply chain differs from commercial chains by demand unpredictability, short lead times, and high uncertainty.

Pre-positioning of stock and framework agreements reduce response lead times for rapid-onset disasters.

The Sphere Standards set minimum technical and quality standards for water, sanitation, shelter, health, and food security in humanitarian response.

Resource management includes needs-based allocation, tracking of pipeline and stock, and transparency in distribution.

The logistics cluster, led by the World Food Programme, coordinates logistics capacity when national systems are overwhelmed.

Distribution modalities include in-kind, cash, and voucher assistance; modality choice depends on market function, access, and beneficiary preference.

Last-mile delivery and local procurement strengthen local economies and reduce transport costs.

The health impact of disasters includes trauma, communicable disease outbreaks, non-communicable disease exacerbation, and mental health consequences.

Mass casualty management uses triage systems (e.g., color-coded) to prioritize treatment by severity and survivability.

Epidemic-prone diseases after disasters include cholera, typhoid, and respiratory infections; risk rises with displacement and crowding.

Essential health services must be maintained during emergencies, including maternal and child health, immunization, and chronic disease care.

The WHO Emergency Medical Teams (EMT) framework classifies teams by capability (Type 1, 2, 3) and requires coordination with national authorities.

Health surveillance and early warning systems detect outbreaks; syndromic surveillance is used where laboratory capacity is limited.

Mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) is a core health response component, integrated across sectors.

Waterborne and vector-borne disease control depends on safe water, sanitation, and vector management.

Shelter responses include emergency shelter, temporary shelter, transitional shelter, and permanent housing, sequenced by need and time.

Sphere Standards: minimum 3.5 square meters of covered living space per person in shelter; at least 15 liters of water per person per day.

Sphere Standards: maximum 20 persons per latrine initially, reducing to 50 persons per latrine over time; latrines separated by sex.

WASH interventions include water supply, sanitation, hygiene promotion, and solid waste management; hygiene promotion is a core activity.

Water quality must meet standards for potability; chlorination and safe storage reduce waterborne disease risk.

Shelter site planning requires attention to drainage, access, fire safety, and distance to services; sites should avoid hazard-prone land.

Sanitation design must consider cultural norms, gender, disability, and safety, especially for women and girls.

WASH and shelter are interdependent: drainage and wastewater management protect shelter and public health.

Protection principles include do no harm, impartiality, and the centrality of the rights of affected persons.

The IASC defines protection as all activities aimed at ensuring full respect for the rights of the individual under international law.

Inclusion requires removing barriers for persons with disabilities, older persons, children, women, and marginalized groups in all phases.

The principle of participation means affected communities are engaged in decisions that affect them, not merely informed.

Accountability to affected populations (AAP) includes information sharing, participation, feedback mechanisms, and complaints handling.

Sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) prevention requires codes of conduct, reporting mechanisms, and survivor-centered response.

Community engagement uses participatory approaches such as community meetings, feedback committees, and two-way communication.

Protection mainstreaming integrates protection into all sectors, including shelter, WASH, health, and logistics.

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 has four priorities and seven global targets adopted by UN member states.

The Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Agreement, and Sendai are interlinked; DRR supports climate adaptation and sustainable development.

National disaster management laws define institutional mandates, coordination bodies, and financing mechanisms.

The Hyogo Framework (2005-2015) preceded Sendai and established DRR priorities; Sendai extends and updates it.

International humanitarian law and human rights law apply during disasters and armed conflict; protection of civilians is a core obligation.

The cluster system was formalized through the 2005 Humanitarian Response Review and IASC structures.

Governance requires clear roles for national and local authorities, civil society, and the private sector, plus accountability mechanisms.

Policy coherence links DRR, climate change adaptation, and development planning at national and local levels.

Core humanitarian principles: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, and independence.

The Sphere Handbook provides minimum standards and indicators for humanitarian response across sectors.

The Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) sets nine commitments on quality and accountability to affected populations.

Do no harm requires assessing how assistance may create or exacerbate conflict, harm, or dependency.

Accountability includes transparency, feedback and complaints mechanisms, and learning from monitoring and evaluation.

Ethical practice requires informed consent, confidentiality, and protection of personal data of affected persons.

Codes of conduct prohibit sexual exploitation and abuse and set standards for staff behavior.

Monitoring and evaluation use indicators, baselines, and targets to measure outcomes and ensure accountability to beneficiaries and donors.