Capacity Building for Disaster Resilience Leadership The overarching goal of the project is to strengthen leadership in disaster risk reduction at national, regional, and global levels, through providing training to practitioners, policy makers, and academics in mainstreaming disaster risk reduction into the development agenda. The three objectives of the project are: Objective 1: To strengthen capacity of Existing Disaster Risk Management Stakeholders through Regional Leadership Platforms Objective 2: To develop future leaders in disaster risk management through National Leadership Platforms Objective 3: To support Global Disaster Resilience Leadership by establishing a global network to foster collective learning and resource sharing The above objectives will be achieved through activities in three interconnected levels; local, regional and national, to mainstream disaster risk reduction (DRR) into the development of national policies, strategies and practices. It would also result in increased resilience of developing countries to natural hazards. The National Level -will build national leadership capacity by supporting the development of new DRM leaders through institutionalizing and mainstreaming DRR through higher education. Local universities in vulnerable countries will be selected to develop Graduate Programs in Leadership in Disaster Risk Management using the Tulane Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy (DRLA) Framework. The DRLA Academic Framework focuses on four primary "pillars" of study: (1) Operations with an emphasis on DRR/DRM; (2) Human factor; (3) Analytics; and (4) Environment. In addition, national DRR stakeholder groups including representatives from government, NGO, and the private sector, will be established in the following priority countries: Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. These groups will promote best practices in DRR/DRM, inform curriculum development and identify candidates for training. Tulane's DRLA is also requesting funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to support PeriPeri U, Health Alliance, as well as the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center to pilot local disaster resilience leadership programs at 4 local universities. The Regional Level-will support existing regional networks to develop their own regionally relevant curriculum and provide short courses and certificates to DRR practitioners in member states using DRLA's Disaster Resilience Training Framework, which is organized around three main themes: (1) Leadership; (2) Technical (DRM); and (3) Resilience. These Regional Leadership Flagships for Disaster Risk Reduction will provide immediate skill based enhancement to a broad group of current disaster leaders from multiple sectors including government workers, traditional first responders, university staff and faculty, disaster community leaders, members from the non-profit sector, as well as the private sector. The Global Level- will aim at creating a global leadership network from national and regional institutions committed to mainstreaming and institutionalizing DRR. The network will contribute to the standardization and professionalization of DRM.