From May 22-27, 2011, Tsinghua University SPPM will host 19 government  officials from the Greater Mekong Subregion -- Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam -- in a five-day intensive training course organized by the Asian Development Bank (ADB)’s Phnom Penh Plan (PPP), and co-taught by Tsinghua SPPM and Harvard Kennedy School professors.

The one-week capacity building program will address various types of crises, in particular landscape scale of natural disasters, severe technological accidents, public health pandemic, social safety incidents, fixed events, etc.  The course design will focus on the cross-boundary crises, such as natural disasters across regions, river pollution incidents with international influences, international peacekeeping actions and global terrorism attacks.  Moreover, mostly based on case studies, the courses will discuss the basic ideas of real crisis and the key and practical capacities in excellent crisis management process, including risk evaluation, crisis preparation, crisis policy making, crisis communication, crisis coordination and crisis recovery.

On Sunday, May 22, 2011, Ms. Pamela Asis-Layugan and Ms. Meng Bo introduced the program and conducted icebreaker games with the participants, resulting in a lively atmosphere of cooperation and cross-country learning opportunity. Ms. Asis-Layugan emphasized the cross-cutting themes of the PPP training programs, its alumni network, and the importance of linking academic research with policymaking. She noted that the goal of the PPP is to create a core of leaders from the Greater Mekong Subregion. On Monday, May 23, 2011, the faculty team from Tsinghua SPPM and Harvard Kennedy School presented their roles and discussion cases, beginning the formal class teaching sessions. SPPM looks forward to hosting our guest participants and professors this week.