Covid-19: Online training for civil protection actors in French-speaking Africa

Under the European CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear) Risk Mitigation Centres of Excellence Initiative, since 2019, Expertise France has been working with CITRUS, which is specialised in distance learning, on the creation of training modules on the prevention of chemical industrial risks in West Africa for the INSTASUR and P71/SECTRANS projects.

It is through this partnership and the close relations CITRUS has with the French Departmental Intervention and Emergency Services (SDIS) that training developed by and for French civil protection actors is now available and disseminated in some twenty French-speaking African countries.

Supporting firefighters and first responders

The various sessions of this module aim to support all the firefighters and first responders concerned by the Covid-19 crisis and disseminate good practices for prevention, management and mitigation related to biological risks.

The training course comprises 19 sessions and addresses the scientific and operational aspects of this subject: definition of Covid-19; knowledge of biological risks; security principles and protective measures; personal protection of the responder; accidental exposure to a viral risk; hand cleaning; cleaning and disinfection of a vehicle, premises, equipment; use of waste disposal packaging.

These sessions were initially intended for a public of specialised professionals but allow anyone to have a good basic knowledge of the disease, the ways in which it spreads and what to do to protect against it.

Sessions to present the platform

To present the platform and answer questions about how it works, Expertise France has organised six distance training sessions for the partners of CBRN Centres of Excellence projects (national CBRN focal points, national contact points, members of fire and civil protection services who are participating in or have already participated in the activities of the projects of the European Union’s CBRN Centres of Excellence). The first session was held on 23 April with some twenty participants and was led by Dominique Bonjour, an expert Colonel in the Fire Service and Team Leader of Project 71.

Expertise France, with support from the European Commission (DG DEVCO) and the regional offices of the CBRN Centres of Excellence in Rabat, Algiers and Nairobi, will ensure that this action is properly implemented, create awareness-raising material, and monitor and evaluate its results.

Furthermore, since the onset of the crisis, the distance approach developed under the CBRN projects implemented by Expertise France has led to reflection on this operating method, which would make it possible to consider other possible forms of project implementation in the medium term. A vision based on an increased use of collaborative Internet tools combined with face-to-face activities after the crisis could then be adopted.

Access the Disegno-COVID training platform: afcovid.disegno.fr

More about the P71 / SECTRANS project: www.sectrans.org

More about the CBRN Centres of Excellence: www.cbrn-coe.eu