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Shelter and Settlements in Disasters
Learn how to plan and coordinate shelter needs assessments; and develop strategies and implement plans together with shelter mandated international and national organisations in both natural disasters and conflicts.
This course is a part of
The course covers different shelter and settlements challenges in accordance with local needs and builds on local resources as part of building-back-better strategies.
Current humanitarian shelter and settlements standards, principles and approaches are the basis of this course. The common phases of the emergency cycle are embraced: emergency shelter, transition shelter, early recovery and reconstruction.
During the course, you will be equipped to effectively respond to humanitarian shelter and settlements crises. We focus on linking emergency shelter and shelter in recovery in both natural disasters and conflicts. You will be taught common humanitarian assistance methods, guidelines and standards based on a rights-based approach as led by the international humanitarian organisations.
Course content
The course is designed to provide you with new learning on strategies, methods and guidelines promoting sustainability in the shelter response from relief to recovery and reconstruction.
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You will be prepared to address shelter and settlements challenges in accordance with local needs and build on local resources. It is an important feature of the course to integrate risk and vulnerability reduction strategies in recovery programming.
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You will learn to consider local building technologies and materials as part of "building-back-better" strategies.
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The course embraces the common phases of the emergency cycle, emergency shelter, transition shelter, early recovery, and reconstruction.
Course structure
The course consists of 4 weeks of part-time online learning followed by 2 weeks of full-time studies at University of Copenhagen, Denmark and one week of part-time online work to finish a written assignment.
For more details about the course, please refer to the course curriculum.
View all courses on:
Course directors on »Shelter and Settlements in Disasters«
Peter Furu
Associate Professor
Gert Lüdeking
Architect MAA
Course details for »Shelter and Settlements in Disasters«
Dates and examination
Course dates
20 April–15 May 2026 – online
18–29 May 2026 – on-campus
Examination
Please find the exam dates in the exam plan.
Learning outcomes
During this course, you will acquire knowledge, tools and analytical skills to address shelter in disasters from relief to recovery.
On completion of the course, you will be able to:
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demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the humanitarian response system, including the role and functioning of the shelter cluster, as well as the various shelter and settlements typologies, tools, standards, and approaches
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acquire both strategic and practical knowledge of shelter and settlements policies, methods, tools, and procedures in the humanitarian response system, and be equipped to apply these in a sustainable manner across the relief-to-recovery continuum
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identify key shelter and settlements challenges and opportunities, apply relevant shelter assessment methods and prepare sustainable shelter and settlements strategies relevant to specific intervention phases.
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demonstrate a strategic and practical knowledge of shelter and settlements policies, methods, tools and procedures in the humanitarian response system and practice these in a sustainable manner from relief to recovery.
Admission criteria
You must meet the following criteria to be admitted to this course:
- Hold a relevant bachelor degree or equivalent.
- Have a minimum 2 years of relevant job experience.
- Be proficient in English.
Find detailed information in the admission criteria on Master of Disaster Management.
Priority is given to enrolled students
This course is offered as an elective course in the Master of Disaster Management programme. Priority is given to students already enrolled. Once the enrolled students have been admitted to the course, the remaining seats are distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.
Tuition fees
EU/EEA citizens
Master student: 13,500 DKK
Single course student: 15,000 DKK
Non-EU/EEA citizens
Master student: 19,250 DKK
Single course student: 20,000 DK
More information
All course information is available in the course curriculum:Place
University of Copenhagen
City Campus
Øster Farimagsgade 5
1353 Copenhagen
Denmark
Peter Furu
Associate Professor
My professional background since 1983 includes activities in >25 countries (Africa, South East Asia, Middle East, Central America) and Denmark. Key areas within a global health context comprise higher education/training, knowledge management, consultancies and research on topics such as:
- Planetary health
- Health impact assessment (HIA)
- Health related aspects of agricultural development and water resources development
- Health impacts of climate change
- Integrated schistosomiasis control
- Sustainable tourism
- Research management and leadership
Gert Lüdeking
Architect MAA and guest course leader for Shelter & Settlements in Disasters
Gert Lüdeking graduated with a Masters Degree in architecture and regional planning from the School of Architecture in Aarhus, Denmark.
He has 25 years working experience with two UN agencies, UN-Habitat and UN OCHA. After initially working with development of low income housing and community development in numerous Africa and Latin America countries, he became Director a.i. of UN-Habitat’s Humanitarian Affairs Office in Geneva, Switzerland, which is the global center for humanitarian coordination in disasters. While with UN-OCHA he was the lead of the Housing, Land and Property Sub-Cluster under the Global Protection Cluster.
During his work for UN-Habitat and UN OCHA in humanitarian response operations in disasters, he worked with interventions in major humanitarian flash-points, such as Darfur/South Sudan, the Balkans/Kosovo, Iraq/Kurdistan, South and Central America and the Great Lakes Region in East Africa. He was also representing UN-Habitat in the IASC global coordination of humanitarian challenges and operations.
The work in the mentioned territories included preparation of disaster response programmes after conflicts and natural disasters, deploying specialists, oversight of activities and coordination with national and local authorities as well as UN organizations and NGOs.
Apart from the extensive humanitarian response work, he has written and contributed to numerous UN publications. His research in many of the humanitarian crises situations was aimed at defining response solutions taking into account the rights of the displaced persons and meeting their immediate and longer term needs in recovery.
Together with IFRC and UNHCR, he developed the MDMa Shelter and Settlement Course in 2011 at the University of Copenhagen with inputs from Danish and Norwegian Red Cross, Danish Refugee Council, UN OCHA, UN-Habitat, the Geneva Shelter Center and a large network of independent shelter researchers, scholars and practitioners.