Eleven Cities and Municipalities Certified for Demonstrating Enhanced Disaster Resilience

Tuesday, 21 October 2008 12:56

Kragujevac and Kruševac were the first two cities certified for demonstrating “Enhanced Disaster Resilience.” To acknowledge the municipalities’ progress in local disaster management and the efforts and readiness of local stakeholders to improve disaster management systems in their communities, USAID’s Preparedness and Planning program certified them on achieving Level 2 “Enhanced Disaster Resilience” status this summer. Additionally, nine other municipalities and cities included in the program were certified for achieving Level 1 “Enhanced Disaster Resilience” status, which implies increased disaster management capacity at the local level.

The US Ambassador to Serbia, Cameron Munter, and other high-level USAID officials presented the awards to the municipalities at three separate certification ceremonies, held in Kragujevac, Kruševac and Belgrade, respectively. “The Disaster Preparedness and Planning certification program is designed to recognize local governments that have taken measures to improve their capacities to prepare for and respond to natural disasters. The municipalities and cities in Serbia have shown significant progress in building and improving disaster management systems at the local level, but at the same time they have much to contribute to the design of new disaster management systems at the national level," said Ambassador Munter at the certification ceremony of nine municipalities at Belgrade’s City Hall on September 25. Ambassador Munter went on to add, “Unfortunately, no place can be made disaster proof, but with good planning and coordination, damages to people and property can be minimized. That is what you in your cities and municipalities have been doing and it is why we are recognizing your efforts."

Kragujevac and Kruševac - The first two cities certified for achieving Level 2 Enhanced Disaster Resilience status

In the past several years, the Cities’ of Kragujevac and Kruševac have shown initiative to invest time and resources in improving and institutionalizing disaster management capacity in order to ensure citizen safety in the event of disasters. Both cities have formalized a Disaster Management Team (DMT) through the passage of a city ordinance, prepared all-hazards planning documents and updated hazard-specific plans for flood emergencies and chemical accidents and other disasters. Furthermore, both cities have allocated budget resources for emergencies and a number of permanent staff members with backgrounds in disaster management have been hired and included on the cities’ DMTs.  The City of Kragujevac has taken this one step further by authorizing the creation of a City Civil Protection Service, which was recently elevated to the level of a department within the city’s administration. These actions underscore the two cities’ commitment to local-level disaster preparedness and proactive nature of local stakeholders to continually improve their disaster management system.

Since different municipalities are exposed to different risks, the Preparedness and Planning Team has worked with municipal disaster management teams to modify their response systems accordingly. For example, Kragujevac has faced two severe storms in less than two years and suffered hundreds of landslides due to heavy rain in 2005. In response, Kragujevac’s authorities along with the city’s disaster management team provided shelter to numerous families who were left homeless in the aftermath. This incident along with other such crises that the city has had to cope with have contributed to building a functional, well structured and operational disaster management system in the city.

Similarly, Kruševac has successfully coped with landslides, flash floods, fires and environmental incidents in the past by developing a cross-sector, civil protection model for municipal preparedness that includes representatives of the business community, subject matter experts, republic-level institutions, civil society and citizens. Based on their experience, Kruševac’s disaster management team created an innovative model for emergency response, which was presented at the first Best Practice Fair in Local Disaster Management, in Kruševac, on 6-7 November 2007. The event was co-organized by the municipality of Kruševac and USAID’s Preparedness and Planning program.

Both cities have worked toward integrating ward-level representatives from local communities into the disaster management planning and response system.  Through educational efforts initiated by Kragujevac and Kruševac’s disaster management teams along with technical assistance provided by the program, 257 people were trained in reporting on damage assessment following a crisis. Not only have the cities reached out to lower levels of government, but they have played an instrumental role for other municipalities by exchanging their experiences and promoting cooperation amongst all municipalities. Kruševac and Kragujevac hosted two best practice fairs in local disaster management, which provided a unique networking opportunity for around 200 municipal emergency practitioners from municipalities engaged in the program. The second such nationwide exchange of best practices in disaster management at the local level focused on prevention and was organized in Kragujevac on June 26.

While Kragujevac and Kruševac have participated in the program from the beginning, the other nine Level 1 certified municipalities—Indjija, Irig, Kanjiža, Kraljevo, Novi Pazar, Raška, Titel, Tutin, and Vranje—were included in the program at a later date. They have all benefited from capacity building training, nationwide networking events and technical assistance provided by the program in an effort to improve disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. “This award is in recognition of our efforts and an incentive to our local self-government and other local actors to commit themselves to undertake further steps towards improving disaster management in our communities," said Ms. Bogdanka Lekic, a member of the DMT from Irig and an expert for environmental protection, at the certification ceremony in Belgrade. The Level 1 municipalities' commitment to strive toward Level 2 certification, was illustrated by their participation at the conference on the “Role of Volunteers in Response to Emergencies in Vojvodina,” organized by the municipality of Titel, just five days after the certification in Belgrade. Similarly, Kragujevac and Kruševac’s dedication to the program is evidenced by their future role in the program, as they will serve as regional centers in the field of disaster management for aspiring municipalities, which will eventually qualify them for Level 3 “Enhanced Disaster Resilience” status.