On April 15, 2009, USAID’s Preparedness and Planning Program will sign an agreement with the City of Niš on developing a city-wide Strategy for Safety that will improve disaster management capacity in the city and its five constituent municipalities and enhance citizen safety.
Mr. Michael Pillsbury, USAID’s Preparedness and Planning Project Director, will sign the agreement with Niš Mayor, Mr. Miloš Simonović.
The City of Niš already passed an ordinance on emergency response in 2004 and has integrated citizen security and safety measures into a larger strategy for sustainable development. The Strategy for Safety, considered as a priority by city officials, will serve to further improve the disaster management capacity of the city. USAID’s Preparedness and Planning Program will assist the City of Nis to develop the Strategy for Safety which will empower the city to improve citizen safety on an ongoing basis. The strategy will, amongst other things, include a risk assessment of the city, improve safety standards and communication and coordination amongst all relevant actors and create a short-term action plan.
All five of Niš’ constituent municipalities – Crveni Krst, Medijana, Palilula, Pantalej and Niška Banja – have now been part of USAID’s Preparedness and Planning Program for the past year. These municipalities have benefited from capacity building training in municipal disaster management and risk assessment, technical assistance and networking events promoting best practices in the field of disaster management, such as the Best Practice Fairs in Kruševac and Kragujevac, and the Disaster Management Conference organized by the Faculty for Occupational Safety in Niš.
USAID’s Preparedness and Planning Program builds a sustainable and systematic approach to local-level disaster management and assists municipalities to meet domestic legal obligations and international standards in disaster management and response. Municipalities meeting these standards are certified as ‘enhanced disaster resilient’. Currently, 60 municipalities in Serbia are included in program activities.