On 6-7 November 2007, the Emergency Response Plans Fair displaying best practices in disaster risk management will be held in Krusevac. USAID’s Preparedness and Planning program co-organizes the two-day event together with the municipality of Kruševac, gathering over 170 people. Senior local governments’ officials, disaster management teams’ representatives, community leaders from local governments, civil society and businesses from around 30 municipalities currently included in the Program will participate in the Fair. Local representatives of national level institutions and Vojvodina regional authorities will also attend the event. Mr. Dragan Azdejković, Kruševac Mayor, and Michael Pillsbury, Director of the Program, will open the Fair.
On 6-7 November 2007, the Emergency Response Plans Fair displaying best practices in disaster risk management will be held in Krusevac. USAID’s Preparedness and Planning program co-organizes the two-day event together with the municipality of Kruševac, gathering over 170 people. Senior local governments’ officials, disaster management teams’ representatives, community leaders from local governments, civil society and businesses from around 30 municipalities currently included in the Program will participate in the Fair. Local representatives of national level institutions and Vojvodina regional authorities will also attend the event. Mr. Dragan Azdejković, Kruševac Mayor, and Michael Pillsbury, Director of the Program, will open the Fair.
The Emergency Response Plans Fair is the first best-practice information exchange event to involve all municipalities currently included in the USAID‘s Preparedness and Planning program as part of ongoing capacity-building programming in disaster management.
The Fair is designed to promote best practice models of municipal organization for disaster management and will provide a unique networking opportunity to the representatives of the municipalities participating in event to share such best practices in disaster management at local level. The event will include the following: site visits to Krusevac industrial zone and lake Celije dam, lectures and panel on chemical accidents and floods as one of Serbia's major emergency management and response challenges; and presentation of selected best practice disaster response plans from different municipalities.
Natural disasters and other environmental accidents that have affected Serbia in the last several years have shown that first responders at the local level play a key role in preventing and responding to a crisis. The current situation in Serbia requires first responders to rely on their own expertise and capacities in the immediate aftermath of a crisis.
USAID’s Preparedness and Planning program aims to support municipalities in preparedness planning and disaster management capacity towards a sustainable and systematic approach to emergency response.