PRESS RELEASE
On June 26, 2008, the 2nd Best Practices Fair in Local Disaster Management Prevention will be held in the City of Kragujevac. USAID’s Contingency Planning Program is co-organizing the event together with the City of Kragujevac and the local Red Cross office. To acknowledge the progress of the municipality in disaster management, the City of Kragujevac will be the first municipality to be certified by the Program as having “enhanced disaster resilience.” U.S. Ambassador to Serbia Cameron Munter will present the certification to the Mayor of Kragujevac, Mr. Veroljub Stevanovic.
USAID’s Contingency Planning Program aims to build a sustainable and systematic approach to local-level disaster management. The Program helps municipalities be more resilient to crisis or disasters such as floods, wildfires, landslides, or chemical accidents. The Program helps municipalities meet domestic legal obligations and international standards in disaster preparedness. Those meeting these standards are certified as having “enhanced disaster resilience.”
The Fair is designed for all 41 municipalities that are currently engaged in USAID‘s Contingency Planning Program to promote best practice models in municipal disaster management and to provide a unique networking opportunity for the first responders to exchange their experiences. Participants at the event will include local government officials, local representatives of republic-level institutions, Red Cross members, business people, journalists and others working to protect citizens from hazards that pose a threat to public health and safety. A simulation exercise that illustrates the response to a mock-flood, resulting from a damaged dam, will be performed publicly.
Journalists interested in attending the Fair and certification ceremony are kindly invited to be at Municipal Building, Reception Hall, Kragujevac, on Thursday, June 26, at 10:30.
For more information about this event please contact Jasmina Debeljak Maljkovic at
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, or Olivera Kostić at
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, on 011/363 99 00. For more information about USAID’s activities in Serbia, please visit http://serbia.usaid.gov