Conference on “Risk Management and Resilient Cities”

FORS Montenegro and Directorate for Emergency Management organised a two-day Conference on Risk Management and Resilient Cities organised in Kolašin on 28 and 29 June, with the aim to contribute to raising the awareness of general population and specific target groups on risk management and resilient cities as well as to enable exchange of experiences, attitudes, good practice models and lessons learned when it comes to disaster risk reduction. The following officials spoke at the opening of the Conference: Mr Dragan Pejanović, State Secretary of the Ministry of Interior of Montenegro, Mirsad Mulić, Director-General for Emergency Management, Veselin Šturanović, the Executive Director of FORS Montenegro and representatives of the project partners – Miran Štular from Slovenia and Marek Gašparin from the Czech Republic. The Conference gathered representatives of the institutions and services dealing with emergency management and protection and rescue, civil society organisations, state and local authorities, media, project partners, etc. from Montenegro and the region, as well as from EU countries.

During the two-day work, the participants discussed challenges we face in the context of the increased number if disasters, experiences and good practice models in risk management, international cooperation in the area of disaster risk reduction, strengthening preparedness for more effective response to disasters, provision of information and education of citizens, as well as the importance of involvement of different institutions in building resilience of communities and their activities in this area. The Conclusions of the Conference can be viewed here.

The Conference was organised within the project DIRECT – DIsaster REsilient Communities and Towns, implemented by FORS Montenegro and the Directorate for Emergency Management of the Ministry of Interior of Montenegro, in partnership with the Protection and Rescue Service of the Municipality of Kranj from Slovenia, Fire and Rescue Brigade of the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic and Czech Association of Fire Officers. The project is funded by the Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO) of the European Commission (DG ECHO).

The aim of the project is to improve preparedness of local communities, institutions and services for more efficient response to a growing number of natural and man-made hazards and the main project activities include trainings for rescuers on protection and rescue in case of fires, floods, earthquakes, etc., field protection and rescue exercises, trainings on Disaster Risk Reduction – DRR, development of evacuation plans for schools and local communities, awareness raising campaign related to disaster risks, study visit to EU, etc. One of the most important results of the project is the improvement of international cooperation in the area of disaster risk reduction which enables exchange of experiences and good practice models both between institutions and services dealing with protection and rescue and rescuers who often face the same challenges and tasks in their work.