Final meeting of the European Union funded project on “Strengthening Disaster Resilience and Accelerating Implementation of Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction in Central Asia”
Almaty, 15 February - The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) and the Center for Emergency Situations and Disaster Risk Reduction (CESDRR) organised a final meeting to mark the closure and showcase the achievements of the EU-funded “Strengthening disaster resilience and accelerating implementation of Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction in Central Asia” project.
Since 2019, the European Union has been supporting five Central Asian countries to build the foundations for greater resilience through enhanced data, capacity, governance, and cooperation at local, urban, regional, and national levels, within this project, implemented by UNDRR in close collaboration with national governments, CESDRR, CIMA Research Foundation, Asian Disaster Preparedness Center, IFRC, UNDP, UNECE, and other stakeholders and technical experts.
Today’s event brought together national governments, implementing partners, as well as donors and other stakeholders in the field of disaster risk reduction, to review the programme’s achievements; assess the challenges and opportunities for future cooperation, including on strengthening risk knowledge, emergency preparedness, and climate change adaptation at regional, national, and local levels; and to accelerate overall implementation of the regional disaster risk reduction strategy.
The project’s key achievements include the development of the first ever sub-regional Strategy for Development of Cooperation of Countries of Central Asia in Disaster Risk Reduction for 2022 – 2030, agreed at ministerial level in 2021 with subsequent annual actions plans for its implementation, and the organisation of the annually held Regional Forum – Meeting of the Heads of Emergency Authorities of Central Asian Countries in 2020, 2021 and 2022. At national and local levels, the initiative has strengthened risk governance systems and the use of risk assessment tools for better disaster preparedness and resilience in all five countries. Its community-level activities reached over 50,000 people in 65 communities across the region, whilst various awareness raising activities supported children, the youth, and vulnerable groups to improve their disaster resilience.
Background information
The EU-funded project “Strengthening disaster resilience and accelerating the implementation of Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction in Central Asia'', implemented by UNDRR, supports countries in the region to implement Sendai Framework priorities. The project supports the strengthening of regional coordination mechanisms, the development of a regional disaster risk reduction strategy, national disaster loss accounting systems, and community-level disaster risk reduction. At the local level, the project supports the development of disaster resilience strategies in capital cities. The EU committed EUR 3,750,000 for the three-year implementation of the project.
For additional information, please contact:
EU Delegation to Kazakhstan: delegation-kazakhstan-pic@eeas.europa.eu
Mr. Abdurahim Muhidov, UNDRR Regional Programme Coordinator: muhidov@un.org