Nine Municipalities Certified for 'Enhanced Disaster Resilience'

September 24, 2008

Ambassador Munter with the mayors of the nine municipalities that received certificates and representatives of the Ministries of Interior and Defense (FoNet photo)

On September 25, 2008, USAID's Preparedness and Planning Program will certify nine municipalities and towns for achieving "enhanced disaster resilience," in acknowledgment of their progress in improving disaster management capacities at the local level. U.S. Ambassador to Serbia Cameron Munter will present certificates to the mayors of the following nine municipalities: Indija, Irig, Kanjiža, Kraljevo, Novi Pazar, Vranje, Raška, Titel and Tutin. Representatives of the Serbian Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Defense will also give remarks at the event.

These nine municipalities have all successfully coped with landslides, flash floods, fires and environmental incidents in the recent past and have made efforts towards improving the municipal disaster management system. They have all been included in USAIDs Preparedness and Planning program for over a year and have benefited from capacity building training, technical assistance and networking events promoting best practices and the exchange of experiences.

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 'disaster resilient'. Krusevac and Kragujevac were the first two cities that were certified earlier this year.

So far, over 400 persons from 41 municipalities' Disaster Management teams have attended U.S. supported trainings in the areas of risk assessment, risk management, and planning methodology. Through this program, USAID will continue to work with Serbian municipalities over the coming years to support communities' efforts to improve disaster preparedness, response, recovery and prevention. Currently, 61 municipalities in Serbia are included in program activities.

Journalists interested in attending the certification ceremony are kindly invited to be at the Belgrade City Hall, on Thursday, September 25, at 11:15.

For more information about this event please contact Jasmina Debeljak Maljkovic at jasmina_maljkovic@dai.com, or Olivera Kostic at olivera_kostic@dai.com, at 011-363-99 00. For more information about USAID's activities in Serbia, please visit http://serbia.usaid.gov.