Serbian Officials Receive Training on Disaster Response and Recovery

A three day training course on resilient recovery planning for Serbian officials began today in Belgrade. The training, jointly organized by UNDP and the Sector for Emergency Management, Ministry of Interior, is part of the wider UNDP contribution to recovery planning in the aftermath of the Kraljevo earthquake.

The training was opened by: Mrs. Sanja Cekovic, State Secretary of the Ministry for Human and Minority Rights, Public Administration and Local Self Government, His Excellency, Mr. Toshio Tsunozaki, Ambassador of Japan to Serbia,  Vukman Rakocevic, Deputy Mayor of Kraljevo, Mr. Predrag Maric, Head of the Sector for Emergency Management of the Ministry of Interior, Mr. William S. Infante, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Serbia,  as well as Sue Lautze, Senior Recovery Advisor at the UN Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery.

“Kraljevo earthquake has demonstrated that systems for incidents command do exist in Serbia and that they work well. We are here to make them better” said Mr. Infante. “This event is a part of the UNDP’s broader effort of promoting sustainable cities and it is our goal to make Serbia a regional leader in this sphere” Mr. Infante continued.  

Mr. Maric confirmed that “Serbia is currently in the process of building emergency management capacities that would be available for all countries in the region and hopes to provide its expertise internationally – as it has in the case of Japan.”

The Ambassador of Japan, Mr. Toshio Tsunozaki took the opportunity to thank Serbia for all the help it has provided and offered on the governmental, municipal and individual level, to the people of Japan as they suffered through the greatest disaster since World War II.

The training is being held by the International Recovery Platform (IRP), a renowned group conceived at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction (WCDR) in Kobe, Hyogo, Japan in January 2005 as a key pillar for the implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) 2005-2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters, a global plan for disaster risk reduction for the decade adopted by 168 governments at the WCDR.