DUSHANBE, December 1, 2011, Asia-Plus — ”Saving lives and livelihoods by preparing for natural disaster” is the core principle on which the European Commission has based its disaster preparedness program “DIPECHO” since 1996.
The Delegation of the European Union to Tajikistan says projects under DIPECHO will be launched for the 7th time in March 2012 in five countries of Central Asia, namely Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.
European Commission Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO) Field Office for Central Asia organized four country level Information meetings with Partners to discuss DIPECHO VII. On November 18, the meeting was held in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on November 21 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on November 23 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan (also for partners from Turkmenistan) and on November 25 in Astana, Kazakhstan.
Potential UN, NGO, Red Cross and Crescent society partners, as well as other key stakeholders in disaster preparedness met to discuss needs and gaps in disaster risk reduction (DRR) and to share their experiences in implementing these projects in earlier DIPECHO phases. In each country the meetings were attended in part by the representatives of the national counterparts such as Ministries of Emergency Situations and Ministries of Education.
Similar meetings were held in the Caucasus, since DIPECHO VII Action Plan covers both five countries of Central Asia and three countries of the Caucasus. All of these countries will be included under the € 8 million VII DIPECHO Action Plan which is administered by ECHO and closely monitored by ECHO”s field offices in Dushanbe and Tbilisi.
Aiming at sustainability of project outputs DIPECHO VII Action Plan promotes both the bottom-up approach, which helps to pilot DRR innovations at community level, and the top-down approach, which enables institutionalization of DRR measures at country and regional levels. Over the years it has been proven that tackling DRR challenges from every quarter is crucial to ensuring that communities are safe from natural disasters now and in the long-term.
