Montenegro

National Policy Dialogue on Disaster Risk Reduction in Montenegro

Kolašin, 24-26 November 2010

“Establishing National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction and strengthening government and society capacities especially at the local level are main priorities in the domain of Disaster Risk Reduction” it was concluded at the National Policy Dialogue on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), a three-day event organized by the Ministry of Interior Affairs and Public Administration of Montenegro and UNDP Montenegro. The aim of this dialogue was finalizing the National Needs Assessment on DRR that will serve as a basis for defining future activities within the Regional Programme on DRR in South-East Europe, as well as for the resource mobilization in the next period of time. This Regional Programme on DRR, worth 2 million euro is funded by the European Union and jointly implemented by the UNDP and the World Meteorological Organization. Participants in the dialogue were 45 representatives from 11 Montenegrin ministries and relevant institutions, as well as from 11 international organizations.
 
Zoran Begović, Deputy Minister of Interior Affairs for Civil Security and Emergency Situations, opened the dialogue and said: “As signatory of Hyogo Framework for Action, Montenegro is obliged to establish a National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction. The carrier of this process has to be the Sector for Emergency Situations and Civil Security, as an operational body of the Government. Montenegro needs to dedicate a significant part of its development strategy to this issue.” He explained that capacities and resources were insufficient, and the Government and relevant organizations needed to prioritize and decide which aspects they would finance and what would be the goals. “All of us together, and especially we in the Government of Montenegro who are responsible for the management in emergency situations, have to fight to achieve that the policies follow and support our suggestions and visions. Therefore, we need to be in the same team that in its focus has protection people’s lives, property and protection of environment,” Begović emphasized. He also explained that “since 2007, Montenegro has done quite a lot regarding establishing of a National Platform – laws have been passed,  institutions prepared, and an organization formed so that in case of a disaster there is a network of people – from 102 permanently involved persons up to 4,000 available people, excluding the police and the army.“ 

 

Alexander Avanessov, UNDP Resident Representative/UN Resident Coordinator to Montenegro, said: “Together with our partners from the World Meteorological Organization and the Ministry of Interior Affairs and Public Administration we have worked on a draft National Needs Assessment for DRR, aiming to give regional perspective but also to develop a local Programme for Disaster Risk Reduction. I believe that this Policy Dialogue will not only contribute to a clearer vision for the next steps toward the EU standards but will also respond to setting the base for the National Platform as a first step in implementing the Hyogo Framework for Action.“ He also said: “I hope that this Dialogue will broaden our thinking regarding national disasters so that we understand better what could have been done in order to lessen the impact of these disasters - be it related to Physical Planning, better Risk Assessments - specifically Vulnerability Assessments - or community's understanding of Risks“.
 
Charles Baubion from the World Meteorological Organization pointed out that his organization has a developed network with a number of centres to which they provide meteorological data and other warnings in relation to disasters. “Through this Regional Programme implemented jointly with UNDP, we are dedicated to working with eight countries. Our aim is to support capacity development of hydro-meteorological services that represent a very important component in the dealing with disaster risks,” he stressed. Mr. Baubion also said that the National Policy Dialogue presented a sign of sincere dedication of the Government to the capacity development regarding disaster risk management and readiness to respond to disasters.    

National Policy Dialogues are organized in 8 IPA Beneficiary Countries and Montenegro Dialogue is the last one in the series, after which Regional Needs Assessment will be published by UNDP and WMO.