The first ever full scale simulation exercise within DPPI SEE is completed. DPPI FLEX 2023 was held between 23-27 October 2023 in Brcko, Bosnia and Herzegovina with participation of all 10 DPPI SEE member states. The exercise was organized in close coordination with the Ministry of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina - Sector for Rescue and Protection and Brcko District Department for Public Security. Drone flying operations, data management, solving logistics problems regarding incoming humanitarian assistance and camp management where the topics of the exercise all of them combined in one scenario. The activation of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism was used to coordinate the incoming assistance to Bosnia and Herzegovina. This process was also supported by deploying a EUCPT, again composed of members from the DPPI SEE member states ( and one Liaison Officer from ERCC). The OSOCC had a specific task having in mind the above mentioned operations (drones, logistics, camp management). Therefore 3 cells were created within the OSOCC covering each of the segments. Some of the immediate lessons identified are towards STANDARDIZATION - what is a drone team? technical and personal requirements? FLEXIBILITY - the exercise required splitting of the teams and COMMUNICATION - key element in planning and implementing the exercise especially when new technologies and approaches are implemented.

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The aim of this workshop was the exchange of experiences and practices between member countries of the DPPI SEE, which are, among other things, navigating through the procedures of  providing, transiting and receiving international aid during emergencies in 2023. The discussion, presentations and the exchange of information of all member countries regarding the organization of the entire process of managing the procedures for providing, transiting and receiving international aid during natural disasters in 2023 gave clear insight into their respective capacities and capabilities in times of crisis, as well as further possibilites for improvement. Where, on the unfortunate examples of catastrophes that struck Turkey and Slovenia, which were affected by a devastating earthquake and floods, we could see all the advantages and disadvantages during the provision, transit and reception of aid. The experiences that the participants shared with their colleagues through their presentations are of great importance for the further development of protection and rescue.

Colleagues attending the workshop that were present during the DPPI FLEX 2023 shared their insights of some of the objectives that were in focus during the exercise. The main topics that were discussed, touched upon the operational capacities and coordination between of teams coming from DPPI member states, as well as coordination of activities through the UCPM and ERCC. Through FLEX 2023, participants gained first hand experience regarding the logistics of following procedures and guidelines related to HNS, EUCPT and SPHERE.

In cooperation with the Administration for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief of Republic of Slovenia, DPPI SEE hosted the Critical Incident Stress Management workshop in Ljubljana. The workshop was held between 15-16 November with participation of all DPPI SEE member states. Experts in the field of psychology, social work and first responders had the opportunity to exchange of methods and practices used for psychological support to first responders after facing critical incidents at the work place. The Administration for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief of Republic of Slovenia use the opportunity to present its own system and how it evolved over the years. The other member states through the group works and the discussions also shared their national experiences, challenges and needs in that context. This is the first workshop of this nature organized within DPPI SEE and the recommendation from the training audience was that a follow up should be organized and exchange on the topic to be continued.

The 3rd and the final Planning conference for DPPI FLEX 2023 was completed. Over 50 participants from all member states continued working on the Exercise Instructions and the actual design of the exercise. We had the chance to review the current state of the nominated teams from the member states and the capacities that they will bring in Brcko during 23-27 October. During the 2^nd day of the conference the capacities of the member states for triggering the UCPM upon a request from assistance sent from Bosnia and Herzegovina were tested through a carefully design TTX. Now as the planning process is slowly closing we are starting with the implementation phase of the exercise arranging all the necessary logistics behind the arrival of the international teams. DPPI FLEX 2023 will be a simulation exercise focusing on testing the regional response to a flood scenario happening in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The objective is to improve host nation support procedures and test specific response capabilities like drones, camp management and logistics.

Presentations

• Turkyie
• Sphere in Practice
• SEM International assistance , DPPI SEE, September 2023
• PREZENTARE TEHNICA - DPPI FLEX 2023
• PREZENTARE ASISTENȚĂ INTERNAȚIONALĂ - RO
• PPT presentation floods_International - DPPI Presentation
• NICS DPPI FLEX FPC 20.9.2023
• International CP Operations 09.2023
• International Assistance w_p-r EXPERIENCE
• HNS - Albania-2019-November 26 - Earthquake
• HNS  in Montenegro
• Drone operations during emergencies  disasters V2
• DPPI FLEX 2023_planning
• DPPI FLEX 2023 - KAPACITETI BiH
• DPDHL_GoHelp Program_DPPI 2023
• BiH HNS Presentations DPPI SEE

In the context of the preparations for DPPI FLEX 2023 simulation exercise in October a training on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles was organized in Jastrebarsko, Croatia from 01-03 July 2023. The training was aimed for the participants to the exercise and captured both theoretical and practical segments of drone operations. This training was supported by the Civil Protection Directorate of Republic of Croatia in cooperation with lecturers and instructors from the Maritime Faculty in Rijeka, the Faculty of Organization and Informatics in Varaždin, the Croatian Civil Aviation Agency and the Croatian Air Navigation Control. Total number of 27 participants attended this training in Croatia.

The planning process for DPPI FLEX 2023 continued with the 2nd Planning conference that was held in Brcko, Bosnia and Herzegovina from 20-21 June 2023. Prior the conference and as part of the preparation process two trainings were completed (Sphere in Urban Settings and Get Airports Ready for Disasters) and one is scheduled for July (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles). The conference was used to refine the exercise structure and the scenario and also visit the exercise locations. DPPI FLEX 2023 will be a simulation exercise designed around flood response operations by testing capabilities of domestic and international drone teams with additional tasks regarding camp management and logistics operations. The 3rd and Final planning conference is scheduled for 19-20 September again in Brcko, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Get Airports Ready for Disaster’ (GARD) is a public-private partnership between the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Deutsche Post DHL (DP DHL) to prepare airports as logistics hubs in the event of disaster, The three-day event of the internationally recognized training program Get Airports Ready for Disaster (GARD Plus) was concluded yesterday in Sarajevo. The aim of the program is to strengthen resilience to disasters caused by natural hazards (floods, earthquakes, fires and landslides), in which airports play a critical role in channeling humanitarian teams and relief goods quickly to people and communities in need. The GARD program was conducted in Bosnia and Herzegovina for the first time in 2018. The kick-off phase of the program was presented by the Deutsche Post DHL Group (DPDHL) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) together with Sarajevo International Airport, the Ministry of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as humanitarian response experts.

GARD Plus is a follow up measure initiated by Disaster Preparedness and Prevention Initiative for South-Eastern Europe (DPPI-SEE) and the Ministry of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This is an opportunity for the country and Sarajevo International Airport to conduct a review of the original recommendations from local participants, and for all to prepare for the simulation exercise called DPPI-FLEX at the end of 2023. Bosnia and Herzegovina is vulnerable to natural and climate related hazards such as floods, landslides, earthquakes or wildfires. Recently heavy rainfall has battered parts of the country. In 2014, the flood that impacted parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina caused heavy destruction. Sarajevo Airport played a key role in flying in relief supplies from abroad.

"The Ministry of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina considers that the prevention and reduction of the risk of disasters is one of the key issues of the security of the country and the region. This is confirmed by the floods, fires, and earthquakes that Bosnia and Herzegovina and other countries in the world are exposed to. By joining the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, Bosnia and Herzegovina became part of the European concept of the protection and rescue system, which provides new inputs and obliges us to develop the system in accordance with the standards and procedures applied in the EU countries,” said Samir Agić, Assistant Minister of Protection and Rescue Sector, Ministry of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“During times of emergency and disaster airports are key to ensuring emergency aid is received in a timely manner and we are pleased to be able to partner with DPPI-SEE and Sarajevo Airport to deliver this workshop and share our knowledge and experiences with the national Disaster Management Experts,” said Kim Melville, Vice President of Humanitarian Affairs for Deutsche Post DHL Group.  

“The unprecedented complexity, severity, and scale of the risks and crises we now face calls for enhanced preparedness to minimize the risk of disaster and save lives,” said Stanislav Kim, UNDP Regional Disaster Risk Reduction Advisor for ECIS. “Building the capacities of airports and all institutions involved to act quickly and effectively respond to crises not only benefits the communities they serve, but allows countries to continue along their paths towards resilient and sustainable development, undeterred by crisis.”

Over 25 participating officials and experts from Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as disaster management specialists from member states of DPPI-SEE in Southeast Europe, joined the GARD Plus workshop led by Deutsche Post DHL Group and UNDP experts. During the program, participants were guided by trainers to conduct a self-assessment of the progress since 2018 at the Airport and update specific recommendations to ensure that Bosnia and Herzegovina is kept up to date and well-prepared for any potential disasters. The disaster management specialists will also take these lessons learnt and apply them to a real-life scenario in a regional simulation exercise that will be conducted at the end of 2023.

“Sarajevo International Airport is recognized and defined at the level of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a point of departure and arrival point when it comes to major crisis situations,” said Zoran Dragičević, Director of the Security Sector at Sarajevo International Airport. “Adequate and, above all, professional response to this obligation and privilege requires, first of all, reliable personnel and material and technical potential. We can very responsibly point out that we are ready to respond at any time to the demands that are in front of us, because we are sure that our decades of experience, which is woven into various action plans in crisis situations, will be accompanied by a motivational factor for our airport employees. The expansion of our capacities in the infrastructural context gives us additional assurance that we will not disappoint the expectations brought by possible crisis situations, we are ready to tackle any situation and justify the trust that has been placed in us as a company.”

“Airport preparedness plays key segment in all possible major disasters that could affect Bosnia and Herzegovina. In that context it’s crucial to prepare for and test the process behind requesting, sending and absorbing international assistance. The specificity of this particular workshop is that it has been followed by other DPPI SEE member states as well who have sent their representatives to Sarajevo. With that we are creating preconditions for replication of the workshop to other airports in the region of South East Europe in the years to follow,” expressed Vlatko Jovanovski, Head of the Secretariat, DPPI-SEE. 

The aim of the training was to promote ethical, inclusive, rights-based and people centered humanitarian response in urban contexts via the proper application of Sphere Standards. Total number of 15 participants from 8 DPPI SEE member states followed the training which is being implemented for the first time in a classroom format. The training audience was a mix between civil protection experts and the ones from the Red Cross societies. Some of the Sphere trainers that were produced last year also attended. This training was organized under the framework of the preparations for DPPI FLEX 2023 simulation exercise happening in October.

Forest fires conference in Podgorica, Montenegro covered the topics of fire prevention and response. DPPI SEE member states used it to share their activities on both prevention and preparedness for response. Case studies of response operations were presented and examples of good practices were shared. On the second day of the conference a study visit to the fire station in Bar was conducted whihc enabled the participants to listen to the first line responders how they are organized and prepared for the upcoming fire season. This was a joint event hosted by the Protection and Rescue Directorate of Montenegro and Sector for Emergency Situations of Republic of Serbia.

Presentations

• Slovenia
• Serbia
• Romania
• Montenegro
• North Macedonia
• Croatia
• Bulgaria
• Branko Micev
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Albania
• PRPD OSA - Revised SA
• IHMS Reg Conf
• NFFIS
• MNE JICA

The recently established DPPI SEE Working Group on Risk Assessments had its first online meeting on the 31 March 2023. The suggestion to have a permanent structure within DPPI SEE that will exchange on current activities, trends and challenges on risk assessment came up as an outcome of our workshop held in Belgrade last year. Acknowledging the importance of the risk assessments the 44.DPPI SEE Regional meeting approved the creation of the working group. During the meeting updates on national processes have been shared and the latest results from the sub-national Risk Inform Index for Albania, Montenegro, N. Macedonia and Romania were presented. The next meeting will be scheduled in the 2nd half of 2023.

On the 29th of March, Head of Secretariat visited RACVIAC - Center for security cooperation in Croatia. The meeting was used to explore possibilities and put into practice the collaboration agreement that was signed between the two organization in 2010. Upon the presentation of RACVIAC, Head of Secretariat elaborated the organizational structure and the mandate of DPPI SEE and informed the colleagues in RACVIAC about the priorities for 2023. The meeting was concluded with the intention to join forces and try to organize at least one training event in 2024. Details for that event will follow as soon as the planning process for 2024 starts in both DPPI SEE and RACVIAC.

On 30.03 we had a pleasure to host representatives from IOM Bosnia and Herzegovina and Red Cross Society of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The meeting was used to share updates on current and planned activities in all 3 organization. Potential areas of collaboration in 2023 are seen in the context of the upcoming field exercise DPPI FLEX 2023 that will be organized in October. As part of the scenario for the exercise, camp management and camp coordination is envisaged and we are counting on the support from both IOM and Red Cross Society in designing a meaningful scenario.

The 3rd event this year was the workshop on Building capacities to respond to large open space fires – the model of organizing and functioning of the air force, renting and purchasing aircrafts. It was organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina – Sector for Protection and Rescue and included 45 participants on site and 27 participants online. During the workshop the participants had the possibilities to listen how the host country is organized when aerial firefighting is concerned and also to hear about their utilization of various decision support systems such as NICS. Experts from Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, N.Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia also had the chance to present their organizational structures and way of business. General impression from the workshop is that although aerial firefighting is one of the priorities of the national civil protection authorities across the region it is followed by many challenges. As there is no single model how to organize the aerial firefighting this process requires strategic planning and taking into consideration all the specifics that the nation has. What works in one country might not work in another. The consensus in the group about the main challenge in aerial firefighting is continuous investment in aviation on both levels – equipment and staff.

Presentations:

• Serbia

• Rs

• Rs Video

• Republic of Croatia  host of rescEU capacities in fighting forest fire 5.4 FIN

• Požarna sezona 2022 - Mirnesa Softic

• FBiH

• Montenegro

• Albania

• DPPI SEE at DMTP 2023 BiH

At the last 44.DPPI SEE Regional meeting held in Dubrovnik, Croatia member states have agreed to work together in organizing a simulation exercise within the DPPI SEE training program for 2023. This decision had two preconditions: 1. To identify the host country for the exercise and 2.To have a draft concept for the exercise itself. Ministry of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina – Sector for rescue and protection took the initiative and accepted the challenging task to host the first ever field simulation exercise organized in the framework of DPPI SEE. The second precondition was also met and a draft concept for the simulation exercise was prepared building the exercise around a flood scenario and testing the response capabilities of drone teams, logistics and camp management.

The 1st Planning conference held in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina had the purpose of identification of the exercise objectives, exercise design and the training needs. 57 participants representing 9 DPPI SEE member states came to Sarajevo and actively contributed to the objectives of the conference. In addition to the work done we have also identified the name of the exercise itself, DPPI FLEX 2023. Next steps are scenario planning and training preparations for the respective teams in accordance to the identified needs for the exercise.

The conference in Bucharest was the 1st event in DPPI SEE training program for 2023. Hosted by the Department for Emergency Situations of Republic of Romania, the event focused on the importance of risk information as foundation for effective disaster risk reduction. Trusted, accurate and widely used risk information saves lives, particularly when it reaches ‘the last mile’ and is put into practice to protect vulnerable communities, goods and systems. It is crucial that risk information is understandable and accessible to anyone who would use it, and addresses the systemic, cascading, and compounding, nature of risk – so that it may build societal resilience. Total number of 17 participants were supported by DPPI SEE and took active participation in both the technical session and the high level round table on the 24th February. The conference was also used for many bilateral meeting pushing forward the agenda for disaster risk reduction in Europe.

The objective of the seminar was to share practical examples on business continuity planning and critical infrastructure protection in context of disaster management. During the days of the seminar member states had valuable exchange on industrial accidents prevention and discussed options for future collaboration. Each country contributed by making a presentation to the seminar attended by representatives of 9 DPPI member  countries, including Türkiye. The opening speeches of the seminar were made by Ercan AKAR, İstanbul AFAD Provincial Director and Gökhan YILMAZ, Head of AFAD Presidency Risk Determination and Prevention Department. Country representatives also visited the İstanbul Provincial AFAD Training Center and a briefing on disaster education was made by the center director. During the visit the participants had the chance to see the earthquake simulator, observe a flood simulation and visit the rescue dogs training center.

The last event under Disaster Management Training Program for 2022 was held in Podgorica, Montenegro on the topic of civil protection training centers. The workshop was held in the newly established civil protection training center and this was the first international event held there. Opening of the training center in Podgorica is yet another important achievement of the Protection and Rescue Directorate of Montenegro and the workshop was used to exchange on existing structures of similar nature in the other member states, programs that are taking place in their training centers and what are the modalities for collaboration between the various training centers. The conclusions from the workshop which will be presented to the next DPPI SEE Regional meeting are that Disaster Management Training Program can be used further more to promote the work of the existing training centers of the member states and second, creating an online library within DPPI SEE on topics relevant for the training centers will be useful to have.

Cave rescue Training - 2013 was jointly organized by Croatian mountain rescue service - Commission for speleological rescue with the support of the Croatian National Protection and Rescue Directorate and by Cave rescue Service of Slovenia in the frame of DPPI SEE.

This training was already the fifth in the row. The first training was organized in 2009 in Montenegro, then in 2010 in Macedonia, in 2011 in Bulgaria and in 2012 in Slovenia. All together there were more than 100 participants from DPPI SEE member countries trained in cave rescue techniques.

Slovenian cave rescue service and Croatian mountain rescue service made an important in 2012 by applying for European funds whereby these were awarded the funds for the implementation of the European project EU Proteus (ending in December 2013. Within the project PROTEUS a large-scale exercise PARADANA 2013 was carried out in Slovenia (August 2013). In this exercise all civil protection units worked together in a scenario of an accident that occurred in the cave deep about five hundred meters. Also 150 caving rescuers from Slovenia and Croatia were participating in the exercise. The evaluators assessed the exercise as a very well implemented.

The DPPI SEE Cave rescue training was attended by 20 (twenty) cavers from: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Turkey and Slovenia.

Responsible instructors: Ales Cedilnik and Marko Zibelnik from Training center for civil protection and disaster relief of Slovenija; Walter Zakrajšek , Aleš S. Stražar,  Marko Erkar and Bernard Štiglic from Cave rescue service of Slovenia and Ljubo Majica and Ivica Ćukošić  of  Croatian mountain rescue service .