Upon the invitation of the Protection and Rescue Directorate of Montenegro, Head of Secretariat at DPPI SEE participated at the EU BALANCE field exercise as lead trainer. Together with the Head of Secretariat the exercise was also supported by the Finance/Admin assistant and the two interns from Lund University – Masters program of disaster risk management and climate change adaptation, Spilios Iliopoulos and Tjorben Niklas Zenker. The exercise was used to test Host Nation Support elements during a massive earthquake. International teams present together with the EUCPT and the national response dealt with USAR operations, first medical aid and medical transportation, firefighting operations, protection of cultural heritage and also applied rescue procedures including vulnerable groups. This was the final event of the EU BALANCE project and we are looking forward to the lessons learned event that will follow. Head of Secretariat also gave a statement to the national TV emphasizing the importance of the event and the preparations needed to host such an exercise.
Disaster Management Training Programme
The Disaster Management Training Programme (DMTP) plays a key role in strengthening disaster risk management capacities across DPPI SEE member states. It supports the professional development of civil protection personnel through thematic workshops, seminars, conferences, simulation exercises, and expert exchanges. The DMTP addresses priority areas in disaster preparedness and prevention, while promoting alignment with EU, UN, and other international standards and practices. Developed in close cooperation with member states, the programme fosters knowledge sharing, regional coordination, and improved interoperability in emergency situations.
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The seminar was hosted and organized by the Sector for Emergency Management of the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Serbia and co-organized with the Danish Emergency Management Agency (DEMA). The seminar represented Serbian contribution to the DPPI SEE Disaster Management Training Programme 2012.
The aim of the seminar was to exchange and share knowledge and experiences regarding open land and forest fires management in the countries of the South Eastern Europe.
Representatives of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia participated in the seminar.
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The workshop was Bulgarian contribution to the Disaster Management Training Project for 2012 of the Disaster Preparedness and Prevention Initiative for South Eastern Europe and was organized by Fire Safety and Civil Protection Chief Directorate, Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Bulgaria.
The workshop was held in Sofia on 27 and 28 November 2012 in Vitosha Park Hotel, 1 Rosario str. (http://www.vitoshaparkhotel.com/)
The aim of the workshop was to share experiences and best practices and to provoke discussions on the ways for enhancing the role of volunteers and voluntary units in the states in SEE region in disaster response and humanitarian aid operations as well as to outline areas of possible future cooperation.
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Most of the world's population now lives in cities, with the majority living in cities of less than 500.000 people. Cities are increasingly the scenes of humanitarian crises, and this trend is likely to continue. Recent major emergencies in the region of SEE have highlighted the particular and increasing vulnerability of urban areas to disasters. Due to the floods among other consequences, water supply systems have been damaged and totally interrupted in some municipalities. In the immediate aftermath of the flooding the access to clean and safe water was hindered and threat of water-borne diseases was serious. These events have also highlighted the need for strong Urban WASH capacity in the region.
The Urban WASH in emergencies training course was co-organized by RedR UK and the Protection and Rescue Directorate of the Republic of Macedonia under the DPPI SEE Disaster Management Training Programme for the year 2014. 18 participants from 9 DPPI SEE member countries had the opportunity to learn more about the challenges for disaster response in differing urban contexts and emergency contexts and how to effectively coordinate/ collaborate and manage WASH responses in urban disasters using a multi-sector approach.
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The training was co-organised by the Ministry of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Administration of the Republic of Slovenia for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief (ACPDR) and supported by the Republic Administration of Civil Protection of the Republic of Srpska, Cave rescue unit-Ponir, Cave Rescue Service of the Republic of Slovenia (CRSS), as well as by the Mountain Rescue Service of Serbia (MRSS), Commission for Rescue in Vertical Conditions) and Croatian Mountain Rescue Service (HGSS).
The programme is primarily aimed at volunteer speleologists of caving clubs, fire-fighters, police officers, soldiers, health workers and other interested protection, rescue and relief forces whose members have passed the speleologist’s examination or have completed equivalent national programs for independent caving activity and have sufficient experience in the field with excellent knowledge of rope technique (SRT).
The training was implemented as a combined structure of theoretical lectures and practical work given and supervised by the licensed teachers and instructors from the Training Centre for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief of the Republic of Slovenia (ACPDR). The training programme ‘’Cave Rescuer’’ is approved and signed by the Minister of Defence of the Republic of Slovenia.
This year's training was the seventh organized within the DPPI SEE framework and as part of the DPPI SEE Disaster Management Training Programme. 30 participants from eight (8) countries participated at the event (Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia and Serbia).
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Following the success of the DPPI SEE Disaster Risk Reduction project that was implemented from 2009 to 2012, National Protection and Rescue Directorate of the Republic of Croatia and Administration for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief of the Republic of Slovenia organized Disaster Risk Reduction Training Course in the twining model as a joint Croatian& Slovenian contribution to the Disaster Management Training Programme for 2014 of the DPPI SEE.
A total of eight (8) DPPI SEE member countries (16 participants) took part in this year’s course.
With support from Croatian and Slovenian facilitators, the course provided in depth orientation on disaster risk reduction concepts and guidance, including the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA), as well as understanding of the key aspects and activities of response and recovery. The course also built upon participants’ existing knowledge base so they can relate disaster risk reduction issues in practical terms to their day-to-day work responsibilities.
More concrete aim of the course was to develop DRR related project proposal with multinational/regional implementation for the benefit of the DPPI SEE member countries.
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The training was hosted by the Ministry of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and co-organised in cooperation with the DPPI SEE, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Balkan Institute for Risk Assessment and Emergency Management (BIEM). The training course was organized within the framework of Regional Programme on Disaster Risk Reduction in South Eastern Europe, United Nations Development Programme in Bosnia and Herzegovina, implemented in cooperation with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and European Commission, together with relevant partners from eight IPA funds beneficiaries in SEE (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey and Kosovo under UNSCR 1244/99). The event was attended by representatives of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia as well as by representative of Danish emergency management agency (DEMA).
The event representing Macedonian contribution to the DPPI SEE DMTP for the year 2104 was hosted and organized by the Protection and Rescue Directorate of Macedonia with support from the Operation Florian, UK. The planning process of the event itself took around 2 months and included not only all the fire chiefs in Macedonia but also all the relevant organizations responsible for road traffic safety. The Challenge itself is part of a wider national campaign that promotes road traffic safety elements and accordingly supports the UN decade for traffic safety. Representatives of 5 DPPI SEE member states (Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Slovenia and Turkey) took part in the Observers Programme of the challenge.
Theaim of the Extrication Challenge was to bring together teams of rescue personnel who are committed to not only displaying their ability but also to expanding their practical skills by learning from and teaching others involved in the same field (detailed information on the challenge can be found in the (“National Road Traffic Collision Extrication Challenge - OVERVIEW”).
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Following the success of the DPPI SEE Disaster Risk Reduction project that was implemented from 2009 to 2012, National Protection and Rescue Directorate of the Republic of Croatia has organized a Disaster Risk Reduction for Teachers Training Course in a twining model. This event represents the Croatian and Slovenian contribution to the Disaster Management Training Programme for 2014 of the DPPI SEE.
The course has provided basic information on disaster risk reduction concepts and guidance, including the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA), and in depth orientation on the Priority 3 of the HFA. The course has also built upon participants’ existing knowledge base in a way that they could relate disaster risk reduction issues in practical terms to their day-to-day work in schools and implement important information on DRR into their lectures.
The aim of the Course was to help teachers develop an understanding of the link between DRR and everyday lessons and give them an opportunity to practice the acquired knowledge.
The course was attended by representatives of 7 (out 9) DPPI SEE member countries (Albania, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey).
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This year’s DPPI SEE Cave Rescue Training (6th in the row) is hosted by Sector for Emergency Management of the Republic of Serbia and represents Serbian contribution to the DPPI SEE Disaster Management Training Programme for 2014. The training was co-organised by the Slovenian Administration for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief, Slovenian Cave Rescue Service and Serbian Mountain Rescue Service.
The aim of the training was to strengthen the human capacities of the participating countries in the field of prevention of and response to disasters, as well as to improve and further widen cooperation of national protection and rescue services of the SEE countries while practicing in accordance with the standardised cave rescue procedures.
More than 120 representatives of competent civil protection services of the DPPI SEE member countries have so far participated in the cave rescue trainings organised in the framework of the DPPI SEE.
As part of the 6th DPPI SEE Cave Rescue Training (CRT) a special (final) exercise was organised on 18th Sep 2014 in the Resava river canyon with the scenario of an evacuation on the stretcher from a deeper cave. In addition to the representatives of the training organisers, the exercise was also observed by high-level representatives of the Republic of Slovenia’s Embassy in Belgrade.
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Following the success of the 2014 Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) for Teachers course, Croatia once again contributed to the DPPI SEE Disaster Management Training Programme with a follow-up 2015 course on the same subject. The course was prepared and hosted by the Croatian National Protection and Rescue Directorate (NPRD).
DRR for Teachers Course was attended by 14 participants from 8 DPPI SEE member states (Albania, Bosna and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and, Slovenia) and with facilitation from Croatia (6 facilitators from NPRD, UNICEF and Croatian Red Cross).
The course focused on how to include risk reduction in school curricula with basics on disaster risk reduction concepts and guidance, including the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) and Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. The course aimed to relate participants’ newly acquired knowledge of disaster risk reduction in practical terms to their day-to-day work with children. The course also enabled participants to apply practice to a case study that further resulted in DRR inclusive lectures at the end of the course. Participants were divided into four groups (Outbreak, Twister, Avalanche and Volcano) and were given a task to come up with a way of including DRR related topics into geography curricula. Block/presentation evaluation was conducted on a daily basis by participants and on the last day of the course participants completed a final course evaluation form.
Conclusions& recommendations resulting from the facilitators’ meeting held at the end of the course, including the more detailed information about the course, can be found in the “Event Report_DRR for Teachers_2015”.
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This training was hosted and organised by the Administration of the Republic of Slovenia for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief and supported by the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency. The training represents Slovenian contribution to the DPPI SEE Disaster Management Training Programme for 2015.
The training aimed to provide the participants with theoretical knowledge and basic practical skills in the field of fire extinguishing known as hot fire/flashover training, while also improving their existing knowledge of basic skills and techniques of fire-fighting and basic operational procedures for indoor fires. The training also intended to raise awareness on procedures and practices of fire development and behaviour in different scenarios.
Target audience of the training were professional operational fire-fighters and commanders from the DPPI SEE member countries. Total of 15 professionals from seven (7) DPPI SEE member countries participated in the training.
The training was implemented as a combined structure of theoretical lectures and practical work given and was supervised by the licensed teachers and instructors trained by the Swedish Rescue Services Agency. The training ‘’Hot Fire Training - module A’’ is approved and signed by the Minister of Defence of the Republic of Slovenia.
More detailed information on this year’s Basic Hot Fire training can be found in the Event Report
Keeping up-to-date with online training techniques is essential in Covid times for DPII SEE. This is why together with Sphere we started the training in online facilitation techniques . At the end of Day one on 15.11 the 19 participants from Albania, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Serbia, Romania, Slovenia, Turkey, North Macedonia, Croatia and Bosnia Herzegovina were unanimous - they loved the virtual whiteboard! Looks like JamBoard will be getting some use in future Sphere facilitations in South Eastern Europe!
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Administration of the Republic of Slovenia for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief (ACPDR) has organized and hosted the first training of rescuers on swift water within the DPPI SEE Joint Emergency Response Units in case of floods (JERU) project. The training was the first one conducted within the DPPI SEE JERU project, with another three SWIFT practical trainings yet to be organized in Croatia and Slovenia.
JERU SWIFT water rescue practical training took place from 10 to 15 of April 2017 in Slovenia (Solkan, Nova Gorica) and had a focus on rescuing from swift waters by using boats, swimming rescue techniques, reach and throw operational techniques and contact rescue operations.
Operational objectives of the training were:
- To prepare team members of national units for flood response operations in the South East Europe region;
- To establish effective regional cooperation and coordination of the preparedness activities in the region of South Eastern Europe in case of major floods;
- To enhance the participants’ knowledge about international disaster response operations;
- To increase the participants’ capability knowledge of water rescue techniques and tactics and tactical problem solving;
- To increase knowledge of water rescue techniques, tactics, tools and equipment and boat rescue techniques;
- To build a network among the participants by sharing the experience, existing know-how and team building.
The training was attended by 28 participants, representatives of JERU national teams from Slovenia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The JERU project aims to develop operational capabilities in case of floods in the region of SEE. The overall goal of the project is to establish, equip and train the Emergency Response Units in the DPPI SEE member countries. The project initial design has been remodeled to match the other similar interventions in the region implemented under European Commission Instrument for Pre-Accession assistance - IPA in order to avoid potential duplications and ensure necessary synergies. The project envisages organization of four (4) Swift Water Rescue trainings and one final Field Exercise.
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The field exercise RO-MODEX 2017 was hosted by IGSU (General Inspectorate For Emergency Situations of Romania) and was organized in a Consortium with National Centre APELL for Disaster Management, State Rescue Fire Service, Latvia (SFRS), Austrian Red Cross (ARC), Protection and Rescue Directorate of Macedonia, General Directorate for Civil Security and Crisis Management of France and United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).
The aim of this exercise was to give the opportunity to EU civil protection modules and teams to have a functional full-scale exercise at European level according to Union Civil Protection policies and procedures aimed to enhance knowledge on: interoperability, safety and security, self-sufficiency, procedures, coordination and learning opportunity.
The aim of the DPPI SEE dedicated program was to give the opportunity to civil protection experts from DPPI SEE countries to observe the RO-MODEX field exercise organized under the Union Civil Protection Mechanism where they had the possibility to see interventions in exercise sites, attend coordination meetings and visit exercise management structures.
Seven observers from (7) DPPI SEE member countries (Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia) participated in the program.
Official website of EUROMODEX - www.apell-euromodex.eu
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This event was a contribution of the Administration for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief of Republic of Slovenia to our annual training program. Total number of 16 firefighters from 8 DPPI SEE member states had the opportunity to train various fire suppression techniques, to exchange and to learn from each other. The Training Center in Ig, Slovenia offered excellent working conditions to meet the learning objectives. This is one of our traditional trainings that we are having in our program and one of the most appreciated by the participants.
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Disasters and complex emergencies often result in significant environmental impacts. Therefore, a key element of emergency response is the rapid identification and mitigation of environmental risks. The United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) / United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Joint Environment Unit (JEU) was established in 1994 to coordinate international response to environmental emergencies whenever international assistance is requested by affected countries. The JEU can deploy environmental experts and equipment, conduct rapid environmental assessments, and provide remote support. Depending on the type of emergency and requested assistance, the experts can be deployed as part of United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) teams or on standalone environmental emergency missions.
The Environment and Emergencies Training (EET) is organized by the JEU in partnership with DPPI SEE and the Protection and Rescue Directorate of North Macedonia as the host organization. The course builds upon the introductory sessions on environment and emergencies integrated in UNDAC Induction and Refresher courses. The training provides participants with knowledge, skills and understanding of potential environmental impacts caused by disasters and of how to apply relevant tools and approaches to minimize negative impacts to human health, livelihoods and the environment.
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In cooperation with the World Bank, EU and UNDP, DPPI SEE hosted the regional training workshop on Post Disaster Needs Assessment in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) is a methodology designed to assist the affected communities in their recovery process. The idea behind the training was to familiarize the participants with the concept and with that to contribute to the processes of pre disaster recovery planning. DPPI SEE member states have already experienced the process of PDNA with the floods in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, floods in North Macedonia and the recent earthquake in Albania and the training was built around those experiences. The ultimate goal of the training was to expand the pool of regional experts in PDNA, invest in their skills in knowledge on long term basis and use them in real time situations.
This week under the framework of our annual training program we have initiated the SPHERE online training. Something that was originally planed as 5 day training course will now be completely online and stretched in the next 4 weeks. The aim of the training is to spread the message on SPHERE humanitarian charter and minimum standards across the region and work on creation of a pool regional trainers. Total number of 22 participants representing civil protection authorities but also Red Cross are braking the ice in this new way of doing business.
The week one workshop objectives were:
Learn some SPHERE basics, including its history, structure, philosophy, and reasons for its existence. Discover why humanitarian standards exist.
Find information in the SPHERE Handbook.Define Quality, Accountability, and Inclusion in the context of humanitarian response.
Get used to various interactive learning technologies, including Zoom and Miro. Start to get to know each other as a group. Establish a collaboration tool (MS Teams) to continue discussions
between workshops.
The overriding objective was to prepare ourselves for the deeper content-based learning that's coming next.
This weekend we started with the Cave Rescue Training in Sezana, Slovenia. Total number of 17 participants representing 8 DPPI SEE member states are attending the training. The Cave Rescue Training is one of the traditional trainings that are running in our program in the last 10 years and is the first one this year that is organized with physical presence. Many thanks to the Administration for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief of Republic of Slovenia and their Cave Rescue Team for organizing the training.