Civil protection project to assess disaster risk reduction policies in the Mediterranean

Directors General from Civil Protection Authorities of countries involved in the EU-funded Programme on Prevention, Preparedness and Response to Natural and Man-made Disasters (PPRD South) will meet in Rome to assess the implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action in the Mediterranean and to review the contribution provided by the PPRD South Programme. 

A press release said the Forum on the PPRD South Contribution to the Hyogo Framework for Action implementation, to take place on 8 March 2011, will also be attended by representatives of the European Commission and the United Nations. It will be taking place within the framework of the two-day launch of the Mid-Term Review of the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015, organized by the Italian Civil Protection and the United Nations and scheduled to take place on 8-9 March in Rome. The meeting will review the Regional Risk Atlas and the Civil Protection Operational Manual produced by PPRD South to help increase the knowledge of exposure to disasters in the Mediterranean and inform about existing national and international prevention, preparedness and response capacities.

PPRD South awareness raising projects implemented in Lebanon, the West Bank and Montenegro will also be illustrated. The Forum will also explore the existing national coordination mechanisms for disaster risk reduction in the Mediterranean focusing on the challenges faced in setting up and running these mechanisms. The aim of the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA), adopted by the United Nations in 2005, is to implement disaster risk reduction policies in order to increase the capacity of nations and peoples to face disasters and reduce lives and economic losses. 

The €5 million PPRD South Programme – which runs for three years and is managed by a consortium led by the Italian Civil Protection Department together with the French, Algerian, Egyptian Civil Protection Authorities and the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) – is also organising training workshops dealing with risks in the region such as wild fires, technological disasters, floods, earthquakes, epidemics and drought, among others.