Kosovo: Saving lives by reducing disaster risks

Source(s): United Nations Development Programme - Kosovo

Building on the previous two disaster risk reduction projects, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) launched on 21 July a new project on reducing risks from disasters in Kosovo. 

The project that was funded by the Government of Japan and implemented by UNDP, in partnership with the Ministry of Internal Affairs/ Emergency Management Agency, was launched in the presence of Andrew Russell, UN Development Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative, Tatsuro Hayashi, Counselor, Embassy of Japan to Vienna (representative for Kosovo as well), Agim Gashi, counselor for disaster risk issues under the Ministry of Internal Affairs and other guests, who were familiar with the issue. 

In the beginning of his speech, Mr. Russell emphasized, “UNDP has been delighted to serve as a close partner to the Ministry of Internal Affairs on disaster management, risk reduction and recovery activities for many years and is looking forward to maintaining the excellent relationship as we launch this new phase in our cooperation. We are very grateful to the support of the government of Japan for this new project. Japan has been supporting various aspects of the reconstruction of Kosovo through UNDP, from support to independent media to school and hospital rehabilitation to rule of law to anti-corruption, in the past 16 years. In fact, Japan is the number one donor partner to UNDP in Kosovo since 1999 with a USD 42.8 million contribution.” 

Mr. Hayashi from the Embassy of Japan mentioned the current condition and the willingness of the Japanese government to contribute in this field: “Kosovo is among the youngest nations worldwide and has shown remarkable progress in the past eight years. Japan is happy to assist Kosovo’s administration in the further development of its capabilities. Unfortunately, Kosovo still suffers from the repeated occurrence of natural disasters, especially floods. Japan has gathered extensive experience with the management of natural disasters due to past incidents like the 1995 earthquake in Kobe or the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. It is a privilege to be a contributor to this UNDP project that will improve and even save the lives of so many of Kosovo’s citizens.”

Agim Gashi, counselor for disaster risk issues under the Ministry of Internal Affairs stated how important the prevention of consequences from natural disasters is and expressed the pleasure of the continuum of the project and partnership with UNDP and JICA.

In the event, some further details of the new project were introduced by Fumihiko Tominaga along with the experience and the main findings from a training held in Japan where Alush Beqiri from the Agency of Emergency Management participated. 

The project will last for two years and will have three components. The first component will be the work in ten selected municipalities for evaluating the risk and formulating plans on how to react to disaster. The second component will include building capacities of central institutions to monitor and report on the strategy implementation for reducing risks from natural disasters. Considering that women play a key role in managing risks, the third component of the project will deal with building capacities for women by preparing them how to react to potential natural disasters. 

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