City of Nis strategy for safety promotion event

The City of Nis, Serbia, became the one-hundredth city to join the “Making Cities Resilient – My City is Getting Ready!” campaign at the city’s “Strategy for Safety Promotion” event on 30 September, a highly publicized event attended by over 40 Serbian cities.

Nis joined the campaign along with 17 others: Aleksandrovac; Arilje; Bojnik; Kanjiza; Kragujevac; Krusevac; Leskovac; Medveda; Novi Pazar; Pirot; Plandiste; Rekovac; Secanj; Senta; Titel; Tutin; and Vlasotince.

Nis and several other cities in Serbia had been working for four years to increase their capacities for disaster prevention and preparedness with the support of USAID.

By joining the campaign, cities commit to “Ten Essentials” that experts have determined will keep cities safer. Among others, the ten actions include assigning a budget for disaster risk reduction, preparing and sharing risk assessments, investing in risk-reducing infrastructure, and protecting ecosystems and natural buffers to defend against floods, storm surges and other natural hazards.

Under USAID’s program, more than 80 cities were trained and 45 were certified for having achieved ‘Enhanced Disaster Resilience’ in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior’s Sector for Emergency Management. The methodology for enhancing disaster resilience is based on Serbian law and the international standards defined by the UN’s Hyogo Framework for Action - a ten-year plan of action adopted in 2005 by 168 governments to protect lives and livelihoods against disasters.