On 14 March 2024, DG ECHO organised a kick-off event for the Technical Assistance for Disaster Risk Management (DRM) projects starting in 2024. The event was designed to bring together representatives from projects from across Member States and Participating States (MS/PS) to share good practice and build networks. Participants were taken through the financial and legal aspects.
Erwan Marteil, Head of Unit B3 (Prevention and Preparedness Capacity Building), welcomed participants by highlighting the need for projects to collaborate beyond their own PS/MS:
‘We all need to contribute to a broader goal that goes beyond our borders to the wider EU community’.
What is Technical Assistance for DRM?
The Technical Assistance for Disaster Risk Management (DRM) grants provide national authorities of eligible countries with financial support for the development of strategic disaster risk management.
These actions could include, for example, a strategic framework for disaster risk management, investments for disaster risk management and improvement of crisis management capabilities, as well as investments to improve crisis preparedness for facing major crises.
The projects launching in 2024
A total of 15 projects start their implementation under the Technical Assistance for DRM in 2024 with a total EU contribution of EUR 7.6 million. The countries that received the grants are Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, Portugal, and Türkiye.
The following 15 projects were ‘kicked-off’ during the event:
BG-IDRU-1: Improving Disaster Risk Understanding aims to develop educational materials, including video tutorials, booklets and brochures for better understanding of disaster risks in Bulgaria.
B-FIREPREP: Using fire spread simulation to better anticipate and prepare for dangerous and destructive wildfires at national and local level in Portugal aims to implement a state-of-the-art fire spread simulation system capable of predicting potential fire behaviour.
CPforHeritage: Operational Forces of Civil Protection for the Protection of Cultural Heritage aims to improve the existing competencies of the operational forces of civil protection and cross-sectoral cooperation with employees of the Ministry of Culture and Media in the domain of cultural heritage protection in emergency situations in Croatia.
DrawData: Drafting Disaster Risk Reduction Awareness Raising Guidelines and Disaster Loss Data & Assessment System aims to develop national disaster risk management awareness-raising guidelines, along with awareness-raising materials and a monitoring framework for such activities in Croatia.
DRRS MNE: Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction of the Government of Montenegro with the Action Plan for the period 2025-2030 aims to set strategic and operational objectives for disaster risk reduction. It will define goals, targets and key actions for increasing resilience, and developing a risk culture.
ENABLE-DMC: Development of strategic framework that incorporates the needs of persons with disabilities into whole disaster management cycle (prevention, preparedness, response and recovery) aims to raise awareness of disasters in Lithuania, especially among people with disabilities. It focuses on promoting a prevention culture through training, education, exercises, and access to risk information.
IDEAMETA: Improvements for Data ExchAnge of eMErgency daTA aims to develop risk management capabilities for large scale nuclear and radiological emergencies. In particular, the project is designed to improve crisis management capabilities by improving existing arrangements - applications and information systems for forecasting, detection, and monitoring (including early warning) - within the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK).
I-SPREAD: Innovative Solutions for Public Readiness and Emergency Disaster Management in Lithuania aims to increase public preparedness for disasters and improve the effectiveness of disaster risk prevention tools in Lithuania. It will develop an emergency management mobile application.
LOCAL-DRM: Strengthening Disaster Risk Management Capability at Local Level aims to improve the overall preparedness capabilities of Albania’s counties and municipalities. It will help them to improve planning of municipal budgets for disaster risk management; and to improve disaster risk knowledge and its integration in decision-making.
MD-ALERT-STUDY: Feasibility study, technical requirements and estimated costs for National Early Warning System intends to develop a feasibility study on a future national population alert and warning system. The goal is to identify and establish the optimal solution for the creation and operation of an efficient early warning system for the population in the Republic of Moldova.
PLUTUS: Funding resilient futures: Exploring funding practices in the field of disaster risk management aims to address some challenges the Belgian civil protection authorities and other EU Member States/ UCPM Participating States face, when it comes to accessing and implementing funding for DRM initiatives.
PwinPlan: Public warning messages in preferred language aims to develop a solution that will allow SMS alerts sent through the EE-ALARM system to be sent in the preferred communication language of the receiver in Estonia.
RESMAR: Making Industrial Organizations Disaster-resilient by Concept of Business Continuity Management: Marmara Region Implementation aims to increase the resilience of industrial organisations in the Marmara Region in Turkey against possible disasters and to increase the technical, institutional, and administrative capacity of national and local organisations.
SEE ME 2: Safe and Equal in EMErgencies 2 aims to improve the safety and equality of persons with disabilities in emergencies in Croatia.
The Next Steps
Project beneficiaries were enthusiastic about the months ahead and very keen to continue to share feedback and lessons learnt with other projects and the wider UCPM community.
The UCP Knowledge Network Platform and the upcoming European Civil Protection Forum (4-5 June 2024) were also mentioned as relevant tools and opportunities for learning and exchange between the projects.
Further information
To find out more about the funding go to the official Technical Assistance for Disaster Risk Management page or contact ECHO Civil Protection Prevention & Preparedness <ECHO-CP-P-P@ec.europa.eu> ECHO-CP-KNOWLEDGE-NETWORK-PLATFORM@ec.europa.eu.
Discover the highlights of the event through these photos.
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