NTCs meet in Budapest to strengthen UCPM training programme implementation
National Training Coordinators (NTCs) convened in Budapest, Hungary, for their annual meeting from 25 to 28 November 2024.
Organised by the European Commission's DG for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid (ECHO) in collaboration with the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU, the event provided an essential platform for networking, knowledge exchange, and taking stock of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM) Training Programme.
This year's meeting saw broad participation, with delegates from 34 EU Member and UCPM Participating States, including the two newest participating countries – Ukraine and Moldova, and eight representatives from training contractors of the UCPM deployable courses and courses for civil protection and disaster management stakeholders. It also marked an important milestone as NTCs came together to hear and discuss about progress, one year after the revamped UCPM Training Programme kicked-off. Participants discussed the Training programme's results, which were presented by the training contractors, as well as the NTC role and related processes, including supporting tools and platforms.
The meeting was hosted in one of the city's historic venues - Széchenyi Assembly Hall of the Ludovika University of Public Service, showcasing Budapest's cultural heritage. The Presidency warmly welcomed all delegates with great Hungarian hospitality, introducing the history and heritage of the country’s culture and food and making everyone feel at home through social and cultural events.
“Hosting the National Training Coordinators' meeting at the Ludovika University of Public Service in Budapest is both an honour and a privilege. This historic venue, with its rich legacy and neoclassical elegance, provides the ideal setting for meaningful discussions on shared goals. (..) Your work will be of immeasurable importance to select, guide, train and organise the human resources and capacities required to achieve a safer Europe for us all."
The European Commission DG ECHO Head of Unit, Marco Panigalli, addressed participants by highlighting that the UCPM today was one year into the implementation of its new Training Programme courses that have been collectively worked on, redesigned and developed in new formats, with improved learning methodology and approaches, with refreshed content and curricula better linked to the UCPM reality and the knowledge and skills required on the ground.
The meeting was organised in a participatory way, giving space for group discussions and harvesting of the results on several important topics, such as the NTCs’ experiences in identifying and nominating candidates for courses, feedback on their performance and recommendations, related challenges and how to address them, training placement allocation system in different courses, and general community actions that could help each other to perform the NTC role.
“The NTC meeting in Budapest was an excellent opportunity to deepen my understanding of my role. Engaging discussions in a welcoming environment allowed new NTCs to learn from experienced colleagues, while the involvement of different stakeholders and some NTCs volunteering to become mentors provided valuable insights into organising NTC work effectively. Informal talks and group discussions further enriched my perspective on the training process.”
The meeting in Budapest was complemented and preceded by a half-day online informative session on 12 November to present the latest updates of UCPM operations, UCPM policy headlines, rescEU, CECIS 2.0 and ECPP of Experts state of play. This online session gave valuable input before the more interactive discussion-based meeting.
The face-to-face meeting's highly interactive format received high praise from participants, as shown by the evaluation results. Comments such as “The sessions were really useful to discuss important issues together and to identify possible solutions” highlighted the value of shared learning in participatory format. Another participant remarked, “This was a very well-organised and informative meeting that improved my knowledge of NTC work.”
The NTC of Finland, Tero Lähdesmäki also commended the event, emphasising, “The meeting was well organised, both by the Hungarian presidency team and the UCPM Training and Exercises team. It gave us NTCs a much-needed opportunity to network and share ideas as well as solutions to our daily work challenges.” With the new training program just beginning and evolving, the meeting proved essential in inspiring participants to integrate its outcomes into their roles effectively.
The next NTC annual meeting is scheduled to take place in October 2025 in Denmark under the Danish Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
The Knowledge Network editorial team is here to share the news and stories of the Knowledge Network community. We'd love to hear your news, events and personal stories about your life in civil protection and disaster risk management. If you've got a story to share, please contact us.
Sectors