The Technical Assistance Financing Facility for Disaster Prevention and Preparedness (TAFF) is a partnership between the European Commission through its Directorate-General for Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG ECHO), the World Bank and the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR).
Its overall objective is to strengthen the knowledge and capacities of countries under the Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM) for disaster prevention and preparedness with a focus on:
TAFF is a mechanism which allows national civil protection and disaster risk management authorities to access technical assistance and global knowledge on prevention and preparedness to support country efforts on disaster risk management (DRM). TAFF is aligned with:
TAFF has an annual indicative financial envelope of EUR 4 million and two components:
1. Country-specific technical assistance to strengthen the capacity of civil protection and other relevant competent authorities under the UCPM in scaling up investments contributing to disaster and climate resilience. Technical assistance includes various types of analytics, technical studies and recommendations for plans and strategies, piloting of activities, and capacity-building/training activities. Key areas of support include:
2. Knowledge and capacity building to facilitate the transfer and sharing of knowledge among countries on disaster risk management and facilitate the sharing of good practices across UCPM countries. Knowledge products and activities include, for example, studies, collection of best practices and lessons learned, practical guidance/knowledge notes, interactive workshops and technical deep dives/clinics, and training programmes.
Country-specific technical assistance
Eligible countries include EU Member States, Participating States of the UCPM, and Georgia and Kosovo* in view of their ongoing efforts to join the UCPM.
Eligible entities include national level civil protection authorities or authorities with disaster risk management (DRM) responsibilities of eligible countries.
Expressions of Interest and Shortlisting: The 2025 call for expressions for interest will be opened on 15 January 2025. Expressions of interest should be sent to UCPM_TAFF@worldbank.org.
Please find below the mandatory application from, the guide for applicants, the indicative list of activities, the evaluation criteria, the TAFF fact sheet and the summary of 2024 TAFF projects.
Applications should be submitted before 14 March 2025.
An info session will take place on 4 February 2025 from 12:30 to 15:30 via live streaming.
Proposals and start of activities: Based on the approved shortlist, World Bank/GFDRR, in coordination with beneficiary country and entity develops a full proposal for the proposed activities, and World Bank teams start implementation.
Project duration is expected between 18 and 24 months.
Coordination and reporting: The World Bank/GFDRR teams implement activities in coordination with the beneficiary, and disseminate knowledge and lessons learned.
*This designation is without prejudice to positions on status and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence.
The selection of knowledge and capacity building activities will consider country-specific activities and topics of interest that are relevant and can benefit UCPM countries in terms of knowledge transfer.
EU-WB Technical Assistance Financing Facility (TAFF) For Disaster Prevention and Preparedness
EU and World Bank create new facility to strengthen capacity of civil protection in Europe
Annex1: TAFF factsheet (Oct 2024)
(313.3 KB - PDF)Annex 2: TAFF guide for expression of interest
(479.61 KB - PDF)Annex 3: TAFF 2025 expression of interest template
(1.63 MB - PDF)Annex 4: TAFF expression of interest evaluation criteria
(272.95 KB - PDF)Annex 5: TAFF indicative table of activities
(327.15 KB - PDF)Annex 6: TAFF projects booklet
(2.24 MB - PDF)The Technical Assistance Financing Facility for Disaster Prevention and Preparedness supports projects, studies and training in disaster and climate resilience and promotes the sharing of knowledge among countries on disaster risk management.
The European Commission launched this new financial support instrument on 29 February 2024.
Europe is becoming increasingly vulnerable to a wide range of hazards, including earthquakes, floods, landslides, wildfires, heatwaves, and other extreme weather events. Between 1980 and 2020, natural disasters affected nearly 50 million people in the European Union (EU), and caused on average an economic loss of €12 billion per year.
Exacerbated by climate change, these events are increasing in number and becoming more intense and frequent, causing significant impacts on the economies in the region, on the physical infrastructure, but more importantly on people. Without climate adaptation interventions, more than 400,000 jobs could be lost annually by 2050, with the overall cost of climate-related extreme weather reaching €170 billion by the end of the century.
Strengthening financial resilience, making smart investments for disaster and climate resilience, and enhancing institutional capacity and preparedness makes economic sense. To be better prepared for disasters, there is a need to scale up investments to bolster disaster prevention and preparedness across the EU and through the Union Civil Protection Mechanism.
