The official event was attended by Mr Aleksandr Khudoleev, First Deputy Minister for Emergency Situations of the Republic of Belarus (Belarusian Project Leader), Mr Dirk Schuebel, Head of the European Union Delegation to Belarus, Mr Robert Stocker, Austrian Project Leader, Ms Aloisia Wörgetter, Ambassador of Austria to the Republic of Belarus, and Mr Christer Michelsson, Ambassador of Finland to the Republic of Belarus and Lithuania.
The project is aimed at strengthening the capacity of the Ministry of Emergency Situations to effectively address existing and emerging disaster risks in Belarus. It will improve civil protection and disaster risk management services of the Ministry for Emergency Situations by applying best practices used in the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.
The twining-project activities are structurally divided into four components, which require expert cooperation, modernizing the methodology for emergency risk assessment, building capacity in the field of disaster data management and analytics, and improving preparedness and response plans for emergency situations and search and rescue activities.
The project involves 27 experts from Austria and 16 experts from Finland, representing government authorities, fire-fighting and emergency response services, research and educational institutions. On the Belarusian side, the project is being implemented by the most experienced heads of institutions, directorates and departments of the Ministry for Emergency Situations.
The project “Strengthening the Ministry for Emergency Situations of the Republic of Belarus” is funded by the European Union and implemented by a consortium of Agency for European Integration and Economic Development, (Austria) and HAUS Finnish Institute of Public Management Ltd (Finland). The project has a budget of 1.2 million Euros, project duration is 2 years.
Twinning is an instrument of the European Union (EU) aimed at supporting direct interaction between governmental bodies of EU member states and partner countries (beneficiaries), using joint expert potential of government bodies of EU member states and beneficiary countries in order to achieve specified mandatory practical results through implementation of activities on the basis of equal cooperation.
