The European Union (EU) is lending its support to dozens of national and international NGOs which are today (October 13) marking world disaster risk reduction day (DRR) celebrated this year.

 

The theme of this year’s Day is “Making resilient cities – My city is getting ready” which is very relevant to Vietnam as shown by the recurrent floods in 2009 and this year which have caused major flooding in central Vietnam.

 

Mr Sean Doyle, Head of the EU Delegation to Vietnam stated: “Disaster preparedness saves lives. The EU continues to make a significant contribution to global Disaster Risk Reduction efforts by supporting communities to help better preparing themselves against natural disasters”.

 

DRR has been an important aspect of EU-Vietnam cooperation for some years. In June 2010, the European Union signed contracts for projects worth 1.8 million Euro to enhance Disaster Risk Reduction measures in Vietnam. The funding is being made available through the European Commission’s 7th Action Plan for Disaster Preparedness, launched in February 2010 and making 10 million Euro available for disaster preparedness measures in South East Asia.

 

The funds are managed by the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO) through its Program DIPECHO (which stands for Disaster Preparedness ECHO). The DIPECHO projects will be implemented by a wide range of international partners and local organizations. This brings the total support of the DIPECHO Program in Vietnam since 1998 to some 11 million Euro through 48 projects.

 

Mr Sean Doyle added: “The DIPECHO Program has been at the forefront of Community-Based Disaster Risk Reduction experiences in the country. It is rewarding to see that the life-saving aspect of such approaches has been recognized by the Government, which has adopted a nation-wide disaster risk management program aiming at covering 6,000 communes by 2020. The newly approved DIPECHO projects will directly support the first phase of this program in 21 provinces of Vietnam until 2011”.

 

The projects include capacity building activities of local authorities, strengthening of local level early warning systems, public information campaigns, as well as continued joint advocacy efforts through a consortium of 14 international and local partners.

 

Climate Change Adaptation and vulnerabilities will remain core concepts of the Disaster Risk Reduction approaches promoted. Particular attention will be placed on reaching out to ethnic minorities in the more isolated mountainous regions of Vietnam.

(CPV)