Regional Seminar (Almaty, March 2009)
Regional Seminar on Hyogo Framework for Action and Disaster Risk Reduction in Education A two-day Central Asian regional seminar was hold in Almaty on disaster risk reduction and education organized jointly by UNICEF and the UN International Strategy for Risk Reduction (ISDR). This regional event brought together senior government officials, experts and practitioners and international partners from Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The Central Asian regional seminar was organized within UNICEF’s project “Supporting disaster risk reduction amongst vulnerable communities in Central Asia”, co-funded by the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO). As part of this project, UNICEF is working in three Central Asian countries with the aim to improve the skills and knowledge of children to mitigate and prepare for potential disaster events caused by natural hazards, such as earthquakes, floods, avalanches and mudslides. One of the strategies is to integrate DRR into existing national school curriculums. UNICEF aims to reach close to 380,000 schoolchildren and their teachers in the region with basic awareness raising information and materials, including booklets, posters, brochures, board-games and similar. In selected schools UNICEF will, in close cooperation with the central governments, the local authorities and school administration, assist in risk mapping, developing school preparedness plans, setting-up school emergency brigades and organizing emergency drills. In Kazakhstan, the project will focus to address the specific natural hazards and risks that the country is prone to. The most threatening are earthquakes, floods, mudflows and landslides. In the view of this, 2,000 teachers and 50,000 schoolchildren will be reached with relevant information and materials providing them with knowledge and skills to protect themselves, their families and communities in times of disasters. UNICEF will be also working with national institutions, the Ministry for Emergency Situations and the Ministry of Education and Science of Kazakhstan, to develop policies and practices to make schools a safer environment for children in Kazakhstan. The Central Asian regional seminar has laid an important foundation for improving existing governmental strategies and documents on disaster risk reduction in the region with a particular focus on education.
For further information please contact: Raimbek Sissemaliev, Head of the UNICEF Almaty Zone Office Sultan Khudaibergenov, UNICEF Communication Officer,
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