Disaster Risk Reduction: Roadmap and Lessons Learned
“Centres for social work that participated in the Programme found their role and positioned themselves in the social protection system resilient to crises and emergencies”
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A two-day conference was held in Sarajevo as part of the Joint Programme "Disaster Risk Reduction for Sustainable Development in Bosnia and Herzegovina", which is supported and financed by the Government of Switzerland and the United Nations (UN).
The conference entitled "The road to the improvement of social protection resilient to crises and emergencies in BiH" brought together representatives of entity ministries for social policy/protection, entity administration of civil protection, coordinators from 10 partner municipalities and cities, UNICEF, and UN agencies in charge of programme implementation.
The goal of the conference was to summarize the results achieved through the implementation of the component dedicated to social protection, to present lessons learned as well as a long-term vision and recommendations for future improvement of the situation in this area, and resulted in a Roadmap of social protection resilient to crises and emergencies in BiH, which sublimates the lessons learned and defines priorities for future measures and investments in order to achieve systemic solutions.
“Climate change and emergency situations affect the entire society, especially the most vulnerable categories, and in the worst possible way, as we could see in the examples of floods in BiH in 2014 and during the COVID-19 crisis that started in 2020," said Dr. Rownak Khan, the representative of UNICEF in BiH, at the opening of the Conference, underlining that the impact of climate change and disasters on children is not so prominent at the very beginning, but that this impact is noticeable in the later period:
“During such situations, children are denied basic rights, such as the right to education and healthcare. The concept of a crisis-resilient social protection system is not only to respond when a disaster occurs, but to be prepared in order to reduce the impact of any disaster. One of the important components of such a social protection system is the provision of social protection to the most vulnerable population, especially children, said Dr. Khan, calling on the competent authorities to invest in a social protection system resilient to crises and emergencies, both through money and through the necessary services.
Through the component of the programme dedicated to social protection, 10 centres for social work in FBiH and RS (Bihać, Sanski Most, Kakanj, Kalesija, Gradačac, Banja Luka, Bijeljina, Prijedor, Trebinje, Srebrenica) prepared and adopted risk and vulnerability assessments for emergency situations and Action Plans in emergency situations based on the agreed methodology developed in cooperation with the FBiH Civil Protection Administration and the Republika Srpska Civil Protection Administration.
Miroslav Jurešić, Assistant Minister in the FBiH Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, emphasized that the whole story started back in 2014 when there were big floods in BiH:
“Every crisis also exposes the shortcomings of the system, especially when it comes to centres for social work and other institutions that should be available and provide help to the affected population. At that time, from the position of the ministry, together with our colleagues from UNICEF and colleagues from the Republika Srpska, we developed a Manual for the operation of centres for social work in emergencies, so that after that we could move on to more specific activities that are included in this project," he said, adding that based on the lessons learned, the plan for the next period is to raise the actions of centres for social work and other social protection institutions to a higher level:
“In this context, the Ministry will actively participate and give its contribution, especially in the segment that concerns the regulation of certain matters that may not be adequately regulated in the existing legal framework. And of course, what is crucial for all of us from the social and child protection system is a much clearer and better positioning of these institutions in situations like these.”
Vladimir Makarić, Assistant Minister in the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare of the Republika Srpska, also emphasized the importance of the positioning of the centres for social work:
“Through this project, we came to the fact that centres for social work found their role, positioned themselves in the system related to protection and rescue in emergencies. They are certainly an important and unavoidable factor in that system, but until now they did not have the opportunity to be recognized as such and visible as part of the system, but were somehow in the background, acting and having a very significant role that was not seen", he said, adding that the project showed that centres for social protection are a very important link in the rescue chain, from the very planning of the risk assessment, as well as in the planning of actions and activities in the event of emergencies:
“They also proved to be an important part of the system that deals with prevention, preparation, action and dealing with consequences after emergency situations. I hope that the experience of five centres for social work in five municipalities in the RS will be transferred to other municipalities, namely, centres for social work, and that we will continue in the spirit of joint cooperation and the positioning of the centres in the emergency rescue system.”
During the project, 211 professionals employed in centres for social work in 10 locations went through training, from training for preparing risk assessments, protection and rescue plans in the field of social protection and implementation of prevention measures, through responding and recovering from emergency situations in practice through strengthened capacities of the institutions themselves, to the provision of services to particularly vulnerable users in emergency situations.
Based on the adopted Plans, UNICEF supported the implementation of grant projects of centres for social work, with the participation of local communities and centres for social work, through which about 40,000 users on the records of centres for social work, including more than 10,000 children, received direct and indirect benefits.
The results of this component of the Programme contributed to a better positioning of the social protection sector in the protection and rescue system in BiH through strengthened coordination, data exchange, mechanisms of cooperation and joint action in the field. Centres for social work in these 10 locations are part of the official DRR (disaster risk reduction) coordination mechanism - DRR Platforms and are permanent or affiliated members of the Civil Protection Headquarters/Emergency Headquarters, which provides an official basis for more efficient preparedness and response with a focus on the most vulnerable groups.
The Joint Programme “Disaster Risk Reduction for Sustainable Development in Bosnia and Herzegovina“ is financed by the Government of Switzerland and the United Nations (UN) and implemented by the UN agencies: UNDP, UNICEF, UNESCO, UNFPA and FAO.
