The objective of the project is to provide support to local authorities’ firefighting services to ensure that they have adequate response capabilities for fires and accidents, floods, storms, forest fires and earthquakes. The project will provide resources for municipalities to invest in strengthening municipal capacity to respond to the growing demand for their services in peri-urban areas by increasing risk awareness and preparedness for populations exposed to the risk of wildfires and other natural disasters and improving response capacities.

Components of the Project:

• Component A. Assessment of municipal capacity to prepare for and respond to forest fires and other natural disasters
• Component B. Improving the physical capacity of municipalities
• Component C. Strengthening critical infrastructure of municipalities
• Component D. Technical Assistance and community awareness raising

In order to achieve the project outcomes following activities have been done:

Activity 1: R2R Diagnostic Methodology:

Legal and Institutional Framework (Legal accountability and Financial Readiness)

Information Acquisition and Information Technologies, (Community participation, Early warning systems, Information management systems, Geographic Information Systems)

Facilities, (Emergency operation centers, Training centers, Logistics warehouses and response stations, Shelter areas and open areas)

Equipment (Emergency social services, Information and communication technology, Hazard-specific response capacity, fire services and technical rescue)

Personnel (Emergency organizational structures, Training and knowledge building, Exercises and drills, international support coordination)

Critical environmental infrastructure services (infrastructure affected by disasters or infrastructure needs for disaster risk reduction)

Activity 2: Preliminary Needs Assessment Report

Detailed description of the findings and diagnoses made in accordance with the methodology

General assessment of the preparedness, early detection and response capacities of local governments against fire and natural disasters and recommendations for strengthening them

Overview/brief assessment of the population’s risk awareness and level of preparedness and exposure to forest fires and other natural disasters occurring in the regions;

Overview of lessons learned from response capacity after a wildfire or similar event in 2021 and preliminary identification of areas for improvement;

Draft list of projects (equipment, infrastructure investments and risk awareness campaigns and risk preparedness trainings) to be carried out in line with the needs analysis, cost estimates and recommendations on prioritization

Activity 3: Final Report

Confirmation and updating of the information and recommendations in the preliminary report

Evaluation of ILBANK’s comments and suggestions

Elaboration and justification of the findings of the preliminary report

Project pipeline developed on the basis of the preliminary report results and detailed project descriptions, cost estimates and recommendations

Presenting recommendations for local governments based on the results of the needs analysis