The Province of Potenza shares best practices on disaster risk reduction with Western Balkan local authorities

MCR2030 Resilience Hub shares its unique approach to building local level resilience with local authorities from Bosnia & Herzegovina and Serbia

23 February 2023, Potenza, Italy – Officials from municipalities in Bosnia & Herzegovina and Serbia gathered in the Italian Province of Potenza for a two-day workshop on 21 and 22 February to exchange best practices on local-level resilience building, as part of Making Cities Resilient 2030 (MCR2030) initiative.

Organized by the Province of Potenza and the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), with the financial support of USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA), participants in the MCR2030 peer exchange shared views on best practices in developing comprehensive disaster risk reduction plans at urban and municipal levels, which address multiple natural and manmade hazards, and engage all community members in their planning and implementation.

The Province of Potenza, recognized as a MCR2030 Resilience Hub in May 2022 for its leadership and efforts in resilience building at local levels, is prone to several natural hazards, including landslides, flooding, earthquakes, and forest fires.

To deal with this challenging context, the province has a permanent regional coordination network to oversee efforts to reduce disaster risk. The network has a wide responsibility from investments in structural infrastructure to public awareness campaigns.

The Provincial Civil Protection System, in tandem with a #WeResilient strategy, has strengthened its governance and coordination capacities that has improved links between local, regional, and national civil protection frameworks.

According to Mr. Alessandro Attolico, Executive Director of the Territorial Planning and Civil Protection Office at the Province of Potenza, “the provincial authority has supported its 100 municipalities - many of which are small in size and population - to implement disaster risk-informed local development policies for over 20 years”.

“Our unique approach to disaster risk reduction has proved successful in improving the resilience of communities across the province”, he added. “We are pleased to be able to share our expertise, experience, and tools for community-led resilience building efforts with our MCR2030 partner cities and municipalities in Bosnia & Herzegovina and Serbia”.

The Central Bosnian Canton is in the process of developing a regional DRR platform and plans to replicate Potenza’s model of working with its municipalities. The visit culminated in the two regional governments signing a Memorandum of Understanding on furthering their collaboration on exchanging knowledge on local-resilience building, including to support the Central Bosnian Canton in establishing its regional platform.

“The 2-day visit marks a great example of international collaboration for strenghtening the implementation of the Sendai Framework at local levels”, said Mr. Christiano Giordano, the President of the Province of Potenza, noting the “increasingly frequent and intense disaster events that communities across the region are unfortunately facing”.

Mr. Edim Nesimi, Assistant Director for Legal, General and Material Affairs, Structure and Training, signed the Memorandum on behalf of the Prime Minister of the Central Bosnian Canton, warmly welcoming the agreement as a great opportunity for making cities and communities in Bosnia & Herzegovina more strong and resilient.

This MCR2030 peer exchange follows a similar visit by authorities from Central Asian cities to Greater Manchester in December 2022.

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