prijava
SARAJEVO, February 17 (FENA) - Ten representatives of local communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina today signed a Declaration on "Disaster Risk Reduction for Sustainable Development in Bosnia and Herzegovina" in Sarajevo, urging local communities to strengthen disaster cooperation.
By signing the declaration under the joint program of the Government of Switzerland and the United Nations, a partnership was established between ten local self-government units, Banja Luka, Bihać, Bijeljina, Gradačac, Kakanj, Kalesija, Prijedor, Sanski Most, Srebrenica and Trebinje, in which activities will be implemented in disaster risk reduction.
Director for Cooperation at the Swiss Embassy in BiH, Barbara Dätwyler Scheuer, said that by signing the Declaration, the local communities have made a commitment to do everything in their power to reduce the effects of possible disasters in their communities.
She said that around 600,000 citizens would benefit from the signing of the declaration, which was endorsed by the Government of Switzerland and the UN. She added that the Swiss government has provided more than half of the funds.
“This is the most comprehensive intervention in the field of disaster risk reduction in BiH so far,” Dätwyler Scheuer underlined.
UNDP Resident Representative on behalf of the five United Nations agencies participating in the project, Sukhrob Khoshmukhamedov, said that, unfortunately, very often disasters are measured by human losses and damage, but this is a wrong approach.
“Every dollar we invest in prevention will have a return of six dollars in the event of a disaster,” Khoshmukhamedov emphasized, adding the importance of adequate development planning that will follow the realization of this project.
The objective of the joint program of the Government of Switzerland and the United Nations is to address the key priorities in the field of disaster risk reduction (DRR) identified by local authorities and different stakeholders in ten local government units in different sectors: protection and rescue, education, social and child protection, health and agriculture.
The joint program is implemented by UN agencies UNDP, UNICEF, UNESCO, UNFPA and FAO in partnership with local authorities.
(FENA) S. R.
