Background

Tajikistan and especially its mountainous areas are prone to natural disasters. Numerous damaging events frequently affect the economy and the population, killing people, damaging livelihood and hampering sustainable development. In Tajikistan the war, the general economic contraction and the loss of social services have caused a drastic deterioration in overall living conditions throughout the country. The Tajik government has so far been struggling to use disaster reduction as a tool for sus-tainable socio-economic development. Committee of Emergency Situations and Civil Defence (CoES) is the leading national organisation in Disaster Reduction sector with highly dedicated staff but lacking up to date training in disaster management. To address this need and as a response to repeated request of CoES for assistance in capacity building SDC has launched the project on capacity building of the CoES to reduce the risk of natural disasters in Tajikistan.

Overall Goal

The project is aimed at reducing disaster risk level in Tajikistan through improvement of disaster risk management, planning and coordination capacity.

Objectives

1)  Improving capacity of the CoES to predict, prevent and manage natural disasters.

2) Ensuring CoES provides emergency management and related trainings in accordance with international standards.

3) Integrating disaster risk management into planning at local levels.

Activities

The project will be implemented by the UNDP Disaster Reduction Management Program and will focus on further support to the Information Management and Analytical network and the nation-wide emergency management training system of the CoES, as well as supporting its Operations Departments in Dushanbe and in the regions and the Department of Protection of Population and Territories, uniting these four core components of the CoES into a harmonised and effective emergency management mechanisms.