The Regional Forum - Meeting of the Heads of Emergency Authorities of Central Asian Countries
Your excellencies, ministers, partners, colleagues,
Allow me to congratulate you – my UN, World Bank and Tajikistan colleagues on organising this key regional Forum.
It has convened main international partners, as well as government officials and technical experts across the region. Sharing of knowledge and good practices, and further strengthening regional cooperation in this area I would dare to save can save lives.
In July this year, all five Central Asian Presidents at their meeting in Cholpon Ata acknowledged the work of the Regional Forum as a consultative platform. This is a testimony to the fact that disaster risk reduction has become a priority for the entire Central Asia region.
Strengthening cooperation among the actors involved in managing emergencies, they said, was relevant and necessary. A good guidance for the work of this Forum, I would say.
Through the joint efforts, impacts of natural hazards and climate change on livelihoods can be minimized, lowering the burden on people and economies. According to the World Bank, natural disasters lead, on average, to an astounding $10 billion in estimated economic losses in Central Asia every year.
In 2019, the EU together with our Central Asian and international partners developed and adopted the EU – Central Asia Strategy. This Strategy guides our engagement with Central Asia and focuses on three priorities: resilience, prosperity and regional cooperation.
In this respect, the EU is committed to strengthening resilience of the Central Asian societies in many different ways.
Climate Change mitigation and adaptation are important priorities of the EU in the region. Climate change is expected to further exacerbate natural disasters. And as your informative risk map for Caucasus and Central Asia shows - the region is prone to many different natural disasters.
These disasters cause considerable loss of life, destroy homes and livelihoods, and hinder long-term development. Only in 2021, the EU allocated €1 million in response to emergencies in Central Asia. Since 1994 the EU has allocated close to 230 million euros in humanitarian assistance to Central Asia.
The region is also exposed to a range a manmade disasters. Industrial accidents, hazardous mine tailings polluting water, or floods that result from operation of reservoirs are among the most dangerous.
From the EU perspective, Disaster Risk Reduction in Central Asia cuts across many sectors, including water, agriculture, climate change, energy, security, health. For this reason, our programmes help strengthen Disaster Risk Reduction systems and build climate resilience in Central Asia.
Currently the EU is financing nine major projects worth almost 40 million Euros that range from strengthening financial resilience, to water monitoring to uranium legacy remediation. These are implemented together with our partners from the UN agencies, the OSCE, World Bank, EBRD and International Science and Technology Center.
The ongoing joint initiative of the European Union, the World Bank and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) aims at strengthening financial resilience and accelerating risk reduction in Central Asia. With the assistance of this programme, the Central Asian countries have developed tools and mechanisms at the regional and national levels for mitigations of risk of emergencies and reduction of consequences. It also supports regional and international cooperation.
In addition, with the assistance of the EU support over the years, the Center for Emergency Situations and Disaster Risk Reduction (CESDRR) in Almaty was established and has become a source of expertise, information and capacity building, as well as the secretariat for regional coordination.
The Centre initiated, coordinated, and facilitated the development of the first ever Strategy for the development of cooperation between Central Asian countries in DRR for 2022-2030 and its action plan (roadmap) for implementation in 2022-2023. So the work is cut out for our partners.
We appreciate this role in the region.
We also appreciate the commitment and progress made by Governments of Central Asian countries in enhancing the Disaster Risk Management system to build disaster and climate resilience in the region.
Significant progress has been made over the last decades. However, as stated by the regional leaders, deeper and closer regional collaboration can help consolidate national efforts and strengthen disaster management capacities of Central Asia countries.
Central Asia still needs stronger regional cooperation and increased information exchange. The COVID-19 pandemic has underlined the importance of understanding and finding ways to mitigate or minimize these new risks too.
To quote a natural disaster survivor and the UNDRR Awareness Ambassador: “We cannot stop natural disasters, but we can arm ourselves with knowledge: so many lives wouldn't have to be lost if there was enough disaster preparedness.” I hope we can all agree.
I wish you fruitful exchanges!