On 30 July, at the Armenian Red Cross Society Headquarters, Regional Programme for Disaster Risk Management funded by the European Commission’s Directorate General for Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (DIPECHO) Steering Committee Meeting took place. Haykaram Mkhitaryan Deputy Minister of MTAES, Nikolay Grigoryan MTAES Rescue Service Deputy Director, HFA Focal Point, Representatives of Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and Ministry of Education and Science, Henriette Ahrens, UNCIEF Armenian office representative, Movses Poghosyan, DRR National Platform Director, Representatives of “World Vision”, "Oxfam", "Save the Children" organizations, Tim McInerny Regional Disaster Risk Reduction Delegate in South Caucasusand other field experts participated in the event.
Opening the meeting and welcoming the participants Edmon Azaryan, Head of the ARCS Disaster Management and Population Movement Department informed that this is the II meeting in the frames of signed agreement between DIPECO partners, ministries and DRR National Platform and presented the Agenda.
- “With our DIPECO Implementing Partners, we will discuss implemented works carried out from March to June this year, achievements and challenges. Tim McInerny will present the results of the "Lessons learned" workshop held in Almaty, directly related to us”, he said.
Haykaram Mkhitaryan, Deputy Minister of MTAES emphasized the importance of this project implementation and for Armenia the network of partners, as, according to him, after 1988 earthquake not all DRR issues have been resolved.
- “The situation analysis allows us to claim that the main reason is insufficient level of resilience culture, and most importantly, the only way of its spreading and shaping is formation of effective citizenship through the education system, which includes shaping civil knowledge culture and development, skills, way of thinking, safety and resilience, which requires long ant committed work, joining all the stakeholders. This is a reality, that in recent years Armenia has registered huge progress including DRR component in legislative and strategic documents, educational programs, as well as in various projects implemented in different levels”, he mentioned.
Henriette Arens, UNICEF Armenia representative, who is completing her Mission in Armenia, mentioned, that she has been working with great pleasure in Armenia.
- “I think, that this systemized work is very important. Today Safe Schools are in the focus of UNICEF attention. We have to understand their structure and look to the school from the point of safe community view. We are thankful for effective cooperation”.
Tigran Tovmasyan, Head of UNICEF DRR project, presented, that they work with DRR National Platform and World Vision Armenia, and serious results are achieved specially in the field of strategic documents development, particularly on Safe School Construction, Revision of DRR National Strategy and so on.
Save the Children in Armenia representative Arsen Stepanyan thanked the partners for joint awareness materials development, presented work done by the organization and mentioned, that the network has all the chances for effective advocacy efforts.
After, Edmon Azaryan, ARCS Head of Disaster Management and Population Movement, presented work done by National Society.
- “DIPECHO is being implemented in two levels, regional and national. In the first level, we hosted two experts from Denmark, for evaluation, as well as participated in consortium inTbilisi”. On the second National level, we have been continuing capacity building for Community Volunteers teams. We have organized visits to Fire Stations, where the team members refreshed their knowledge in fire - fighting. I’d like to mention also the steps made forward installing alarm system on Mantash reservoir and the communities in the area of possible emergency. Working group is established by the MTAE Minster decree, and we have strong cooperation with them, to implement the project in a very limited deadlines.
Zaruhi Tonoyan, DRR project representative in Oxfam Armenia office, presented projects implemented in Vayots dzor and Tavush, with House of Hope, working with Youth and persons with disabilities.
After the works presented, participants discussed recent development in DRR, particularly, conforming Armenia’s Strategies and Action Plans to Sendai Framework for Action 2015-2030, on joint work with international structures, as well as making cooperation in the network more effective.
Tim McInerny, Danish Red Cross DRR Delegate, presenting “Lessons learnt” meeting results, mentioned, that South Caucasus experience is a Best Practice for other regions, as effective cooperation for between the partners was successful only here.
At the end of the meeting, the participants thanked each other for cooperation.
