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The 31st regional meeting of the Disaster Preparednes and Prevention Initiative for South Eatsern Europe (DPPI SEE) was held in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, on 3 and 4 November 2015. The autumn session 2015 was co-hosted by Serbia in its capacity of the DPPI SEE Chair-in-Office 2015 and DPPI SEE Secretariat.
The meeting gathered representatives of the DPPI SEE member countries' disaster management, i.e. civil protection authorities and representatives of competent partner organisations/ stakeholders committed to disaster preparedness, prevention and reducing of disaster risks in the region of South Eastern Europe.
The closed session of the meeting built upon the proceedings and conclusions of the regional meeting spring session 2015, and through inclusive discussion reviewed the DPPI SEE activities implemented to the day while providing guidance for further effective implementation of the DPPI SEE desired course of action as stipulated the DPPI SEE Memorandum of Understanding (2013). The Regional Meeting thus reflected on the status of implementation of the DPPI SEE Disaster Management Training Programme (DMTP) 2015 and furtehr discussed countries' proposals for the year 2016.
Other objectives of the meeting were pursued within the DPPI SEE Advisory Board serving as a forum for networking, information exchange and experience sharing on topics currently occupying the SEE civil protection agenda, such as the Europian migrant/ refuge crisis, recent and on-going initiatives within IPA civil protection coperation programme, including the future planned IPA calls for proposals, update on professional training and exchange of experts programmes.
The participants learnt from concrete experiences of Croatia and Slovenia on engagement of their civil protection services in the migrant situation, including on the activities of the European Commision DG ECHO in the same process. Also presented was recent activation of the European Civil Protection Mechanism by Macedonia as well as the final field exercise, IPA CAMPEX 2015, held within the IPA Civil Protection Cooperation Programme- Phase II. Equal contributions to the Advisory Board forum were those of UNDP Office in Bosnia and Herzegovina, UN OCHA, UNISDR Europe, Italian Civil Protection Department, THW and GEM Foundation.
The next DPPI SEE regional meeting (spring 2016) will take place in Slovenia in April 2016 and will be hosted by the Administration for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief of Slovenia (ACPDR).
