The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDP) launched a 3-year-long programme for strengthening disaster resilience and climate change resilience throughout the Western Balkans region. The Government of Italy will provide the major share of the funding for the program, which will target Albania, North Macedonia, and Serbia from July 2025 to July 2028.
The initiative is strategic and supported by Italy towards three Balkan countries
Having slashed the financial losses due to disasters and climate change from 10% to 9% of the GDP and having streamlined property ownership for primary residences, a new 3-year initiative set to advance disaster and climate preparedness in the Western Balkans was launched this week, noted a UNDRR press release. With funding from the Government of Italy through UNDRR, together with relevant disaster risk reduction (DRR) partners, the project aims to accelerate several risk reduction activities in our cross-border countries: Albania, North Macedonia, and Serbia.
On Wednesday, 4 October, the Initiative was initially presented in Tirana, where the Government Eunice Haki Cako, General Director of the National Civil Protection Agency of Albania, underlined that we can’t deal with disasters that don’t recognize borders – the solution lies in international cooperation and stimulating local support when it’s needed most. H.E. Marco Alberti, the Italian Ambassador in Albania, said: We are here to talk about natural disaster prevention. We are all about minimizing damage and helping institutions save people. Undesired reactions: the earlier the better the warning systems, the more disruptions we would be able to prevent.
Early warning systems are effective in saving lives
UNDRR notes that the Western Balkans Disaster Risk Reduction Initiative (WB DRI) is working in Albania, North Macedonia, and Serbia to increase their resilience to disasters and climate change. This implementation is being accomplished by UNDRR and is most generously supported by the Italian government. This three-year project (July 2025 – July 2028) aims to save lives, livelihoods, and infrastructure in the region by enhancing knowledge of hazards, governance, early warning systems, and transboundary cooperation.
They involve improved real-time information platforms for early warning and loss information, enhanced risk governance and treaty integration through national preparation and budgeting to integrate disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate adaptation, and improved resilience of local communities through strategic formation of DRR plans and urban resilience actions.
“One of the objectives of the initiative,” says Ms. Natalia Alonso Cano, Chief of the Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia of UNDRR, calling once more on all partners to work together so that the Initiative is a success, “is to foster risk-informed investments and disaster risk when financial planners and budget decision-makers make decisions.”
An integrated approach comprises various elements of disaster management
Through improved risk knowledge and data sharing, risk-informed financing, improved risk governance and risk decision making, development of Early Warning Systems (EWS) that save lives, and fostering transboundary cooperation to tackle common risks, we are working towards a safer and more resilient Western Balkans. This effort brings together local governments, civil society organizations, and technical experts along with the regional agencies, the UN agencies and development partners, and DRR champions in the Western Balkans.
Contentious cooperation could be resolved in this Italy-based project, and it might help in cooperation among neighbors to solve the problem of acute need in having programs which would directly enlighten the matter of reducing the level of risks to disasters. The comprehensive approach combining risk control, social infrastructure strength, and digital technology solution is designed to make the region increasingly resilient to the rising tide of climate change-related disasters and the stresses and strains affecting its populations, as well as its other vital infrastructure components.