Within the project Disasters do not know borders, FORS Montenegro in cooperation with, Directorate for Emergency Situations of Ministry of Internal Affairs of Montenegro and Prefecture of Shkodra organized a cross-border conference on Disaster Risk Reduction and Importance of cross-border and Regional Cooperation. The conference was organized in Podgorica on 14th and 15th November 2019 with the aim to enable exchange of experience, opinions, good practice models and lessons learned in the area of disaster risk reduction as well as to contribute to informing the population and specific target groups about DRR and the importance of international cooperation.

The conference gathered representatives of institutions and services dealing with protection and rescue, civil society organisations, national and local authorities, media, project partners, etc. The conference was opened by Mevludin Nuhodžić, the Minister of Interior of Montenegro, Marija Vukčević, Director-General of the Directorate for Finance and Contracting of the EU Assistance Funds of the Ministry of Finance of Montenegro, Ivana Glišević Đurović, Deputy Chief Negotiator – National IPA Coordinator, Office for European Integration of Montenegro, Donata Von-Sigsfeld, Programme Manager for Territorial Cooperation in the EU Delegation to Montenegro, Çesk Millja, the Prefect of Shkodra, and Veselin Šturanović, the Executive Director of FORS Montenegro.

During the conference, the participants emphasized the importance of cross-border, regional and international cooperation in disaster risk reduction, continuous improvement of human and technical capacities, implementation of the measures of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, preventive activities, education of the population on risks, passing of adequate strategic documents and plans and their full implementation, active involvement of all relevant institutions, organisations and the citizens themselves, etc. The conclusions of the conference can be viewed here.