Poor municipalities are most vulnerable to natural disasters, which cause tremendous loss to infrastructure, households and agricultural land. The impact of such disasters is further exacerbated by persistent and high poverty and unemployment rates. Neither central nor local authorities can afford to compensate losses caused by natural disasters, and the lack of emergency/recovery fund within the Kosovo* institutions poses a big constraint for stakeholders to initiate the early recovery actions.
Due to its unresolved political status, Kosovo* has not been able to become a signatory country to the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) or its successor, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) and is excluded from regional DRR platforms. This makes it difficult for Kosovo* to access not only potential funding from global funds such as the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and the Green Climate Fund (GCF) but also regional technical knowledge and support. However, despite such an unfavourable situation, the Kosovo* Institute of Hydrometeorology has managed to become a legal member of European Flood Awareness System (EFAS) and is able to communicate and share flood risk data.
For the legal framework, the basic legislations in relation to DRR are the Law on Fire Protection, the Law on Fire-fighting and Rescue, the Law for Protection against Natural and Other Disasters, and the Law on the Emergency Management Agency. In addition, to address the situation of waters and floods, the Kosovo* institutions have adopted the Water Strategy (2017-2036) and Disaster Risk Reduction Strategy and Plan of Action (2016 – 2020) with the support from UNDP.
Every municipality (and ministry) in Kosovo* has a gender equality focal point, who are responsible for reviewing decisions taken by the authorities from the gender perspective and being a member of each panel/committee established within ministries and municipalities. Moreover, Kosovo* established the Agency for Gender Equality and developed the Programme for Gender Equality in order to ensure the integration of gender equality within public policies and programmes at central and local institutions including the DRR.
In relation to the European Union (EU) Integration processes, Kosovo* is in stage of transposition of EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) and EU Flood Directive (FD). Major restructuring is taking place at the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning (MESP) especially at the Water Department to enable full transposition of EU WFD and FD.
Furthermore, DRR is one of the outcomes in the United Nations Common Development Plan (CDP) 2016-2020 in Kosovo*, which states that more people adopt behaviours that are healthy and that increase resilience to potential threats from environmental pollution, disasters and climate change (Outcome 3.3). Moreover, DRR is fully in line with several Sustainable Development Goals including SDG 11 “Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable” and SDG 13 “Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts”.
UNDP with its project has played an instrumental role in the area of DRR in Kosovo* since 2010 and strengthened disaster resilience in Kosovo* based on the principles of Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) or its successor, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR).
Within the SEE URBAN project in Kosovo*, by September 2018 was established the first local level DRR platformed in Kosovo*. The Inter-Municipal Cooperation Agreement was signed between four municipalities Istog/k, Klinë/a Malishevë/Mališevo and Pejë/Peć. The local DRR network is named “Platforma Ripërtëritja nga Fatkeqësitë, Istog-Klinë-Malishevë-Pejë.
Within the SEE URBAN project in Kosovo*, various events were organized:
In the DRR e-library, documents comprising Kosovo* DRR Legislative Framework can be seen, as well as various Studies and Analyses, Local DRR Platform Brochure.
