In the North Macedonia, UNDP in Skopje has supported the establishment of models of local DRR platforms in parallel through the SEE URBAN project and a project on building flood risk resilience in the Polog region. The first model that is functioning in the south-east region is a non-formalized network of DRR practitioners, local governments, NGOs and academia and includes 10 urban and rural municipalities. The model in the Polog region is established through an inter-municipal collaboration and is called “Network for Resilient and Protected Polog”. It consists of 9 municipalities and is focused only on flood risk reduction. The strengths of this model are: a) it is rooted in the national legislation; b) lower cost for local governments and more integrated planning for flood risk prevention reduction, response and recovery on regional level; c) predictable funding from the municipal budgets; and d) possibilities for bigger resource mobilization.
The second SEE URBAN regional working meeting which was organized on 15 and 16 October 2018 in Skopje by the UNDP and the project partner, the Centre for Development of the South-East Region (CDSER). The main objective of the meeting was to present the SEE URBAN models established with the project support in each of the participating countries/territories. The participants also benefited from the participation and experience of EU member states’ local level authorities dealing with Civil Protection issues. Moreover, the meeting was used to take stock of the overall project achievements, to discuss possible follow up on regional level, and to explore opportunities to expand this model of local level DRR cooperation into Eastern Partnership countries and perhaps Central Asia. The regional meeting was attended by the representatives of the local SEE URBAN platforms from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, as well as representatives from Croatia, Slovenia, Armenia, Moldova, Armenia, Georgia, DPPI and UNDP offices from participating countries/territories.
