Gorgan, May 10, 2009 - UNDP's Resident Representative at interim (RR a.i.) Ms. Elzira Sagynbaeva paid a visit to the Disaster Risk Management Programme's pilot project site in Gorgan for a two day field mission to commemorate the common efforts of local and national partners to build safer communities in this earthquake prone area.

With almost half a million population and a location based on seismic fault lines, the Golestan province and its capital Gorgan, has been in urgent need of implement strategic disaster risk management programmes. In order to reduce the vulnerability to natural disasters, for the communities located in this area, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has since 2005, through its partnership with the Deputy President Office for Strategic Planning and Control (SPAC) and the Ministry of Interior, aimed to strengthen capacities needed to manage the risk of disasters and be prepared to respond to them.

During the opening ceremony, UNDP’s Resident Representative interim alia (R.R.a.i)., Ms. Elzira Sagynbaeva commemorated the event by highlighting the importance of UNDP’s joint programme on Disaster Risk Management with the government of Iran, which has taken place since the early 1990s. Throughout the years, UNDP has as a trusted partner on the ground, assisted the government’s relief operations in Bam and other locations during earthquakes. In recent years however UNDP is increasingly focusing on prevention and disaster risk management in Iran. Ms. Sagynbaeva expressed how important the involvement of city municipalities and local communities is in the work that is currently taking place in Gorgan and Kerman. It is important that we document the lessons learnt at Gorgan and Kerman so that it can be used at a later stage for replication throughout the country. She further expressed how impressed she was by the level of stakeholders’ involvement in the process of increasing disaster risk management skills in the country, by emphasising that “it is not only provincial authorities but also schools, hospitals, kindergartens and a lot of young people into the process”. Ms. Sagynbaeva finished her speech by congratulating the Director of the International Red Crecent (IRC) and Red Cross Organization, Dr. Naeimi who was also present at the event, for the International RCRC day 8-9^th of May.

The Director General for Disaster Management at the Governal General Office for Development in Gorgan, Mr. Hesam explained; “We are one of the most disaster prone countries, and Golestan is one of the most disaster prone provinces in the country. Prevention, preparedness and awareness raising is therefore very important. As a result we constantly try to be prepared; if there is a lot of rain we think about flood, if humidity drops we worry about forest fire”. He further continued by highlighting the successes of the project including changes made in construction practices which have initiated light weight building constructions. Mr. Hesam continued by stressing that “we want to continue this trend, and make sure that these are built with general standards”. Another success of the project is activities which aim on developing capacities for disaster risk management in the area. This includes formulating a risk assessment map, which impacts the communities’ current ability to prevent disasters, as well as ensuring that key building such as schools and hospitals are safe from disasters in the community. While most activities have been confined to the city of Gorgan, the project is increasingly aiming to target rural buildings and homes in order to ensure safer communities throughout the province.

Ms. Sagynbaeva and UNDP’s Programme Analyst in the area of Disaster Risk Management and Recovery, Dr. Victoria Kianpour visited the three day Disaster Risk Management exhibition held in the city which contained a large number of advocacy material developed for increasing capacities on disaster risk management in the community. These materials included posters, brochures as well as short animations for school children. During our visit, we witnessed several classes of school children on field visits to gather information, and thus increase not only their knowledge but also their parents about preparedness and disaster risk management.

The mission were able to make visits both to a local female boarding school, with 270 students, and a local NGO which worked with communities to get insight to the achievements and lessons learnt from the project. The female boarding school had implemented an extensive range of activities in order to reduce disaster risk related to earthquakes. These activities included amongst others mounting loose furniture to the wall, developing educational stickers, distributing advocacy material about disaster risk management among the students, executing three earthquake scenario exercises and developing first aid skills in cooperation with the IRC. These exercises were conducted over a two month period and as expressed by a local teacher; “this is a boarding school, with most children coming from different parts of the province. When they go back to their villages they will be able to share their knowledge with their family members. We also sent out awareness packages with the student home and we also asked them to spread the word by using the slogan “earthquakes don’t kill anyone”.

In addition to the “safe school” component of the project, the mission also visited the older parts of Gorgan, which consisted of narrow streets and traditional building, to experience the “safe neighbourhoods” programme which aims to reduce high vulnerabilities in neighbourhoods towards earthquakes. With the use of a participatory approach this NGO has been able to not only develop educational programme for children and produce a map over the community which highlights safe and unsafe areas, but also include a various range of local stakeholders in the implementation of their activities. Amongst others local community members have lead education classes on disaster risk and one of this peer educators expressed that “we are happy that we can share our knowledge with our brothers and sisters in this neighbourhood”. The head of the NGO, Mr. Ghanizadeh emphasised the importance of local knowledge, “because a safe place which we had identified on the map turned out to have an underwater well, which in face turned it into a very unsafe area”. By developing banners and brochures, the NGO had also been able to increase the availability and accessibility to awareness raising material in the area. As expressed by a member of Anjomaneh Mehrvarzaneh Tavanah NGO, Mr. Ghanizadeh “we want the neighbourhood to feel that an earthquake is not dangerous”.

On the second day of the event, Dr. Kianpour held a speech at a workshop for disaster risk preparedness among hospitals in Gorgan. She expressed in particular the importance not only of the work that has been implemented in the hospitals in Gorgan but also the subsequent need for good documentation; “by documenting lessons learnt, we can create guidelines and national standards which will ultimately result in saving lives at the time of a natural hazard”. Dr. Kianpour also took the opportunity to thank and highlight the essential contributions made by local project staff, which has helped implement this important work on the ground.

Ms. Sagynbaeva was also interviewed by Khabar network in regards to UNDP’s work in the field of Disaster Risk Management. Ms. Sagynbaeva expressed her reaction of the field visit as positive and more specifically that she was impressed with the work she had seen. However she also highlighted that Gorgan is a pilot site and that “there is now a need for the central associations to analyse what has worked, what didn’t work and why there were such successes and then prepare for implementing the lessons learnt nationwide”. Ms. Sagynbaeva further stressed the increasingly evident need to include people in the process when discussing preparedness, mitigation and readiness for disasters; “you need to work with communities, villagers, children, women, men, young and old, so that they are all ready and can act if there is a disaster”. She finished the interview by expressing thankfulness towards the local government for arranging this event and in particular for inviting people from other provinces in Iran in order to share their experience.

Gorgan and Kerman are two pilot sites that were chosen for the implementation of the project “Strengthening Capacities for Disaster Risk Management in the I. R. of Iran. By increasing the capacity of these communities to manage disaster risk, the project aims to decrease their vulnerability towards natural hazards. In the scope of this project, an extensive programme to strengthen the disaster risk management capacities of schools, hospitals and neighbourhoods have been undertaken, which have been implemented in Gorgan since 2006. The project is currently in its final stage and has been implemented through a partnership with the Deputy President Office for Strategic Planning and Control (SPAC), the Ministry of Interior, the Gorgan and Kerman Deputy of Governors General for Development, the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center and UNDP’s Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery (Geneva).