Stories of Impact A series highlighting achievements in disaster risk management Building a Stronger Emergency Management System in the Kyrgyz Republic Photo: Chris Price REGION: EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA Proper coordination is critical to saving lives FOCUS: PREPAREDNESS COUNTRY: THE KYRGYZ REPUBLIC and meeting emergency needs when it comes to responding to natural disasters. Until recently the Kyrgyz Republic, a country that is frequently affected by small reoccurring natural hazards, did not have a unified RESULTS: national crisis management system in place. • Synchronized crisis management centers (CMCs) were set up in Bishkek, the capital, A $1.45 million grant from the Global Facility and Osh, the second-largest city, to handle for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) early warning and emergency information management systems and provide redundancy is helping to enhance the emergency response in terms of coverage. The country now has a unified national crisis management system in preparedness of the country’s civil protection place; system by setting up crisis management • Emergency response time has been cut by centers, improving emergency warning 20%. This is expected to reduce casualties by systems, and reducing response time. 10-15% and economic losses by 3-5% annually; • Emergency warning systems were significantly improved. Bishkek’s CMC can intercept 30 TV channels, connect to 10 sirens, and immediately access other media, while the CMCs in Osh and Karakol can intercept 18 and 6 channels, respectively. CONTEXT: There are more than 200 natural disasters every year in the Kyrgyz Republic, exacting significant societal and economic tolls. Earthquakes have the greatest impact, affecting an average of 200,000 people and causing $200 million in damage. Additionally, on average, about 80,000 people are affected by floods annually, and related damage totals $60 million. To help the country prepare for these disaster risks, this project was designed to assist the government in establishing a unified crisis management system that would improve safety and enhance its disaster risk management capacity. APPROACH: GFDRR, along with the World Bank, provided technical assistance to the Kyrgyz Republic to enhance its preparedness and disaster response by establishing one of Central Asia’s most advanced early warning and crisis management systems. “Spending a small amount on prevention can generate real savings when it comes to responding The system allows for daily interaction with other to emergencies. The World Bank, together with countries in the region, namely Belarus, Armenia, Russia, other international organizations, helped the Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan, making transnational Ministry of Emergency Situations create a single information and control system, which has improved coordination possible in case of an emergency. In cooperation with other key players and the addition, the system makes good use of modern video exchange of information with the general public.” communication and telecommunications technology, as well as geographic information systems, monitoring – Kubatbek Boronov, Minister of Emergency Situations systems, decision support, and crisis warnings. NEXT STEPS: LESSONS LEARNED: The Kyrgyz government continues working to improve its Redundancy is key to effective disaster response. The crisis management system through both its own budget project demonstrates that a system does not have and with the help of other donors and development to be complicated to be effective if redundancy (e.g. partners. The emergency information management setting up twin CMCs) and appropriate structures service is being expanded to cover the entire country and are in place. However, even with this redundancy, further efforts will be required to improve emergency the CMC capacity is also being steadily improved. communication, as Internet access and other issues There are plans to carry out similar projects in remain a problem. other Central Asian countries, such as Tajikistan and Continuously increasing counterpart ownership and Uzbekistan, which visited the newly established CMC and capacity is critical. By engaging the government, have stated their interest in setting up similar systems. this project attracted not only the attention of high-level Kyrgyz officials, but also other donors and development partners. This resulted in a special funding allocation from the national budget and Contact brought in other donors, including the government of Ko Takeuchi Japan, which provided a $2 million grant through the ktakeuchi@worldbank.org United Nations Development Programme to support www.gfdrr.org *ALL MONETARY VALUES IN USD the regional network.