EU CBRN CoE Project 53 releases a report Emergency Response Planning in Central Asia: Common Challenges and Opportunities for Cooperation

This week saw the release of a report on Emergency Response Planning in Central Asia: Common Challenges and Opportunities for Cooperation as part of the European Union Centres of Excellence (CoE) Initiative Project 53 “Strengthening the National Legal Framework and Provision of Specialized Training on Bio-Safety and Bio-Security in Central Asian Countries”

VERTIC prepared the report based on a desk study using open-source data on the practices and institutional frameworks on emergency preparedness and response in Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The report was later consolidated with those countries’ feedback. The report is one of the main deliverables under Project 53 Work Package 1 on “Assessment and revision of the national legislations and best practices in the area of biosafety and biosecurity, and harmonization with the appropriate international regulations such as IHR, BTWC and Codex Alimentarius including the area of regional emergency response with the aim of coming to a “One Health” system in Country”, led by VERTIC.

The report identifies key requirements and best practices from guidance documents on the Common Alert Protocol (CAP) and Civil-Military Cooperation (CIMIC), summarises the policies and procedures of the above-mentioned countries in relation to emergency responses, focusing on national legislation and institutions, and ultimately draws regional initiatives, common challenges and opportunities for co-operation in emergency response planning in Central Asia. Based on the premise that transversal aspects of biological incidents call for the interaction between emergency response, public health and security or defences sectors, it suggests that legal and regulatory framework to ensure civil and military cooperation, effective risk assessments and integrated alert protocols can foster that interaction.

VERTIC and the EU CBRN CoE Project 53 Consortium thank all those who contributed to the report. The report is now available on the Project 53 website, in English and Russian.

Project 53 was conceived and funded within the framework of the EU CBRN Risk Mitigation Centres of Excellence Initiative. The CoE currently covers eight regions and 59 partner countries. The EU CBRN CoE Secretariat for Central Asia is based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. It works in partnership with countries to encourage local ownership of CBRN action plans, policies and joint preparation of regional project proposals.

The EU CBRN CoE Project 53 Consortium consists of experts from VERTIC (United Kingdom), Public Health England (PHE) (United Kingdom), Sustainable Criminal Justice Solutions (SCJS) (United Kingdom), the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) (The Netherlands) and the International Science and Technology Center (ISTC) (Kazakhstan).