This project is implemented under the UNICEF and IFRC global partnership and is funded by the USAID/OFDA. The purpose of this partnership between UNICEF and NRCST, under the ongoing BHA supported project, is to strengthen local and national capacities for emergency preparedness and response in high earthquake risk in Central Asia, in particular in Turkmenistan, including leveraging existing emergency preparedness and risk reduction tools, mechanisms and collaboration with national and local governments/

The proposed partnership will bring together the technical expertise, implementation capacities and resources of the NRCST and UNICEF ensuring enhancement of rapid response capacities to meet the initial emergency needs of up to 5,500 people including 3,300 children (boys, girls and including with disabilities) and engage 1,250 school administrators and teachers, and schoolchildren in community disaster preparedness and climate change activities.

This project will significantly contribute to the enhancement of capacities of the national Red Crescent Society of Turkmenistan including their volunteers as “first-line responders”  through strengthening pre-positioned supply capacities, enhancing modalities for rapid response and training and skills building of the NRCST staff, key national and local authorities.

The resilience of the local communities will be enhanced through their engagement into the community-based capacity strengthening activities on Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation benefiting from the awareness raising and increasing preparedness of the target population groups namely the schoolchildren, youth, teachers, women and in particular the children with disabilities towards climate change and disasters impacts.

The above challenges will be addressed through ensuring predictable early-action capacities for vulnerable and affected populations enabling more comprehensive, inclusive national disaster response capabilities informed by the UNICEF Core Commitments for Children in Humanitarian Action and the IFRC global principles for humanitarian response.

Therefore, the project will be focused on supplies of prepositioning, implementation of DRR interventions and school safety ensuring strengthening preparedness of children and the respective communities towards possible disasters and reduce their impacts through engagement of the young volunteers, adolescent girls and boys in disaster risk-prone areas in community disaster comprehensive school safety.

The project implementation will be supported by UNICEF Europe and Central Asia Regional Office, Almaty Bureau. The specific training activities will be supported and organized at the sub-national level to further enable country level capacities.

The NRCST is a valuable partnership of choice for UNICEF for preparedness, emergency response, and risk mitigation, and therefore the programme cooperation will include NRCST capacity building. The NRCST runs an extensive network of volunteers that has a wide reach out in the velayats and can instantly access the target population. These volunteers are active in all areas of project interventions.