Afghan crisis response service receives training in Poland

On 9 December 2013, ten representatives of the Afghanistan National Disaster Management Agency started their training in Warsaw. The training is organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in cooperation with the National School of Public Administration and NATO.

“The Polish crisis management system, which has been implemented for 20 years now, is very effective. We would like to share this experience with you,” said Jan Pastwa, director of the National School of Public Administration, addressing the Afghan guests.

Afghanistan’s crisis management system is still under construction, which is why the Afghan administration needs a model for creating effective mechanisms that would facilitate the coordination of services’ work in case of emergency. A response to that need is the training, which aims to present different crisis management models, including Polish and Hungarian ones.

The training participants will learn how to coordinate aid provided by other countries in the situation of a natural disaster. Some of the classes will be delivered by NATO experts, who will discuss the NATO crisis management system and the cooperation with international organisations, such as the United Nations or the Red Cross / Red Crescent. The skills acquired during the training will also be important for the creation of a regional emergency support system, which will cover Afghanistan and its neighbouring countries.

The project is a Polish contribution to the Istanbul Process. It is a Turkish initiative aimed at building trust in multilateral regional cooperation by developing mechanisms of combating terrorism, drug trafficking, extremism and poverty in Afghanistan and its neighbouring countries. The European Union, including Poland, has been supporting activities under the Istanbul Process since 2011.

The training will run from 9 until 17 December 2013. It is funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under the “Polish Aid” development cooperation programme.