The Bilateral Initiative is a continuation of the Local Development Programme.

The event was organised on the 20th and 21st of January by the Association of Polish Cities together with the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities (KS), the Norwegian Institute of Energy Technology and the Norwegian Municipality of Halden. The conference was dedicated to identifying and exploiting new opportunities for local self-governments to prepare for crisis situations. The aim of the meeting was to explore local self-governments' preparedness for emergencies, assess their potential, identify gaps, find new solutions and exchange ideas and lessons learned from Norway, Poland and Ukraine.

Specific case studies were presented during the conference, allowing participants – mainly heads of departments, units or other positions dealing with crisis management – to learn about real-life examples that demonstrate current challenges and effective strategies for crisis situations in the units of local self-governments, which are in a state of high preparedness and in a state of war.

Participants were able to see the latest technological developments for rapid response. The event also included workshops where participants had the opportunity to discuss with experts and politicians.

The conference was a good opportunity to exchange knowledge and to establish and strengthen partnership relations between Polish, Ukrainian and Norwegian local self-governments. In addition, the organisers aimed to encourage participants to apply for grants from the EEA and Norway.

The event brought together 180 participants from Norway, Poland, Ukraine, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Moldova, Hungary and Romania. Polish solutions were presented by Aleksandra Jadach-Sepioło, Deputy Director of IRMiR's [pUrban and Regional Policy Observatory, Paweł Figurski, Head of the Crisis Management Department in Konin, and Aleksy Ptaszyński, Commander of the Municipal Guard in Kędzierzyn-Koźle. A particularly interesting part of the conference was the presentation of equipment that supports rescue operations: a drone and a robot that collect data on the location and physical condition of victims and the contamination of the environment.

'For us local self-government officials, this is a very important conference,' said Witold Nowak, Deputy Mayor of Konin, during the conference. 'We should and must understand and implement good solutions in Poland in the future. A crisis management plan cannot be a document to simply 'tick off'. We should know who is responsible for what and how we are to cooperate in crisis situations on the axis of government – local self-government – residents and on the axis of emergency response services (police, fire department) – the city hall. There is never enough of this knowledge. We have pandemics, floods, fires, illegal landfills, war on the eastern border and also the potential threat of terrorism. We have refugees, both legal and illegal. We also have deliberate disinformation. In my opinion, what is particularly important today are communication and warning systems, good, realistic plans and awareness raising, i.e. education.'

'This trip has given me many ideas and tasks for the future. I will certainly continue to benefit from the knowledge of my more experienced colleagues,' said Paweł Gałeza from Przemyśl City Hall.

We are ready for action, we are great when it comes to helping Ukrainians, flood victims, we are able to organise ourselves quickly and well. It is worth asking how to act in crisis management so that reservoirs of opportunity like the Racibórz reservoir are created in our Polish mentality,' was the post-conference reflection of Gabriela Staszkiewicz, Mayor of Cieszyn.

Photos: Stein Johansen