The event was held as part of the 'Bilateral Initiative 2024-2025' project, a continuation of bilateral cooperation between Polish, Norwegian and Icelandic local self-governments. The project, which started in April 2024 and will end at the end of February, is an example of building lasting relationships after local development projects and expanding cooperation in preparation for the next perspective. It was implemented with funding from the Bilateral Cooperation Fund, the European Economic Area Financial Mechanism and the Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2014-2021.

The seminar on building urban resilience and crisis preparedness was the last one organised under the Bilateral Initiative.

In today's public debate, the issue of urban crisis preparedness is particularly prominent.

The nature, scale and intensity of the crises we are currently facing require a new approach from cities, based on the creation of collective responsibility for crisis prevention and response in a spirit of civic solidarity and cohesion.

It is now clear that, in order to be effective, coordination and cooperation are needed at multiple levels - between different public services, between public services and public administrations, between different public administrations, including across administrative boundaries, and between the public and private sector and the citizens.

In January of this year, the Norwegian government presented a white paper to the parliament regarding comprehensive preparedness, pointing out the need to act in solidarity, collectively, in order for the country to be better prepared to deal with emergency situations or war.

Cooperation of all civil society partners was the keynote of the February seminar. ‘Preparedness’ for emergencies was the second most important term. It was discussed how to involve different civil society partners in activities that are prerequisites for securing our cities, our communities. During the meeting, participants were able to learn about Norwegian and Polish experiences in undertaking cooperation and building partnerships, also on a supra-local level, for strengthening resilience and crisis preparedness.

Christine Huseby Torjussen, Director of the Crisis Preparedness Office at the Provincial Office of Østfold, Buskerud, Oslo og Akershus, discussed crisis planning and the concept of total defence from the provincial level. She showed how broadly partnerships are being built in Norway to create preparedness and resilience of cities to crises. In turn, Sigurd Paulsen, Director of the Emergency Preparedness Office at Kristiansand Municipality, and Magnus Nilholm, his counterpart in the City of Ringerike, talked about crisis preparedness management in Norwegian cities.

Two interesting examples from Poland were presented during the meeting. Dawid Ozimek, Deputy Head of the Crisis Management Department of the Opole City Hall, presented the ‘Solidarity in the Face of Threats’ programme and the partnership activities of, among others, 21 municipalities and 2 districts for safety in the Opole Agglomeration. Paweł Figurski, Head of the Department of Security and Crisis Management at the Konin City Hall, talked about cooperation for safety between various institutions operating in Konin.

Finally, Anne Øien, MA of Social Security at The Arctic University of Norway presented the results of her research on what role local social capital plays in building cities' emergency preparedness and security.

We encourage you to watch the video recording of the seminar.