Over the past week, from June 19 to 23, 2023, the Red Cross of Serbia held two trainings within the project “Strengthening resilience of older persons and persons with disabilities during COVID-19 crisis and future disasters”. Both trainings represent further work on building the capacity of the national Red Cross Societies in the region for the efficient distribution of financial aid in emergency situations and are part of the planned activities in the project supported by the European Union, the Austrian Development Agency ADA and the Austrian Red Cross, and coordinated by the Red Cross of Serbia.

The first training was held on Monday, June 19, and this was a workshop on lessons learned aimed at National Societies from the Western Balkans, which distributed financial aid to a total of 5,000 beneficiaries in five countries of the region as part of the project during 2021 and 2022. As the project coordinators emphasized in their speech at the opening, this workshop helped to recognize obstacles and difficulties as well as opportunities, which is why this type of exchange of experience and analysis of lessons learned is valuable for future similar activities in the region.

From Tuesday to Friday, a four-day training for Rapid Market Assessment was held. In addition to the participants from the region who were there on the first day, representing the national societies of Serbia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and North Macedonia, representatives of the Austrian Red Cross, the German Red Cross, the Azerbaijan Red Crescent, the Armenian Red Cross, the Turkish Red Crescent, the Finnish Red Cross, the Netherlands Red Cross, the Red Crescent Society of Kyrgyzstan, as well as the International Committee of the Red Cross also took part in this training. The training was led by the experienced consultant of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Ben Mountfield, and its focus was primarily on skills and knowledge related to the rapid assessment of the situation in the markets of essential goods in emergency situations, when it is necessary to quickly establish procedures that will provide the population with access to the most important goods necessary for livelihood. The practical part of the training was carried out in cooperation with the Public Utility Company Pijaca of the City of Belgrade.

Through this training, the capacities of the National Red Cross Societies in the region as well as other Eurasian National Societies were significantly strengthened to perform a quick and efficient assessment of the needs of the population in disasters and emergency situations as well as ways to satisfy these needs. In addition to relying on the distribution of cash assistance as a form of assistance that allows beneficiaries to tailor it to their most important needs, this is a step further in ensuring that populations whose needs are often not met by standard in-kind assistance, such as older persons and persons with disabilities, are served in emergency situations on equal footing with everyone else.