The BALANCE project is focused on reduction of risk related to disasters as a huge challenge for societies, especially for urban areas, where most of the population and economic activity are located. This is especially true for countries such as Montenegro, located in the Western Balkans region that has a difficult geomorphology to be supported immediately in case of a major disaster. The focus of
the project is planning and conducting the major earthquake response exercise in order to perform all preparatory activities necessary to conduct the exercise(s). This refers to the establishment of the Exercise Control Organisation and the responsibilities, roles and functions of each team within the organisation. This also entails the preparations of the exercise area. As a second phase of the project is evaluation of performed activities with an objective to develop and apply a systematic, structured, and transparent evaluation methodology in order to evaluate, document, and report the performance of the response activities during the implementation of the Exercise, and to gather, document, and report the lessons learnt during the entire Exercise Lifecycle (including the planning and preparation phases). As a final stage of the project is the Way Forward Work Package with its objective to utilize the exercise evaluation results in order to develop an action plan for strengthening the capabilities of emergency response of the conducting organisation, and to incorporate this plan within the organisation’s continuous improvement preparedness lifecycle. These work package activities will address all participating in the exercise countries and will not stay in recommendations but will promote capitalization of achieved results.
