On 26th May, BCSDN in cooperation with CONCORD Enlargement, Pre-Accession and Neighborhood (EPAN) Working Group and TRIALOG organized a briefing meeting on the current flood situation in BiH and Serbia. Omir Tufo from Center for Promotion of Civil Society (BiH) and Bojana Selakovic from Civic Initiatives (Serbia), both BCSDN members, presented the current situation and response by their organization and civil society activities on the ground.
The meeting discussed both immediate needs, but also potential support for long-term reconstruction, rehabilitation and socio-economic development. The authorities failed to prevent and appropriately respond to the crisis. While addressing the immediate humanitarian needs, civil society is already focusing and coordinating on the long-term approach including monitoring and transparency of funds used to rebuild peoples’ lives. Ideas on how the EU can help in short but especially long-term can help both authorities and CSO were also shared. The meeting was attended by representatives of SOLIDAR, WorldVision, Save the Children, Caritas, Red Cross and CONCORD/TRIALOG as well as the European Commission. Information on activities of CSOs in response to the floods in BiH and Serbia are available here.