OSCE launches second training course to build rescue capacities for officials of Tajikistan’s Committee of Emergency Situations and Civil Defence

The OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe launched the second round of the Sustained Field Operation Course for representatives of Tajikistan’s Committee of Emergency Situations and Civil Defence on 26 October 2020. The four-week course aims at improving the rescuers’ skills and capacities to help prepare them for conducting complex rescue operations in difficult field conditions across the country.

During the training course, another group of 18 rescuers (in addition to the 20 rescuers trained previously) will refresh their skills in map-reading and orientation, basic alpinism, pathfinding, and search-and-rescue operations. In addition to a range of practical exercises conducted in the field, the course will also provide the participants with knowledge on human rights- and gender-related aspects of conducting rescue operations.

The training courses are part of a larger effort by the European Union and the OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe to support the Committee of Emergency Situations and Civil Defence in addressing various threats and risks related to natural disasters.

As such, the 18-month EU-funded project “Stabilization of Tajikistan’s southern border region with Afghanistan”, which is being implemented by the OSCE Programme Office, plans for a series of tailored training courses to be conducted for up to 150 officials from the Committee.

The project will also provide material support to the Committee in the form of rescue equipment for first responders, and also assist the Committee in construction works at the Karatag training centre.

The project’s two-pronged approach of both specialized training courses and material support will help develop the long-term professional capacities of the Committee’s rescuers.