The European Union is the world’s largest provider of financing for humanitarian aid
operations. Altogether, the European Commission in Brussels and the governments of the 27
Member States pay for more than 50% of the assistance that comes from official channels. The
European Commission itself is responsible for managing almost half of this aid. In 2006, the
Commission provided €671 million for humanitarian projects in more than 60 countries,
funding relief to millions of victims of disasters outside the European Union.

Within the Commission, operations are masterminded by the Humanitarian Aid department
(ECHO) which comes under the responsibility of Commissioner Louis Michel. Operations
include assessment of humanitarian needs in disaster areas, appropriate allocation of funds for
goods and services such as food, shelter, medical provisions, water supplies or sanitation and
evaluation of the impact of the aid provided. Disaster preparedness projects in regions prone to
natural catastrophes are also among the life saving activities financed through ECHO’s
specialized program DIPECHO. By preparing the communities at risk to respond by themselves, DIPECHO aims at reducing the impact of natural disasters on the most vulnerable populations through simple and inexpensive yet effective preparatory measures developed and
implemented by the communities themselves.

Assistance is channeled impartially to the populations concerned, regardless of their race, ethnic
group, religion, gender, age, nationality or political affiliation, through our operational partners.
The partners include around 180 European non‐governmental organizations, United Nations
agencies and the Red Cross movement. For more information on ECHO and its program, please
visit http://ec.europa.eu/echo/.

The Mekong River Commission Secretarial (MRC) through its National Mekong Committees
(NMCs) and in collaboration with the Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre (ADPC) has been
implementing the project on Planning and Implementation of Flood Preparedness Programs
in Cambodia, Lao PDR and Vietnam with funding support from European Commission
Humanitarian Department (ECHO) under the overall framework of the Component 4 of the
MRC’s Flood Management and Mitigation Program (FMMP). This project since 2003 is being
implemented with support the National Mekong Committees (NMCs) as well as the National
Disaster Management Offices (NDMO) through its provincial and district Disaster Management
offices of these three riparian countries in the lower Mekong Basin.

The Phase I project “Implementation of Flood Preparedness Programs at Provincial and
District Levels” was implemented by MRC and ADPC under the 3rd DIPECHO Action Plan for
South East Asia during September 2003 ‐ June 2004 and involved capacity building for flood
preparedness planning and response through the use of flood information products by MRC in the countries of Lower Mekong Basin, namely; Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Vietnam.
Similarly, the Phase II of the project titled “Capacity Building for Planning and Implementation
of Flood Preparedness Program at Provincial and Districts levels in the Lower Mekong Basin”
was implemented under the DIPECHO 4th Action Plan for Southeast Asia during February
2005‐ April 2006. During 2007‐2008, Phase III of the project “Support to Implementation of
Flood Preparedness Programs at Provincial, District and Commune Levels in the Lower
Mekong Basin” was implemented under the DIPECHO 5th Action Plan for South East Asia
aiming to enhance capacities to prepare and implement flood preparedness programs at the
provincial, district, and commune levels in the target provinces of Cambodia, Vietnam, and Lao
PDR.

During the Phase III, the focus in Lao PDR were to conduct one provincial level training course
for the Khammouane Provincial Disaster Management Committee (PDMC) and support to the
Nongbok District Disaster Management Committee (DDMC) in Khammouane province in
preparation of the district flood preparedness program.

Based on the lessons learnt from successful implementation of these previous three phases and
recommendations received from the national, provincial and district level authorities, MRC and
ADPC have now initiated the Phase IV project on “Strengthen Implementation of Flood
Preparedness Program at National, Provincial, District and Commune Levels in the Lower
Mekong Basin”, being implemented during under the 6th DIPECHO Action Plan for South East
Asia and continuous funding support from the European Commission Humanitarian
Department (ECHO) by intensifying existing activities in Cambodia, Vietnam and Lao PDR and
expanding experiences in more target areas.