Funded by the Government of Japan, the project is expected to directly benefit approximately 15,000 local residents. This includes institutions and officials working in forecasting, early warning and disaster risk management, as well as community members, students, teachers, school leaders and local authorities.

The project will help strengthen monitoring of flashflood and landslide risks, improve local response capacity, and help communities and schools prepare for disasters.

Specifically, it aims to upgrade near/real-time early warning systems in critical and areas with high risk of flash floods and landslides, while updating and strengthening community-centered disaster preparedness, response and resilience plans.

Besides, the project targets to strengthen the preparedness and resilience of education authorities, schools, teachers and students to improve school safety, support effective emergency response and maintain learning during disasters.

UNESCO will work with partners to review disaster risk management plans and emergency response arrangements and assess existing early warning systems and disaster risk maps.

The organization will also support the development or updating of flash-flood and landslide hazard maps in the two pilot communes of Tuong Duong and Muong Xen and examine options to upgrade the early warning system, including related infrastructure at the provincial level and in selected high-risk locations.

Addressing the event, Japanese Ambassador to Viet Nam Ito Naoki shared: "By strengthening early warning systems, enhancing local disaster risk management and improving school safety, we hope this project will help protect lives and livelihoods and contribute to building more resilient communities for the future"./.