A few years ago, the most common advice for citizens regarding preparedness was: plan to be self-sufficient for at least 72 hours. In an emergency, government assistance may be prioritized for those in greater need. Households able to sustain themselves without electricity or water for three days would help reduce the pressure on government agencies. Ultimately, citizens’ preparedness contributes to overall national preparedness.
Now, some countries in the Baltic Sea Region have updated their recommendation from 72 hours to a week. Several factors have influenced this change, including the recent pandemic, the war on the region’s borders, an increasing number of natural disasters, and a shift in the preparedness paradigm towards greater individual responsibility as part of the “whole-of-society” approach to managing complex crises.
How can we motivate people to prepare an emergency kit or stockpile canned food in case something goes wrong? How do we teach children basic survival skills? And how can we effectively reach different groups with brochures, crisis alerts, and broadcasts? These questions, along with the broader theme of individual self-resilience, were the focus of the Public Awareness Seminar held in Tallinn on 9 October 2024.
As the current Presidency of the CBSS Civil Protection Network and the EUSBSR PA Secure, the Estonian Rescue Board brought together experts from across the Baltic Sea Region to exchange ideas on how to effectively engage and prepare communities for adversity.
Explore this user-friendly interactive recording of the seminar to discover different perspectives on public preparedness, from initiatives in kindergartens and schools to efforts by municipalities and civil protection agencies in Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Sweden.
PA Secure has already addressed this issue at the EUSBSR Annual Forum 2024 in Riga, examining the contents of an emergency “grab-and-go bag” and will continue to explore it across policy areas and sectors at the upcoming EUSBSR Annual Forum 2025 in Visby. Key sessions will include “Food Security and Home Preparedness” and “Recipes for Resilience – Communities, Culture, and Comprehensive Security.”