United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

The expression “civil protection” is to be understood as the series of actions and activities put forward in order to protect human lives, good, settlements and the environment from damages or from the danger of damages deriving from natural calamities, catastrophes and other disastrous events. With the Act n. 225 of February 24th, 1992 Italy has organized civil Protection as a “National Service”. As stated under the first article of this act, the Civil Protection National Service consists of central and peripheral State administrations, Regions, Provinces, municipalities, national and territorial public agencies, and any other public and private institution and organization present on the national territory. The President of the Council of Ministers provides for the co-ordination of the National Service and the promotion of Civil Protection activities through the Civil Protection Department.
The Department, which is today organized in 9 general offices and 43 units, constitutes the junction of the Civil protection National Service. Its tasks include: promoting and coordinating the whole system; intervening directly in case of national disasters; defining intervention and action procedures common to the whole system; giving guidelines for legislation relative to risk prevention; supporting peripheral structures, particularly the ones with fewer resources; promoting and supporting the activities for the formation and growth of civil protection organizations; informing public opinion and promoting civil protection culture, particularly among young people; directing the setting up and the management of information networks necessary for risk prevention; producing and managing exceptional regulations – the official orders – needed to enforce emergency interventions and deal with calamites, in order to reduce t the utmost the damage to people and things.
The Department’s staff is highly specialized in emergency management, both from the administrative and technical-operative viewpoint. This has led the Government to request its intervention an all situations, even atypical ones, in which organizational and managerial capability in complex operations and the efficient and authoritative co-ordination of numerous administrations and institutions is necessary, as in the case of “great events”. Or, more recently, in dealing with new risks that can also involve our country with the changed international situations, or in case of the spreading of dangerous and unknown epidemics.
The Department also operates at the international level, in agreement with similar institutions of other countries in a context of European collaboration. In addition, it co-ordinates civil protection interventions in foreign countries, thus representing a concrete example of solidarity and showing the operative, technical and human capacity of the men of our system.
At present, main of the main objectives of the Department is to develop international relations at a technical-scientific level, with the awareness that often, environmental risks are connected with factors that go far beyond national boundaries. For medium and long term prevention, and particularly in the hydrogeological field, the international development of information and monitoring networks, the start of permanent relations with research centres, specialists and structures organized by the European Countries’ Civil Protection have proved to be useful.

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
In most European Countries civil protection is a task assigned to one single institution or to few public structures. In Italy, instead, this function involves the entire State organization, both at national and territorial level. The civilian society also takes an active part in the Civil Protection National Service, mainly through voluntary organizations. The reason for such a choice, which distinguishes the structure of the Italian civil protection in Europe, can be identified in the joining of an institutional motivation and an operative need connected with the features of our territory. From the viewpoint of the administrative system¸ a reform process has begun a few years ago with the objective of giving more relevance, authority and responsibilities to regional and local institutions. The reform is taking place by bringing about and developing according to today’s needs the orientation towards decentralisation and enhancement of local institutions that are already included in the Constitutional Chart. Civil Protection could not be left out of this process. This explains the growing importance the Regions and the local administrations are assuming in the structure of civil protection’s national system, the increase of responsibilities and competence given to them, the articulation of decision and intervention levels, the complexity of management and co-ordination requirements of the system at different levels. The organizational model of our civil protection proves to be particularly adequate to a territorial context such as the Italian one, which presents a range of possible risks of disasters and catastrophes that are unknown to other European Countries. Almost every area of the country is exposed to risks of a natural type. It is therefore necessary to have a civil protection system that is able to ensure in each area the presence of human resources, equipment, operative and decision-making capabilities ready to intervene in a very short time in case of disasters, but also to operate with continuity in order to prevent and, as far as possible, predict disasters.

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
The timeframe of the implementation of the Italian Civil Protection goes back to the Act n. 225 of February 24th, 1992, through which Italy has organized civil Protection as a “National Service”. But it was from 2001, that the Department of Civil Protection begun to exercise a concrete and well organized role within society at National, European and International level. In fact, the calamities occurred in the meanwhile up today( i.e. the earthquake in San Giuliano di Puglia, the Tsunami in the Island of Stromboli in Italy; the Tsunami in Sri Lanka, the Katrina Hurricane in the U.S., the Iran-Bam earthquake and speaking about “great events”, the management of the funerals of the Pope John Paul II) has always been considered from the Department, as a way through which on one side testing the system to react better and better to emergencies and, on the other side, to set a path of awareness in citizens, in order them to be part of the process of the response to emergency.

Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
a. What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
Every single emergency can be considered as a test and an opportunity to show the way in which Civil Protection operates, and a useful occasion for working together with all the bodies that are part of its framework. In the short time spam of a few years, we Italians have grown to know each other besides working together, sharing and exchanging strategies, methods, scientific information and human resources and above all we have learned to build an important background of personal relationships based on a mutual respect and trust. Italian Civil protection at all levels has learned the difficult task of joining all the efforts in a mutual support agreement, contributing to strengthen the skills and achieve the goal of implementing a national system that works for and, above all, with citizens.

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
A series of activities have been put in place by the Department, especially that of letting the population playing an active role in the prevention, mitigation and part of the management process of an emergency. The system has enhanced effectiveness in responding to major disaster by testing models aimed at reducing the time needed to deploy teams and quickening the decision making capacity. Beyond all “technical” aspects, it is worth to notice that for the management of the Funerals of the Pope, Italian Civil Protection has worked together with 10.000 Volunteers, 12.000 Police, 1.000 Fire brigade, 400 Army, 840 Medical/paramedical, 2.700 Urban police, 3.500 Street sweepers, 4.000 Press in a situation in which in Rome there were three million of pilgrims (that meant: 21.000 persons per hour, Coaches 5.200, Special trains 1.000, Foreign delegations 176, Average waiting time 13 hours ad a Queue length of 5 kilometres). Not differently happened for the Tsunami in Sri Lanka in 2004, where the seriousness of the situation had been immediately recognised by the Italian Civil Protection, which assessed on the extent of the event, namely high hazard, high vulnerability of infrastructures, high value, particularly in that season of the year. Worth to be mentioned, is the whole part dedicated to exercises. Following the Council Decision of 23 October 2001, which established the Community Civil Protection Mechanism, the EU called for proposals in the field of staff training of Community intervention teams - Major Emergencies Simulation Exercises. In January 2004, the European Commission approved the Italian Proposal to carry out a full-scale community exercise on natural risks. The scenario foreseen is a big seismic event occurred in the South of Italy with severe consequences in an industrial area. The Exercise aim was that of enhancing effectiveness in responding to major disaster by testing models of intervention aimed at reducing the time needed to deploy European Search and Rescue teams. During the three days of the exercise 1114 people, out of which 132 from different countries, have been registered at the base of operations. This made it possible that the Italian model, with the necessary changes could be shared and discussed by all Member States. Another exercise has been organized last October and was called “Mesimex2006”. The challenge confronted to “Mesimex2006” concerned the “volcanic risk” related to Vesuvius. This kind of emergency requires a management and executive approach differing greatly from those used to face other risks. Unlike an earthquake, a volcano always announces signals of its eruptive activity, through “precursory phenomena”, which the scientific community can interpret and decipher. The very tight collaboration between volcanic experts and civil protection structures allows to benefit from the information provided by the monitoring and control networks, which constantly check on the active volcanoes in the country. In case of a volcanic emergency alert, the Civil protection can work in an efficient way to by adopting preventing operations, such as the evacuation of the population located in the high risk areas, the safeguard of cultural heritage and interventions in the road systems in order to ensure their safety. On the occasion of this exercise, a series of exhibitions were organized, expressing respect for the importance of landmark, which has marked the history not only of Naples but the history of the whole world.

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
The most important strategic resources of the civil protection system are the quality , generosity, professionalism, availability and training of the men and women who make up the system, police it, strengthen it and intervene in case of calamities and disasters. The Civil Protection National Service is made up, as remembered above, from the organized bodies of the State. However, Italy’s civil protection can also rely more and more increasingly on voluntary organizations. From the first generous and disorganized experience of spontaneous voluntary aid, in 1966 in the occasion of the flood in Florence, these voluntary organizations are nowadays structured at the regional level and there has been an increase in the number of available volunteers. The number of volunteers belonging to civil protection volunteers organizations re 1.200.000. If until 1980s voluntary organizations represented an auxiliary component of the forces in action, in the last few years they have provided, in situations of emergency, more that 50% of the human resources employed. Moreover the best way to define the entire Italian system is summarized by the concept of: “when you take a decision and you fail, you pay”, which is a concept of overall responsibility and accountability. This has to be considered an important element especially after the recent emergencies in Pakistan and in the U.S. In fact, last February, the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) observed, with regard to the preparedness and response to hurricane Katrina and Rita: “As we recommended in 1993, we continue to believe that a single individual directly responsible and accountable to the President must be designated to act as the focal point in the vent of a major catastrophe”. Last, but not least, are the lessons learned from the Swedish Tsunami Commission report: “The fundamental deficiency in the public administration was that the Government Offices did not have an efficient organization for handling serious crises”. “Developments were also characterized by the lack of an emergency organization and leadership at executive level”. Additionally: “Confidence in the Swedish Government as the ultimate guarantor of security and safety and safety was damaged”. And: “The basic deficiency in the organization of the public administration was the lack of an efficient crisis management organization”. Worth to be mentioned is also the “Quadrilateral Initiative” among Italy, France, Spain and Portugal, who decided to enhance reinforced co-operation through this agreement, in order to try to give a positive example of what kind of unused or misused resources could be pooled, strengthened an implemented at European Level of response to a natural or man made disaster. For all the above mentioned reasons, if there is another clear added value in working together, this has to be found at international level. Italy has worked hard at a process of facilitating and co-ordinating community participation, trying to focus on the role that volunteers should have within the National Civil Protection Service. Owing to their high specialization in emergency management, both on administrative and technical operations, the Civil Protection Department has been called upon to organize and co-ordinate atypical events, defined as: “Great Events””. The signing of the Constitutional Treaty in 2004 and the funerals of John Paul II in 2005 should be considered as two of the most important events planned within this framework.

d. What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
It is clear that a so intense activity both within the Department and at local level has grown the capacity of dialoguing together and exchanging the results of the “lessons learned” from every kind of experience the Department shares and participate in. The “updating” process is not always easy and needs to be implemented every day on the basis of the experiences the structure faces. As anticipated below, the Department is housed at the National Service of Civil Protection headquarters, which is organized into four different levels, depending on the extent of the emergency: Local, Provincial, Regional and National. Civil Protection Activities are carried out by State Administrative bodies, regions, provinces, municipalities, and mountain communities. Moreover, public bodies, scientific research organizations and institutes, as well as many other private groups, all contribute to the civil protection system trough collaboration and joint activities. It follows that the Italian Civil Protection deals with all levels of the State, centrally and locally, trough individual involvement. This implies also a systemic integration based on the principle of subsidiariety in that this multi-level structure grants independence and autonomy to local bodies and ensures an effective response to local needs. In this sense, it is of great importance that Civil Protection is housed at the Prime Minister’s Office because this demonstrates that government understands that in a disaster, efforts must be directed by, and critical decisions must be taken at the very highest level. But at that level, the Head of the Department needs the support of different sectors, so he receives accurate and timely information on which to base decisions following team building criteria.

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
A part from the training Courses that are organized for professionals at national, European and international level, a great attention is paid to the spread of culture of Civil Protection through newspapers, radio and campaign in the national televisions. Recently, for example, 8.000.000 of copies have been printed of a small book particularly dedicated to families, whose title was: “The Civil Protection for families”. This book was dedicated especially to kinds and to old people to teach them how to behave in case of a natural or man-made disaster occurs. Especially for kids, there are also programmes at school aiming at teaching them the different type of risks, through exercises and games. Moreover, the website of the Italian Civil Protection can support the information trough daily updates and press-releases based on the major events happened during the day. In time of “great events”, also the sms was used to inform people on the ongoing situations on the spot. The leading philosophy of the Department in the last five years has been that of going in the field among people as much as it was possible to show concretely the vicinity of the central public administration to citizens, especially of those in situations of need. In this sense, the sustainability seems to mean first of all continuity in releasing of efforts through generations of people educated at the social role of helping the other in difficulty and the main actors for disseminating what they have being learning themselves firstly. An initial element of this hard work has come out from a recent public exit pool, in which Civil Protection was mentioned as the first Public Administration at National level, in which citizens trust, preceding the police, carabinieri and magistratura. At national level, the Italian Civil Protection has been awarded by the President of the Italian Republic with the gold Medal for Civil Honours in 2004, following the organization of the search and rescue activities on behalf of the South-Asian population hit by the Tsunami and has been invited by the French Government to participate in the parade at the Champs Elisée on July 14, 2003 to share their celebrations. At European level, the Italian Department of Civil Protection is engaged in sharing its experience with many countries and many international newspapers have also being writing about it. Several times, in fact, the Department of Civil Protection has been called upon to present its activities, especially in the Northern Countries of Europe, that are interested by a reforming process of their internal civil protection systems. Last October, on the occasion of the lecture to be held by the Head of the Italian Civil Protection, the Swedish Institute for International Affairs reported in its website: “Italy’s charismatic Head of Department of Civil Protection, Dr. Guido Bertolaso was the one who orchestrated Italy’s and Europe’s most rapid response to the 2004 tsunami in South East Asia. In 2001 the Italian Government delegated strategic and operative responsibility for national crisis management to the Department of Civil Protection which is under the auspices of the Office of the Prime Minister. Dr. Guido Bertolaso’s prompt response to the tsunami has served as a role model for other European countries’ crisis management development”. At International level, a strong enhance is given to the Euro-Mediterranean Region, where the Department exchanges know-how and best practises through a European ad hoc program and platform with the Countries belonging to the area of the Mediterranean basin.

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
As can be deeply understood, each process of change brings with it a long series of difficulties. But, as difficulties exist in order to be overcome, also the Department of Civil Protection accepted the challenge of reforming the System. The first difficulty the Department had to face, was to dialogue with all the other public administrations at national level which were involved in the process. A real everlasting effort of dialogue with all the national and territorial bodies involved was put in place, knowing very well that not everybody could agree with the changes proposed. Probably, this was the biggest difficulty the Department has ever had, because from this aspect derived the networks of contacts the Department was able to create. What probably was not correctly filtered was the fact that, being the Department of Civil Protection under the responsibility of the Prime Minister, the Head of the Department, directly nominated by the Prime Minister, had to co-ordinate all the other Public Administrations involved in the emergency. This to certify that, differently from the past, a person in charge, “if he/she failed, he/she paid”. The role of a clear chain of command has shown, in fact, to be a winning tool for responding, inside or outside Italy, to major disasters in the very first time they happened. An effective response to disaster should, in fact, be supported by an improved co-operation between different players, whose goal would be those of an effective response in a disaster trough an improved preparedness, and the strengthening of the mechanisms for an adequate co-ordination among states and governments, not only at national, but also at international level. Looking back in the past, of course some mistakes probably have been done, but the whole System has shown to have taken advantage from them, consolidating once more the need of working together to : “ protect lives at every cost, everywhere”.


Institution Name:		Presidency of the Council of Ministers – Department of Civil Protection
Institution Type:		Government Department
Contact Person:		Alessia Clemente
Title:		Political Secretariat of the Head of the Departmen
Telephone/ Fax:		+39 06 68204200 or +39 06 68202536
Institution's / Project's Website:		39 06 68897696
E-mail:		alessia.clemente@protezionecivile.it
Address:		Via Ulpiano,11
Postal Code:		00193
City:		Rome
State/Province:		Rome
Country:		Italy

The Problem

Solution and Key Benefits

Actors and Stakeholders

(a) Strategies

(b) Implementation

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

(d) Use of Resources

Sustainability and Transferability

Lessons Learned

Contact Information