MassMovement

LL-00310

MassMovement: From Strategy to Safety, a Joint LV-LT Effort for Mass Evacuation Preparedness and Public Resilience

Common territorial challenge (s) that will be tackled by the project

Latvia and Lithuania currently lack a unified and interoperable system for mass evacuation in cross-border emergencies caused by natural disasters, industrial accidents, military threats and other large-scale emergencies. Differences in legal frameworks, institutional responsibilities, operational procedures, and communication practices hinder rapid, coordinated response and increase risks to affected populations. This challenge is particularly acute in border regions, where emergencies can quickly require cross-border population movement.

Project objective

The objective of the project is to establish a harmonised and coordinated mass evacuation system between Latvia and Lithuania by strengthening cross-border cooperation, developing joint operational tools, aligning operational and legal approaches, and improving institutional and public preparedness to crisis situations.

Planned activities

The project will start with a status quo, comparative and gap analysis of Latvia’s and Lithuania’s current civil protection and mass evacuation systems, including legal and institutional arrangements, and will use this evidence to build cross-border evacuation scenarios. Based on these findings, the partners will jointly develop and harmonise practical operational tools – notably Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and a user-friendly handbook – designed to be compatible with both national legal frameworks and usable by responsible institutions at national, regional and municipal level. To embed these tools in practice, the project will run capacity-building and Train-the-Trainer sessions, followed by 5 regional tabletop exercises in both countries with around 100 participants per each to test roles, communication flows and coordination under simulated conditions, and to refine the SOPs based on lessons learned. The project will then conduct the first-ever Latvia-Lithuania full-scale cross-border evacuation exercises – an early demo events and a final large-scale simulation event with up to 200 citizens from each country, to validate procedures for real operational steps such as cross-border movement, reception, registration and support, and to institutionalise an effective cooperation mechanism. The project will strengthen coordination across more than 25 organisations including municipal civil protection bodies, first responders, NGOs, volunteers, and local authorities. In parallel, the partners will implement a public information campaign and participate in at least 80 public events across all border regions in both countries to increase citizen understanding and preparedness for evacuation. The project also includes international exchange visits to gather good practice from other countries and a high-level closing conference to present results, disseminate lessons learned and support sustainability of cross-border cooperation after the project ends.

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Social media and contacts:

Phone: +371 68802112

E-mail: pasts@vugd.gov.lv

Website: vugd.gov.lv

Address: Talejas iela 1