Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection and Emergency Planning

The Directorate for Civil Protection and Emergency Planning (DCPEP - DSB) was established on 1 September 2003, incorporating the functions of the former Directorate for Civil Defence and Emergency Planning and the Directorate for Fire and Electrical Safety into a new single entity. From December 2004 DSB has its head office in Tønsberg, about 100 km south of Oslo.

The Directorate shall work to prevent loss of life and to protect health, the environment and essential public functions and material assets in connection with accidents, disasters and other undesired occurrences in times of peace, crisis and war. DSB shall have a full overview over developing vulnerable situations and looming perils which threaten society, regardless of whether they are related to accidents, disasters or other undesired occurrences.

The Directorate is the national public authority for municipal and inter-municipal fire services, the local electrical safety inspection authorities and the county governors' emergency preparedness and response work. DSB is also responsible for professional and administrative follow-up of the Norwegian Civil Defence, the Emergency Planning College, the Norwegian Fire Academy and the Civil Defence's three regional schools.

The Norwegian Civil Defence

The Norwegian Civil Defence is a nation-wide Governmental relief organisation for peacetime and war contingencies. The DCPEP is in charge of the Civil Defence, which is administered through 20 regional offices. The main task of Civil Defence is to plan and implement measures for protecting and saving life and property. Civil Defence has earlier been planned and equipped mainly for wartime emergencies, but the current security policy situation has called for a stronger commitment for peacetime disasters. The organisation is thus prepared to provide support to local and regional authorities in their efforts to protect lives and property against accidents or disasters.

Norwegian Support Teams (NST)

As part of the Norwegian Emergency Preparedness System (NOREPS), DCPEP has established a support team concept called Norwegian Support Team (NST). NST can be deployed in short notice, fully equipped and manned, for setting up camps for ca 50 persons, for example for UN personnel in helping them to concentrate fully on their main tasks. The support services provided are accommodation, catering, transport, communications, office facilities and health services. As of 2005, the NST concept can provide two separate camps, manned with up to 9 NST personnel each. Normal deployment time is 6 plus 6 weeks. The personnel is taken from a pool consisting of circa 50 trained personnel recruited on a voluntary basis from both inside and outside the Civil Defence organisation.

The concept is developed in close cooperation with other national emergency agencies and the UN. The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affaires are funding the NST concept and its deployments. Since 1999, Norwegian Support Team has been deployed to Albania (during the Kosovo crisis), West Africa, Tajikistan, Bam (Iran), Indonesia (after the tsunami) and Pakistan (after the earthquake).

Other emergency relief services

“Norwegian UNDAC Support”, organised by the DCPEP and funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Afaires, offers highly mobile, light and tailored support in the field of telecommunications and computers services, mainly for the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affaires (UN OCHA), and its UNDAC concept. A normal “Norwegian UNDAC Support” deployment are 2-4 weeks, consisting of 1-2 experts only.

"Norwegian UNDAC Support”  has since 1999 been deployed in Eritrea, Algeria, Haiti, Sudan, Thailand, Guatemala, Uganda and Indonesia. The experts are also used as trainers and instructors for the UN worldwide.

In addition, the DCPEP may be able to offer additional support (personnel and equipment) from the Norwegian Civil Defence during other international emergencies, acting upon request.

The DCPEP is also representing Norway in the International Humanitarian Partnership (IHP), a group of governmental emergency preparedness organisations from 7 countries, working in close cooperation with UN OCHA. Both the Norwegian Support Teams, Norwegian UNDAC Support and other DCPEP resources are included in the IHP cooperation.