€35 million is the total amount announced by the European Commission for helping the people from the most vulnerable and poorest communities in Central America, Central Asia and the Caucasus region, South-East Asia and Southern Africa will benefit from the European Commission's Disaster-Preparedness Programme (DIPECHO). Overall, the DIPECHO programme seeks to reduce the impact of natural disasters.

The European Commission will allocate €35 million in 2012 to help those at risk from natural disasters. In particular, the new funds will go to the following regions particularly vulnerable to natural disasters: €10 million to Central America (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama), €11 million to South East Asia (Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, the Philippines, East Timor and Vietnam, Burma/Myanmar and Thailand), €8 million to Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) and the Caucasus region (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia) and €6 million in Southern Africa (Madagascar, Mozambique, Malawi and Namibia). In addition to this, in May 2011, the World Bank and the EU signed a financial agreement to support the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery.

The European Commission's Disaster-Preparedness Programme (DIPECHO) will manage the new allocation. This programme seeks to reduce the impact of natural disasters including floods, hurricanes, droughts, earthquakes, tidal waves/tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, forest fires and storms by strengthening the response capacity of local communities and national authorities. The projects include reinforcing infrastructure, training, awareness-raising, establishing or improving local early-warning systems and contingency-planning.

An important pillar of the DIPECHO programme is the people-centred and community-based approach in disaster-prone regions of the world. According to the Commission, this has proven to be extremely successful because in addition to their impact on disaster risk reduction they provide a partner base in often remote areas. DIPECHO funding comes through a dedicated budget line that has grown over the years from €8 million in 1998 to €35 million in 2012.