"Ole Valmis!" is Estonia’s official national crisis preparedness web platform and mobile application. Co-developed by the Women's Voluntary Defence Organization and the Estonian Rescue Board, it provides the public with comprehensive, multi-hazard safety guidelines and interactive emergency checklists.
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Ole Valmis! (Be Ready!)
General Information
ISIG
A comprehensive digital solution that equips residents and visitors of Estonia with standardized, actionable instructions to prepare for and respond to a wide array of crises, from natural disasters to cyber-attacks. The platform features an interactive household supply checklist, first-aid instructions, and survival guidelines tailored to the Estonian context. Its mobile application is designed to function entirely offline once downloaded, ensuring that citizens have uninterrupted access to life-saving information even during severe power or telecommunications outages. The tool ensures inclusive risk communication across diverse demographic groups and provides a verified, single source of official guidance, significantly reducing the spread of dangerous misinformation during a crisis.
Estonia faces a diverse matrix of risks, including severe winter storms, extensive power outages, forest fires, cyber threats, and geopolitical tensions. Historically, preparedness information was fragmented across different agency websites, making it difficult for citizens to find cohesive guidance during an emergency. "Ole Valmis!" was created to centralize this information into a single, highly accessible, and offline-capable "source of truth" to build a resilient, self-reliant population.
The core function of this solution is to provide accessible technological tools and guidelines to enhance individual and household preparedness. It functions as a centralized digital manual and interactive utility for public safety education.
Geographical Scope - Nuts
Population Size
Population Density
Needs Addressed
The solution targets the vulnerability of modern, digitally-dependent societies during infrastructure failures. It specifically addresses the "information blackout" problem by providing offline access to critical survival and first-aid instructions when internet or cellular networks go down.
The tool accommodates linguistic minorities, tourists, and expatriates through its multi-language interface. By offering the platform in English and Russian alongside Estonian, it ensures that non-native speakers, who often face higher vulnerability during a crisis due to language barriers, are equally informed.
Because this is an adaptable solution, it can be implemented under various governance structures. It can be managed centrally by a national government, deployed regionally by decentralized municipalities, or implemented via a multi-stakeholder model (as in Estonia) where a state agency provides the technical data and a national civil society organization manages the platform and community outreach.
The tool elevates the public from basic awareness to an organized response capability at the household level. Interactive checklists ensure that citizens do not just read about preparedness, but actively organize their 72-hour emergency kits.
This solution is explicitly designed to be adaptable to different infrastructure levels, specifically bridging the gap between high-tech daily life and zero-infrastructure crisis scenarios. A city or region requires developed digital infrastructure (app stores, internet) for the initial download and updates. However, the core design of the solution anticipates infrastructure failure; therefore, its critical operational requirement during a disaster is none (as it runs locally on battery-powered devices).
To equip citizens with verified, unilateral instructions for survival and crisis mitigation.
Digital application distribution, public awareness campaigns, and community training events hosted by volunteers.
While the public does not write the safety guidelines, they use the tool's interactive checklists to make localized, household-level decisions about their own resilience posture.
Citizens transition from relying solely on state rescue services to possessing the knowledge and supplies necessary to sustain themselves independently for at least 72 hours.
Vulnerable Groups
Governance
Emergency Preparedness
Infrastructure Readiness
Engagement Level
Empowerment Level
Implementation
The most critical innovation is the offline functionality of the mobile app. Users can access extensive text and icon-based instructions for first aid, fire safety, and evacuation without needing a data connection. It also includes a customizable "Home Supplies Checklist" that tracks a user's preparedness progress.
Estonian, English, Russian.
- Original Developers: Women's Voluntary Defence Organization and the Estonian Rescue Board.
- Transferable types of implementers: This solution can be adopted by National Civil Protection Agencies, Ministries of Interior, Regional Emergency Management Departments, Volunteer Defence Corps, or National Red Cross/Red Crescent Societies.
The implementing organization must possess a high to medium level of expertise in DRR to ensure the safety guidelines are scientifically accurate, legally compliant, and safely applicable by the general public.
- Women's Voluntary Defence Organization (Naiskodukaitse): Project initiators and community promoters.
- Estonian Rescue Board (Päästeamet): Subject matter experts and official guideline providers.
- Other State Agencies: Providing specific content (e.g., cyber security protocols from the IT ministry).
- Content Consolidation: Audit and gather existing multi-hazard safety guidelines from various state/local agencies.
- Software Development: Code the native applications (iOS/Android) with an explicit offline-first database structure.
- Localization & Translation: Translate all content into local minority/migrant languages.
- Launch & Outreach: Deploy the app alongside volunteer-led community training sessions to drive downloads.
The solution requires software developers (UI/UX, mobile OS updates), DRR experts for content drafting, and translators.
The platform is fully operational with continuous monitoring and updates. Phases include:
- Content gathering and technical scoping.
- App development, UX testing, and translation.
- Public launch and active community outreach.
- Ongoing maintenance.
Target Audience
Resources Required
Timeframe & Phases
Participation Results
Disaster apps must be functional offline. In real-world crises (like severe storms), telecommunications are often the first utility to fail. Additionally, partnering a state agency with a trusted voluntary organization drastically increases public download rates and overall trust in the tool.
- Challenge: Ensuring the app reaches older populations who may be less digitally literate.
- Adaptive Strategy: The digital solution is supported by offline, physical outreach; volunteer organizations conduct in-person training sessions and distribute printed variations of the guidelines in rural communities.
- Risk: The app's technical framework becoming outdated or incompatible with new smartphone operating systems.
- Mitigation: Sustained institutional funding allows for periodic technical overhauls and software maintenance.
Risk & Mitigation Plan
Scalability and Sustainability
The solution utilizes an Institutionalized Public-Civil Partnership Model. Financial and operational responsibility is embedded within national civil protection and defense budgets rather than relying on short-term project grants, ensuring the app remains updated and functional year after year.
This solution is exceptionally adaptable. The underlying architecture - a multi-hazard, multi-language, offline-capable mobile app with interactive checklists - can be replicated by any local or national government globally. The content simply needs to be localized to reflect regional hazards and emergency contact numbers.
The use of local device storage for heavy content (guidelines) combined with lightweight updates when online represents a smart adaptation to crisis conditions.
The practical costs associated with launching this solution include:
- Native software development (iOS and Android app coding).
- Web portal development and backend database setup.
- UI/UX design optimized for accessibility (high contrast, clear icons).
- Initial professional translation services for minority languages.
Specific budget figures for Estonia are not public, but adopters should expect standard commercial rates for enterprise-level app development.
- Annual server hosting and app store developer fees.
- Continuous technical maintenance to ensure compatibility with annual smartphone OS updates (critical to prevent the app from breaking).
- Periodic content audits by DRR experts to ensure guidelines reflect the latest scientific or geopolitical realities.
- Budget for the lifecycle, not just the launch: A common failure in digital DRR tools is securing funding for development but neglecting maintenance. Sustainability requires a permanent budget line for software updates.
- Leverage civil society for outreach: Marketing an app is expensive. By co-owning the solution with a national volunteer organization, the state offsets massive advertising costs, as volunteers act as free, highly trusted community ambassadors to drive adoption.