Palestinian task force seeks to improve disaster management

RAMALLAH, West Bank — During its weekly meeting on March 7, the Palestinian Cabinet decided to form a National Disaster Risk Management Committee headed by Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah. The committee is tasked with forming a technical team representing ministries, governmental agencies, and the private and academic sectors. This team will establish a National Disaster Risk Management Center, and a law will regulate the work of the center.

The institutional and legal framework of the disaster risk management system has been set by a national team of 35 representatives of governmental agencies. An international advisory team, represented by the Istidamah Development Sustainability Company that brought an international expert from Iceland, started working with the national team in February 2015. Both teams also worked alongside Palestinian legal expert Mahmoud Dudin, who drafted the final version of the framework, which took a year and a half to be completed.

The work achieved during the first stage of the framework drafting was handed over to the Cabinet in June 2015 for examination and review with local partners. As for the system procedures, they will be finalized and submitted to the Cabinet in June, Mohammed Odeh, the coordinator of the National Disaster Risk Management Team, told Al-Monitor.

The center aims to effectively institutionalize the disaster management process in Palestine through a system with clear competencies and adequate capabilities. Such a system would ensure the smooth achievement of disaster management goals away from administrative and bureaucratic complexity. It also seeks to set effective and efficient coordination mechanisms among the various involved components when responding to disasters and sudden-onset emergencies. These components include civil society organizations, the private sector, citizens, and possibly international relief and international organizations such as the United Nations.