Workshop Report “Towards a Palestinian Strategy For

The United Nations Ministry of Local An-Najah National International Government University Strategy for Disaster The Urban Planning Reduction and Disaster Risk (UNISDR) Reduction

Workshop Report

“Towards a Palestinian Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction”

The World Disaster Reduction Campaign...Making Cities Resilient

“My City is Getting Ready!”

Introduction :

Under the auspices of Prof. Rami Hamdallah, President of An-Najah National University, and in cooperation with the Palestinian Ministry of Local Government and the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR), the Urban Planning and Disaster Risk Reduction Center at An-Najah organized a workshop titled “Towards a Palestinian Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction and Making Cities Resilient”. The workshop was organized as part of a series of programs that aim to raise the public awareness regarding disaster risk reduction and build a society that is resilient to disasters.

The workshop was held on February 7 th 2012 at the Conference Room at the Korean-Palestinian IT Institute of Excellence, New Campus. More than 150 individuals participated in the workshop and included representatives of the different municipalities in the West Bank and local government bodies, in addition to representatives of the governmental and non-governmental institutions that work in the field of disaster risk reduction such as governorates, ministries, civil defense, the Engineering Association, the Red Crescent, the Ministry of Interior, Security Systems, the National Agency for Disaster Risk Mitigation, the Contractors Union, as well as representative of several international organizations.

The opening session:

In addition to Prof. Hamdallah, other keynote speakers included: Engineer Adli Yaish, Mayor of Nablus, Dr. Anan Attireh, Vice Governor of Nablus, Dr. Tawfeeq Al-Budairi, Assistant Undersecretary at the Ministry of Local Government, Dr. Jalal Dabbeek, Director of the Urban Planning and Disaster Risk Reduction Center at An-Najah University, who spoke on behalf of the UNISDR.

For further information about the opening session please refer to the news report below: http://www.najah.edu/ar/node/31471

The workshop’s events:

In addition to the opening session, the workshop included two scientific sessions the first of which was administered by Major General, Wasef Eriqat, President of the National Agency for Disaster Risk Mitigation, while the other one was administered by Engineer Ammar Salameh, Director of Disasters Management at the Civil Defense.

The two sessions included discussions and lectures that addressed issues in disaster risk reduction. Dr. Dabbeek spoke about a number of issues in his lecture including:

- General introduction about natural disaster, a general review of the objectives of the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR), and the relationship between development and disasters. - Risk elements and the concept of disaster risk reduction. - The basic elements of comprehensive approaches, strategies and institutional frameworks. - Building the nations’ and communities’ capacity to deal with disasters according to the principles of the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015, and the Arab Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction 2011-2020. - Examples and models on the vulnerability of key buildings such as hospitals, warehouses, official institutions and schools to disasters and how to reduce their vulnerability.

Al-Budairi spoke about the laws and regulations related to disasters in Palestine and emphasized that there are many Palestinian laws that address disasters, but the problem lies in the systems and executive regulations. He added that the Ministry of Local Government has He added that the Ministry of Local Government has achieved many systems that take into consideration the best environment for disaster risk reduction and pointed out that the workshop aims to protect the Palestinian individual according to scientific basis; he called for an integrated coordination plan for all of the sectors in the country to make cities resilient to disasters.

In his second lecture, Dr. Dabbeek spoke about the ten essentials for making cities resilient that is included in the World Disaster Reduction Campaign. He also explained many of the details and topics that those ten essentials discuss and emphasized the importance of organization and coordination in order to understand risk reduction. Moreover, Dr. Dabbeek spoke about the importance of real implementation of disaster-proof buildings systems and sound planning of land use.

Furthermore, he pointed out the effort of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education which was obvious through its commitment to the design and execution of the Ministry’s new buildings in accordance with the conditions and requirements of the seismic building codes. He also praised the clear development in the capabilities of the Palestinian civil defense system and explained to the audience how cities and local bodies are nominated to participate in the World Disaster Reduction Campaign, the role of cities and local government in this campaign, the general standards for selection, as well as the methods the UNISDR follows to support the campaign.

Engineer Ammar Salameh, Director of Disaster Management at the Civil Defense, spoke about the potentials and accomplishments of the civil defense on the national level regarding raising the public awareness about disasters. He also spoke about the national report related to the Hyogo Framework for Action and its compatibility with the strategic objectives of this Framework. Moreover, he spoke about the training courses that the Civil Defense holds which target more than 10,000 individuals and train them on dealing with disasters.

Based on the lectures and discussions, the participants proposed a number of recommendations for the reduction of disasters risks in Palestine including:

Consider disasters a national priority which requires preparing comprehensive national plans and clear execution mechanisms of these plans.
Design mechanisms for following up on the municipalities’ and local government bodies’ commitment to the requirements of safe cities, ensure their participation in the World Campaign, and coordinate joint work between the related bodies to implement the Ten-point Checklist for making cities resilient.

The necessity to activate the role of the Supreme Council of Civil Defense and work according to the principles and concepts of the related international institutions.

The necessity to activate cooperation between the Supreme Council of Civil Defense and research centers especially when taking decisions concerning disaster risk reduction.

The necessity that Palestinian institutions adopt the concepts of the International and Arab Strategies for disaster risk reduction.

Implementing the recommendations and decisions related to the application of the Seismic Building Code in Palestine as soon as possible, as well as setting the necessary mechanisms related to the design and execution of buildings, and emphasizing the importance of developing special programs for the development of the planers and engineers’ potentials who work in the field of buildings’ design and implementation.

Adopting policies for the use of land in its comprehensive and to work on producing hazard maps on the national level in addition to detailed maps for every city; this can be implemented gradually and in stages.

Develop the level of coordination between partners and emphasize the importance of civil society institutions and their role in disaster risk reduction.

Work on accomplishing stand-by plans for each institution in order to enable them to deal with emergency situations.

Abide by the principles of prevention and public safety at the different official and non-official institutions, and to work on achieving the safe city concept.

Train and prepare the staff working at the different municipalities, the governorate and the related institutions on prevention, public safety and risk reduction issues.

Give priority to support the civil defense by providing it with the necessary equipment and staff for it to carry out its duty in the best way possible.

Taking into consideration the cultural diversity and the existence of different age groups and vulnerable people when planning for disaster reduction.

Include the social kind in decision-making concerning disaster reduction.

Raising societal awareness towards disasters risk reduction through school and university curricula, in addition to the utilization of the different means of media.

The challenges:

In order to fulfill the abovementioned recommendations effectively the following challenges must be taken into consideration that the Palestinian institutions face.

1. High probability of natural disaster occurrence, including earthquakes and man-made disasters.

2. Lack of knowledge and experience in Contingency Planning (CP) and Disaster Management.

3. High seismic vulnerability of many buildings and infrastructures in Palestine.

4. Lack of the national planning policy to integrate the DRR with sustainable development.

5. Centralization and the existence of resistance to the concept of de- centralization at some levels.

6. Difficulty in adopting the concept of integration, partnership and networking between the related Palestinian institutions.

7. High level of the risks (High probability and High magnitude) and limited a time frame and limited resources for implementing the DRR requirements presented in the findings and recommendations.

8. Movement restrictions due to the occupation.

9. Uncertainty of financial resources over the next few years and an inadequate distribution of infrastructures and human resources.