DISASTER RISK MANAGEMENT

INSTITUTIONAL AND LEGAL FRAMEWORK

FOR THE STATE OF PALESTINE

2016
Foreword

The disaster risk management legal and institutional framework for the State of Palestine is an
outcome of an extensive stakeholders’ consultations process with representatives from the
government, civil society organisations, private sector and academia that was initiated in May
2015 with support from the United Nations Development Programme/ Programme of Assistance
to the Palestinian People (UNDP/PAPP).

Many stakeholders along the way of preparing this framework have stressed on the need to make
a shift in the current approach in dealing with disasters. A shift from reactive emergency relief
operation towards long‐term disaster risk prevention, mitigation and preparedness is a critical
need to reduce losses in lives and properties.

This is a major step along the way towards promoting the culture of disaster risk reduction and
building the Palestinian’s society resilience to disasters. The State of Palestine is looking forward
to expanding its partnership with the United Nations Family and specialized international
organizations in the field of disaster risk management to substantially reducing disasters related
risks that the country is facing.

To this end, I would like to express my sincere thanks for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iceland for
funding the development of the State of Palestine disaster risk management legal and institutional
framework and wish to acknowledge the tremendous support received form UNDP/PAPP through
preparing this robust framework.

Finally, I would like to thank all the members of PAL-DRM team from the government, civil society
organizations, private sector and academia. Without their active engagement, commitment, and
dedication, we would not have been able to accomplish this framework.

Dr. Abdallah Al-Najjar

Chairman of the National Technical Team
State of Palestine
May 2016

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Table of Contents
Abbreviations and Acronyms ............................................................... 7
Glossary .................................................................................................. 9
Executive Summary ............................................................................ 11
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ............................................................. 17
2. Disasters in the State of Palestine ........................................................ 19
2.1 Hazards ..... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 19

2.1.1 Natural hazards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 19

2.1.2 Conflict escalations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 19

2.1.3 Other man-made hazards . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 20

2.2 Vulnerability factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 20

2.2.1 Access restrictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 20

2.2.2 The intra-Palestinian divide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 20

2.2.3 Infrastructure vulnerability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 21

2.2.4 Social vulnerability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 21

2.2.5 Economic vulnerability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 21

3. Approach to DRM in the State of Palestine ............................................. 23

3.1 Disaster Risk Management System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 23

3.2 Disaster-Related Objectives and Management Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 28

3.3 Disaster-Risk Management and Development Sectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 30

4. Unique Situation of the State of Palestine .......................................... 31

4.1 Occupation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 31

4.2 Refugee Camps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 31

4.3 The United Nations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 31

4.4 Regional Cooperation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 32

4.5 International assistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

5. DRM Institutional and Legal Framework ................................................ 33

5.1 All entities given DRM Mandates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 33

5.2 DRM at national level: Prime Minister´s domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 34

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5.3 Civil Protection: Minister of Interior domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 34

5.4 Sector DRM activity: Sector leads domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 34

5.5 Five levels of activation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 35

5.6 DRM Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 36

5.7 DRM Committees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 36

5.8 Command and Coordination Centres and Mobile Command Posts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 37

5.9 Declaration of a state of emergency or disaster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 38

5.10 Cooperation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 38

5.11 Accountability in DRM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 39

5.12 Draft DRM Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 40

6. Managing the Palestinian DRM system ................................................ 41

6.1 Implementing objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 41

6.2 Primary and Secondary Disaster Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

6.3 General roles and responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 47

6.3.1 Examples of “Before, During and After” Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 48

6.4 Ministries and Statutory Regulations . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 52

6.5 PM Office/National Disaster Risk Management Centre (NDRMC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 52

6.6 Sector Roles and Responsibilities From DRM Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 57

6.6.1 Good Governance and Institution Building Sector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 58

6.6.2 Economic Development and Employment Sector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 59

6.6.3 Social Protection and Development Sector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 59

6.6.4 Infrastructure Sector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 61

6.6.5 National DRM Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 62

6.7 Establishing the Proposed DRM System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 63

References ........................................................................................... 67
Annex A: Draft DRM Law ................................................................. 69
Annex B Graphics .............................................................................. 95

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List of Tables
Table 1: Activities for Primary and Secondary Disaster Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 43

Table 2: Primary entities within the Same Disaster Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 45

Table 3: Generalized Primary and Secondary Functions for Ministries and PRCS . . . .. . . . . . . .. . . . . . . .. . 46

Table 4: Sector DRM Procedures Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 48

Table 5: Examples of Comparison between Procedure Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 52

Table 6: Good Governance and Institution Building Sector DRM Perspective . .. . . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . . .. .. . . 58

Table 7: Economic Development and Employment Sector DRM Perspective . . . . . . .. . . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . .. . . 59

Table 8: Social Protection and Development Sector DRM Perspective . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . . .. . . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . 60

Table 9: Infrastructure Sector DRM Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 61

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Abbreviations and Acronyms
CD Civil Defence

CP Civil Protection

DRM Disaster Risk Management

DRR Disaster Risk Reduction

HC Humanitarian Coordinator

HCCD High Council of Civil Defence

IASC Inter-Agency Standing Committee

IFRC International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

INSARAG International Search and Rescue Advisory Group

IPO Impact operations

JIP Jordan Israel Palestine

LGU Local Government Units

MIT Mitigation

MoI Ministry of Interior

NDP National Development Plan

OCHA Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

OPP Operations Preparedness

PAL-DRM Palestinian Disaster Risk Management

PCD Palestinian Civil Defence

PM Prime Minister

PRCS Palestinian Red Crescent Society

RA Risk analysis

RC Resident Coordinator

RCO Recovery Operations

RLO Relief Operations

RSO Rescue Operations

SL Systematic Learning

SOP Standard Operating Procedure

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UN United Nations

UNDAC United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination Team

UNDP-PAPP United Nations Development Programme – Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian

People

UNISDR United Nations International Secretariat for Disaster Reduction

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Glossary
Civil protection is an integrated management, protection, and rescue and relief system. Relief within civil
protection is small-scale temporary assistance, and should not be confused with larger scale humanitarian
relief activities. Civil protection assistance consists of governmental aid delivered in the immediate
aftermath of a disaster provided by the emergency services, such as police, fire, rescue, ambulance,
hospitals, and relief teams. It can take the form of in-kind assistance, deployment of specially equipped
teams, or assessment and coordination by experts sent to the field. Assistance from civil societies, the
private sector, non-governmental organizations and other non-governmental entities can be integrated
into a civil protection mechanism.

Command and Coordination Centre (CCC) is a location where decision makers and/or entity staff come
together to coordinate and cooperate, or communicate on matters of emergency and disaster.

Disaster is a serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society involving widespread

human, material, economic or environmental losses and impacts, which exceeds the ability of the affected
community or society to cope using its own resources (UNISDR 2009).

Disaster Function is a management function that seeks to reach one specific disaster-related objective.

Disaster Risk is the potential disaster losses, in lives, health status, livelihoods, assets and services, which
could occur to a particular community or a society over some specified future time period (UNISDR 2009).

Disaster Risk Management is the systematic process of using administrative directives, organizations,
and operational skills and capacities to implement strategies, policies and improved coping capacities in
order to lessen the adverse impacts of hazards and the possibility of disaster (UNISDR 2009).

Disaster Risk Management System is a set of procedures an organization follows to reach disaster-related
objectives.

Disaster Risk Reduction aims to avoid, lessen or transfer the adverse effects of hazards through activities
and measures that aim to (i) understand disaster risk, (ii) use risk information to reduce risk and (iii) prepare
for an effective response.

Disaster Risk Management objectives are objectives that are specifically developed to reach disaster-
related goals.

Emergency is a state created by some unexpected event where there is an urgent need for assistance or
relief. The term emergency in context of natural disasters relates more to the sudden state of urgency for
assistance or relief, regardless of whether resources are sufficient or not.

Emergency Operations is a general term for any operation where lives and livestock are at stake, and in
some cases property, and time is of the essence.

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Management Function is a set of activities specifically managed to reach a specific objective, such as
planning function, logistic function, operation function, and finance function.

Normal DRM System is a term for procedures used during non-disaster periods.

Normal Working Procedures are written instructions that document how to perform a routine activity to
ensure consistency and quality in work during non-emergency or non–disaster times.

System is a set of procedures an organization follows to reach disaster-related objectives (www.iso.org,

2013). Here the organization is all entities that are mandated by Palestinian legislation and the procedures.
Standard Operating Procedures are written instructions that document how to perform a routine activity
to ensure consistency and quality in work during times of series threats, emergency or disaster.

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Executive Summary
Disaster Risk Management (DRM) is a systematic process of using administrative directives, organizations,
and operational skills and capacities to implement strategies, policies and coping capacities in order to lessen
the possibility of disaster and deal with the adverse impacts of hazards. The framework described herein is
managed through operating procedures developed to reach specific DRM objectives; to understand and
reduce disaster risk, to prepare for and implement disaster operations, and to learn from experience. This
DRM Institutional and Legal Framework for the State of Palestine highlights issues that need to be further
developed in order to design and implement a fully functioning DRM system.

DRM is a holistic societal and national matter that involves every entity that can be mandated by Palestinian
legislation, and is, as such, automatically placed under the highest executive authority assumed by the
Prime Minister. The role of the PM is not to deal with all efforts of DRM, but to focus on three main aspects;
to coordinate DRM at the national level, to maintain overview of state of DRM and to provide support to
other entities.

Disasters that involve large-scale injuries, death, and destruction require increased coordination of field
activities than is performed on a normal basis. This requires a strong coordinated efforts before the
disaster to develop an incident command system and civil protection procedures, i.e., the coordination of
emergency services. For this purpose, the domain of civil protection is mandated to the Minister of Interior.

For a strong resistant and resilient society, national development policies and the DRM policies need to
be linked. Existing procedures for National Development Plans outline development plans at a micro
level (single entities), sector level, and macro level (national level), resulting in a National Policy Agenda.
It is recommended that the process for the National Policy Agenda, which deals with different risks to
the development of the State of Palestine, also include disaster risk. DRM policies would therefore be
developed at the same levels, in the same sectors, and at the same time as the National Policy Agenda. The
responsibility of including DRM in the sectors falls under the sector-leads.

Therefore, the proposed system replaces the current coordination mechanism with two coordination
mechanisms. One coordination mechanism is embedded into the existing sector approach to ensure that
the development perspective takes the DRM perspective into account, and vice versa. The sector approach
provides a communication chain from each entity to the Prime Minister's Office. The second is a command
and coordination mechanism, which is an expanded version of the existing Governor´s Emergency Rooms
at the district level. Partners at the national, district, local government unit, and field level shall all have
organized command and coordination activities. The partners within each command and coordination cell
(either centres at pre-defined locations or mobile command posts in the field) shall work together during
non-disaster periods under the coordination of the PM, governors, head of local government units, and civil
protection personnel, respectively, to write contingency plans, train for possible events and work on other
DRM activities from their perspective. The second mechanism, like the first, will have a communication

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chain reaching from each entity to the Prime Minister's Office. As the highest-ranking executive, the PM
has overview and responsibility over both coordination mechanisms. The PM shall ensure that information
from both is streamlined into one DRM strategy, which should be submitted to the entities in draft form for
discussion and recommendation before being finalized. To perform these activities, and to support other
entities, the PM shall have DRM trained staff. By connecting DRM to all entities through these coordination
mechanisms, the proposed system ensures that DRM is a mainstream activity within the Palestinian society.

Sector - leads agency

To fully mainstream DRM into Palestinian society, entity DRM activities need to be coordinated from a
societal perspective. Palestinian entities are already coordinated from a societal perspective through a
sector approach. The sectors are good governance, economy, infrastructure, and social development sectors.
These four sectors represent the pillars of development and empowerment of the Palestinian people. By
adding DRM objectives into the overall objectives of each of the four sectors two things are accomplished;
mainstreaming of DRM into society is secured and DRM activities are aligned with development activities.

The sector-leads work and coordinate with the entities in their respective sectors in determining how the
DRM objectives should be met from a sectoral perspective. During normal times, the staff organizes its
work on a normal basis through non-disaster management functions (Risk Analysis Function, Mitigation
Function, Operational Preparedness Function, and Learning Function). Standard operating procedures are
written to guide sectors in disaster operations.

In general, sector leads agency:

• Include DRM objectives into the sector work through disaster functions.

• Send annual DRM reports to whom they are accountable.

• React to an emergency/disaster based on pre-defined standard operating procedures.

DRM within the Prime Minister's Domain

To fulfill obligations towards DRM objectives the Prime Minister has staff that reports directly to the Prime
Minister to manage the day-to-day DRM related activities and coordinates with the PM Chief of Staff. The
Staff ensures that the PM is updated on any events that may concern the PM or the Cabinet. The staff shall
have expertise in matters of DRM to be able to take the lead in developing and maintaining a Palestinian
DRM system. In general, the staff shall take measures to:

• Lead the development of the DRM national strategy.

• Maintain an overview of the state of readiness:

– Support the development of and maintain a national risk analysis.

– Maintain an overview of mitigation measures.

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 – Support the development of a national response plan.

– Take the lead on national level lessons learned projects following an event.

• Advocate for and provide knowledge support in DRM to Palestinian entities.

• Keep abreast with international activities and knowledge development.

Entities
The fundamental components of the DRM system are the governmental, private, and civil entities that
individually address the DRM objectives from their own perspective. The actions they take and the
information they produce collectively define the level to which DRM is mainstreamed into the Palestinian
society. The level to which each entity addresses each of the objectives will vary. For example, a university is
highly involved in risk analysis, but does not participate in life-saving operations. An insurance company in
the private sector may be involved in both risk analysis and mitigation, but not involved in relief activities,
while a governmental insurance company may be involved in all three. From a business continuity
perspective, all entities need to outline how they will work if they are themselves affected by a disaster that
makes them incapable of providing their services. Therefore, each entity needs to outline which objectives
pertain to it and why.

After an entity has outlined which DRM objectives relate to it, it organizes its internal activities on how to
reach the pertinent objectives. The amount of effort an entity puts into reaching its DRM objectives will
vary. Possibilities include:

• DRM is the responsibility of a staff member who also has other responsibilities. This is the least
amount of effort an entity can take. This person is the contact person for DRM matters, writes the
annual DRM reports, and performs small tasks.

• A staff member is responsible of DRM without any other responsibility. This person is likely to report
to the head of the agency.

• DRM is seen as such an important and large part within the entity that it requires a group of
specialists in a unit/office.

In every case, those responsible for the DRM incorporate people from all departments within the entity in
DRM activities. In general all entities (governmental, private sector, and civil organizations):

• Establish disaster functions to reach DRM objectives from their perspective.

• Send annual DRM reports to whom they are accountable.

• React to an emergency/disaster based on pre-defined standard operating procedures.

• Participate in coordinated activities with other entities.

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During normal times, the staff organizes its work on a normal basis through non-disaster management
functions (Risk Analysis Function, Mitigation Function, Operational Preparedness Function, and Learning
Function), work closely with all actors.

DRM committees
Three DRM committees are recommended. At the national level the PM establishes and head's a National
Standing Committee that meets once a years. Members are all line ministers and all governors. At the
district level, the governors establish and head a district committee that meets 3 times a year. Members
include district level line ministerial staff, and district level entities of PCD, Police, PRCS, and other that work
at the district level. The community level has a DRM committee headed by the heads of local government
units and includes village leads, camp committees, and representatives of relevant stakeholders that work
at the local level, and also meets at least 3 times a year.

Standard Operating Procedures

When a situation arises that calls for a reaction by Palestinian entities, such as a storm warning, an
earthquake or a large accident, the entities react based on pre-written standard operating procedures
outlined in the entities Disaster Response Plan (also called Response Plan, or other names). Disaster
situations call for much faster working procedures than are used during normal times. Standard operating
procedures that have been agreed upon by appropriate authorities allow decision makers and staff to
move ahead with actions that otherwise would require permission from supervisors, thus allowing people
to react to situations without delay. Writing these SOPs and preparing locations is part of the work under
the Operations Preparedness Function.

Standard operating procedures will be written within each entity, at the sector level and each government
level, and for field operations. Standard operating procedures are usually very short and concise and have
to be developed by the people who will implement them to ensure that they fully understand them. It is
the role of each sector and government level to write SOPs for their own level and how they interact with
other levels.

This report outlines the types of SOPs that are needed, but leaves developing the details to the Palestinian
entities.

Command and Coordination Centres

Locations for dealing with command and coordination can be a fully operational Emergency Operations
Room or a location that is used for other events like meeting rooms that can be quickly changed into
a location for a Command and Coordination Centres (CCCs). CCCs are needed at all three governmental
levels: one national, one in each district and one in each local government unit. The suggested Command
and Coordination Centres (CCC) are:

14
 • CCC-Prime Minister, fixed location: The National DRM Centre

– Permanently staffed, staffing increased on higher activation levels.

– All national level entities are partners of the CCC-PM.

• CCC-District Level (DL), fixed location: District Emergency Rooms

– Not permanently staffed, a contact person always available.

– All entities that work inside a district are partners in that CCC-DL.

• CCC-Local Government Unit (LGU), fixed location: Local Emergency Rooms

– Not permanently staffed, a contact person always available.

– All entities that work inside a LGU are partners in that CCC-LGU.

The general distinction between command and coordination is that the decision makers make decisions
that others are to follow (commanding decisions), while staff members work together in a coordinated
manner to implement decisions and the SOPs. No change of authority is given with the establishment
of the SOPs or the Centres; those that have the authority to give orders during normal times retain their
authority during disasters, unless otherwise stated in SOPs agreed upon by an appropriate authority.

Entities should view the Centres as a place for them to work together as partners and coordinate as needed.
Deciding the details of how these Centres are operated is part of the work performed within the Operations
Preparedness Function.

Mobile Command Posts

Field units responding to the scene of damage and human impact (e.g., firefighting, search and rescue,
security, patient care, etc.) need to establish Mobile Command Posts (MCP) from which all field activities
are coordinated. All resources that come to the field must be coordinated through one incident command
system that is developed in close cooperation with field entities.

The number of MCPs established for on-site coordination will depend on the size of the operations and is
determined by the field entities. Their location will also depend on the event.

Activation levels
Five activation levels are recommended. The first is monitoring of the situation during normal times. The
remaining four relate to gradual increases of the activation of the system. Activation will be based on
SOPs that have yet to be written. Writing the SOPs is part of the activities of the Operations Preparedness
Function. The recommended activation levels are:

15
Level 1 Monitoring
The various centres monitor the situation and communicate if there is a change in the situation that indicates
an escalation. During this time, partners should participate in development of the National Response Plan
and training. This level follows normal DRM working procedures.

Level 2 Early Warning

Key people are notified, possibly the public too, key staff may be grounded or leave revoked, certain
precaution measures put in place, communication between the centres increased. This may also mean
measures that affect the population like closing roads and evacuating areas. The CCC-PM may call for
meetings, either at the decision makers’ level, headed by the Prime Minister, or at the staff level, headed by
Centre staff. This level follows standard operating procedures for level 2.

Level 3 Emergency
The situation calls for a response of standby resources and some additional resources, however, additional
support and coordination is minimal, and the CCCs are partially activated. This will call for meetings and
might call for liaison officers to be situated in the CCC-PM. This level follows standard operating procedures
for level 3.

Level 4 Disasters in districts of West Bank or Gaza Strip

The affected areas require support and additional resources that call for full activation of the CCCs, both
in affected areas and in non-affected areas to support the affected areas. This will call for meetings and for
liaison officers to be situated in the CCC-PM, until the situation is under control. This level follows standard
operating procedures for level 4.

Level 5 Disasters in Palestine, where both the West Bank and Gaza Strip are affected
The districts require full-scale support and additional resources. This will call for meetings and for liaison
officers to be situated in the CCC-PM, until the situation is under control. This level follows standard
operating procedures for level 5.

16
1. Introduction
Recent disasters in State of Palestine, such as the 2013 winter storms, have demonstrated the need to
have an effective and efficient disaster risk management system, as well as historical events, such as large
earthquakes in the early 20th century. The UNDAC Mission Report to State of Palestine (2014) identified
current legislation as being too limited in scope for broad risk management, calling for legislative
improvements. The Disaster Risk Management Institutional and Legal Framework proposed herein serves
as a basis for new legislation and management procedures for the State of Palestine.

The current system is based on the concept of civil defence, which was developed during mid last century
with a narrow perspective of disasters where preparedness-response is the overall objective with roles only
assigned to main response agencies. The Palestinian DRM system lacks specialized legislation for managing
disaster risk and disasters in terms of concepts, purpose, and internationally recognized conventions.

The Palestinian civil defense system is a multi-stakeholder coordination mechanism at the level of the
Ministry of Interior (MoI), with the Higher Council of Civil Defence as its board, and Palestinian Civil Defence
as the secretariat. The lack of clarity of the scope of civil defence, both in the term itself and the current
law, causes uncertainty when trying to define the area of responsibility of the MoI and of other ministers
regarding DRM.

The proposed system assumes that civil defence is no longer used as a term to define disaster-related
management, but is replaced with the concepts of DRM (an overall concept of disaster-related management)
and civil protection (a concept to capture the cooperation among emergency services and is part of DRM).

As it is a government wide topic, DRM at the national level in the proposed system is the domain of the
Prime Minister (PM), who coordinates the line ministers. Civil protection is limited to ministries that have
field level emergency teams and is not a government wide topic. Civil protection in the proposed system
is the domain of the MoI since many of the emergency services fall under the MoI, which coordinates all
entities within civil protection, including those outside the MoI, such as the Ministry of Health and the Red
Crescent Societies.

Thus, the proposed system has a broader-perspective that gives disaster risk reduction, preparedness, short
and long-term response, and learning from past events equal focus and where all entities are expected to
give disaster risk management their full attention. The proposed system is based on the outcome of recent
international conventions, such as the 2005 Hyogo Framework for Action, and the 2015 Sendai Framework
for Disaster Risk Reduction. Scientific literature, and definitions for key terms developed by the United
Nations International Secretariat for Disaster Reduction also strengthen the foundation of the proposed
approach. The proposed system is designed to follow to the extent possible normal working procedures
within the Palestinian administration, including development procedures that work at all government
levels, and include the private sector, academia, civil society, and the general public.

17
Establishing and managing a DRM system is a long-term commitment. The DRM is part of a longer journey,
and various questions regarding the establishment of a DRM system in the State of Palestine have yet to be
answered, many of which by the managers of the system themselves. However, this Framework presents
a solid foundation of a DRM system for making the State of Palestine disaster resistant and resilient, to the
extent that its resources allow.

Chapter 2 outlines key hazards and vulnerability factors in Palestine, making use of work performed by the
UNDAC team during the 2014 preparedness mission. The approach used to develop the proposed DRM
system is described in Chapter 3. While key issues regarding the occupation are discussed in Chapter 4, a
more detailed discussion can be found in the UNDAC report. The basis of the proposed system is described
in Chapter 5. The report concludes with a chapter on roles, responsibilities, and procedures for establishing
and managing the proposed DRM system. Annex A presents a proposal DRM law for the State of Palestine,
while Annex B provides two graphic presentations of the DRM system during normal times and during
disasters.

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2. Disasters in The State of Palestine
Disaster risk is based on three factors: hazards, the exposed elements, and conditions that create
vulnerability of the exposed elements to the hazards. There are three main hazards; natural, conflict-related
and man-made hazards, and five key factors that create conditions of vulnerability; access restrictions,
intra-Palestinian divide, infrastructure vulnerability, social vulnerability and economic vulnerability. The
remaining text in this chapter is graciously extracted from the UNDAC Report (2014).

2.1 Hazards
2.1.1 Natural hazards
The State of Palestine is vulnerable to natural hazards including earthquakes, floods, droughts and
landslides. The whole region around the State of Palestine faces ongoing small – to mid-scale disaster risks,
and there is also significant potential for a large – scale urban disaster. The earthquake risk is associated
with the tectonic plate boundary in the Jordan Valley known as the Dead Sea Transform. Historical records
show that major earthquakes have caused severe damage and many hundreds, and sometimes thousands,
of fatalities. The possibility of a major destructive earthquake is part of all contingency plan scenarios. Flash
flooding is also a natural hazard as a result of heavy rains. Water shortage and drought are chronic problems
in the region due to its arid conditions. During 2013 the State of Palestine experienced two serious winter
storms that tested the ability to respond and recover from an emergency, and clearly showed that DRR,
including preparedness, was a gap. A winter storm struck the region from 7-10 January 2013 and caused
severe damage to agriculture and infrastructure in the northern part of the West Bank. About 12,000 people
across 190 communities were affected by the storm. In December 2013, Winter Storm Alexa impacted both
the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The precipitation in four days represented 75% of the average annual
total. The snow reached 60-100 centimeters deep in the West Bank. Heavy flooding in the Gaza Strip caused
the displacement of almost 10,000 people to temporary shelters, damaging approximately 21,000 homes.
Damages and loses were estimated at over USD 130 million.

2.1.2 Conflict escalations

There are many scenarios in which escalations of tension or actual conflict might create sudden – onset
emergency conditions. This risk is particularly acute and obvious in the Gaza Strip, where offensive military
operations must be considered as possible at any time. However, in the West Bank, any changes in the
political environment could increase violence with consequent humanitarian impacts. Detailed analysis of
these potential scenarios is beyond the scope of this report.

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2.1.3 Other man-made hazards
Ongoing natural resource stress and environmental degradation create the conditions for a crisis arising
from, or interacting with, a man-made factor. Such a situation occurred in the December 2012 winter
storm in the Gaza Strip, where degraded sewage management systems combined with floodwater to
create a severe public health hazard. Risks posed by industrial, energy and defence-related installations in
neighboring territories have also not been assessed.

2.2 Vulnerability factors

Vulnerability factors are those that increase the consequences of a disaster event. The vulnerability
conditions of the State of Palestine in general could be classified as high to very high, driven by the
following issues:

2.2.1 Access restrictions

Access and movement restrictions arising from the Israeli occupation come in the form of military
checkpoints, gates, restricted roads on which Palestinians are forbidden from travelling, a permit regime
that constrains Palestinian movement, the construction of the approximately 708 kilometre-long barrier,
and Israeli settlements (with an estimated population of more than 500,000 inhabitants in the West Bank,
including East Jerusalem) in breach of international law. In addition, since Hamas’ takeover of the Gaza Strip
in 2007, the blockade of the Gaza Strip by Israel, and the prolonged access restrictions, the situation there
has remained extremely volatile.

Access restrictions constrain the development of the built environment, and limit good practices in
disaster resilient local development. In the Gaza Strip, restrictions on the import of construction materials
aggravate this issue further. In the event of a disaster, national and international rescue and relief teams
would likely face challenges in getting timely access to the affected areas unless the existing system of
access restrictions was lifted; Up till now, there is no agreed protocol for this to happen. The Gaza Strip
blockade and the recurrent hostilities, including large-scale Israeli military operations, most recently the
November 2012’s Operation Pillar of Defence, would represent an additional source of complexity in the
event of planning an international response to a disaster.

2.2.2 The intra-Palestinian divide

Relations between Fatah and Hamas deteriorated sharply following Hamas’ victory in September 2006
following parliamentary elections in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza Strip. A violent
struggle ensued between the two organisations over the course of 2006 – 2007. A key step towards
reconciliation was made in April 2011, when Fatah and Hamas signed an agreement, which called for
the formation of an interim unity authority. Both parties have made limited progress on the agreement
since then, with the continued absence of a unity authority. On 2 June 2014 the Unity Government was
announced as well as the holding of elections six months later. Disaster risk management policies that
reflect a One Palestine Approach to DRR could be positively affected by this situation.

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2.2.3 Infrastructure vulnerability
Most Palestinian cities are located in earthquake prone areas. Recent studies conducted by the Sciences
and Seismic Engineering Centre (ESSEC) at An-Najah University on vulnerability of buildings in West Bank
cities (Jerusalem, Hebron, Ramallah, Nablus, Jenin, Tulkarm and Jericho) show that 33% of the surveyed
buildings belong to Seismic Vulnerability Class A (i.e. likely to suffer heavy damage) and a further 40%
of buildings are in class B (i.e. likely to suffer moderate damage). The situation in the Gaza Strip has not
been surveyed but seems likely to pose similar risks. It is probable that poorly constructed housing in
refugee camps is particularly vulnerable to earthquakes. In addition, the quality and cost of infrastructure is
impacted considerably by factors of transportation, electricity, water, and telecommunications, which are
also affected by the restrictions present in Area C of the West Bank, and especially in Gaza. Transportation
infrastructure is particularly problematic as Palestinian use of roads in Area C is restricted, and travel times
can be inordinate; the Palestinian authorities at national and local level have also been unable to develop
roads, airports or railways in or through Area C.

2.2.4 Social vulnerability

Social factors that increase vulnerability of the Palestinian communities include their lack of awareness
about disaster risks and their limited economic resources to create a resilient society. As in most societies,
vulnerability to disaster risks is likely to be highest among children, older people, the poorest families and
socially marginalised groups. In some areas of Palestine, long-term psychosocial impacts arising from the
occupation, and from the blockade in the Gaza Strip, could affect local resilience.

2.2.5 Economic vulnerability

Palestinian economic conditions since 1994 have been volatile and unpredictable. The Oslo peace process
and the establishment of the Palestinian Authority ushered in an era of rapid growth, driven by the return
of some of the Palestinian diaspora, periods of relative tranquillity and large inflows of public and private
capital. Average real GDP increased by 8.4% per annum from 1994-99. The outbreak of the second intifada
in 2000 interrupted this trend, bringing increased violence and uncertainty and, most significantly, the
intensification by Israel of a complex set of military operations that impeded the movement of people
and goods and fragmented the Palestinian territories into small enclaves lacking economic cohesion. In
the ensuing recession, GDP contracted by an average of 9% per annum from 2000-2002. If such volatility
persists it will inevitably impact the ability to plan and to prepare for disasters, by creating uncertainties
in budgeting and resource availability for disaster risk management programmes. Increasing rapid
urbanization in Palestinian cities is also a critical vulnerability factor.

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3. Approach to DRM in The State of Palestine
3.1 Disaster Risk Management System
The proposed Disaster Risk Management Institutional and Legal Framework is designed to apply to any type
of disruption to the functioning of society, regardless of its origin including natural, technical or conflict
related hazards or incidents. The approach used to develop the DRM system proposed here is primarily
based on the following definitions, concepts, and principles.

The most overarching definition of a DRM system is derived from the definition of a system. A system
is a set of procedures followed by an organization to reach objectives (www.iso.org, 2013). Therefore, a
national DRM system is a set of procedures that guide all entities that fall under national legislation to
reach disaster-related objectives. Additional definitions and concepts used as a basis of a DRM approach
are described bellow:

Disaster: A disaster is a serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society involving

widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses and impacts, which exceeds the ability of
the affected community or society to cope using its own resources.

Note that when using this definition a disaster is ongoing until the disruption is over making recovery
operations within the disaster. The post-disaster phase does not start until the recovery is finished. However,
the ending of a disaster will be gradual and different aspects will end at different times.

Disaster Risk: Disaster risk is the potential disaster losses, in lives, health status, livelihoods, assets and
services, which could occur to a particular community or a society over some specified future time period.

Disaster Risk Management: Disaster Risk Management is systematic process of using administrative
directives, organizations, and operational skills and capacities to implement strategies, policies and
improved coping capacities in order to lessen the adverse impacts of hazards and the possibility of disaster.

Emergency: An emergency is a state created by some unexpected event where there is an urgent need
for assistance or relief, (http://www.merriam-webster.com, and http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/
emergency). The term emergency in context of natural disasters relates more to the sudden state of
urgency for assistance or relief, regardless of whether resources are sufficient or not.

Principle and concept from management theory: Management-by-objectives is the underlying

management principle used. Therefore, defining clear disaster-related objectives is a necessity.

Management functions: Management functions are activities performed by a group of actors managed in
order to reach a given objective. They include activities and people that span across different entities and
departments, as needed.

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Disaster-related objectives: The disaster-related objectives listed below are developed from the four
phases (mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery) of the original Disaster Life Cycle, presented in
1978 by the US. National Governor´s Association (NGA, 1989). Scientific literature explains that phases,
while useful to help grasp the overall concept of disaster-related activities, are not useful for planning and
implementation as they do not represent reality, i.e. mitigation and preparedness happen at the same time
and so does response and recovery. Furthermore, activities are missing from the phases. To address this
issue, the phases have been converted to the following objectives:

1. To understand disaster risk.

2. To measurably reduce disaster risk.

3. To prepare for disaster operations.

4. To perform impact operations.

5. To perform lifesaving operations.

6. To perform temporary relief operations.

7. To perform recovery operations.

8. To learn from past operations in order to reduce likelihood of future events and improve state
of readiness.

Scientific literature offers a term for management functions; disaster functions, which are established
to reach each individual disaster related objective, corresponding to the 8 objectives above. Disaster
functions allow for coordination among individuals from diverse entities and disciplines needed to
reach the objective. The disaster functions are:

1. Risk Analysis Function.

2. Risk Mitigation Function.

3. Operations Preparedness Function.

4. Impact Operations Function.

5. Rescue Operations Function.

6. Relief Operations Function.

7. Recovery Operations Function.

8. Systematic Learning Function.

The 2015 Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction Priorities:

• Priority 1 Understanding disaster risk: Disaster risk management needs to be based on an

understanding of disaster risk in all its dimensions of vulnerability, capacity, exposure of persons
and assets, hazard characteristics and the environment.

24
 • Priority 2 Strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk: Disaster risk governance
at the national, regional and global levels is vital to the management of disaster risk reduction in
all sectors and ensuring the coherence of national and local frameworks of laws, regulations and
public policies that, by defining roles and responsibilities, guide, encourage and incentivize the
public and private sectors to take action and address disaster risk.

• Priority 3 Investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience: Public and private investment in disaster
risk prevention and reduction through structural and non-structural measures are essential to
enhance the economic, social, health and cultural resilience of persons, communities, countries
and their assets, as well as the environment. These can be drivers of innovation, growth and job
creation. Such measures are cost effective and instrumental to save lives, prevent and reduce losses
and ensure effective recovery and rehabilitation.

• Priority 4 Enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response and to «Build Back Better» in
recovery, rehabilitation, and reconstruction. Experience indicates that disaster preparedness needs
to be strengthened for response that is more effective and ensure capacities are in place for effective
recovery. Disasters have also demonstrated that the recovery, rehabilitation, and reconstruction
phase, which needs to be prepared ahead of the disaster, is an opportunity to «Build Back Better»
through integrating disaster risk reduction measures. Women and persons with disabilities should
publicly lead and promote gender-equitable and universally accessible approaches during the
response and reconstruction phases.

DRM principles:

•• Principle of Responsibility: DRM is the responsibility of all levels of government, all sectors, and
all entities including civil society, and the private sector.

•• Principle of Closeness: Action should be implemented and coordinated at the lowest or most
localized operational level. This principle emphasizes the importance of Local Government Units,
which are the government authority closest to where damages occur or people are affected.

•• Collaboration and coordination: All entities in the DRM system must ensure the best possible
collaboration and coordination within other actors. This principle holds all entities accountable for
their own participation in DRM.

•• Principle of Normality: The procedures developed for non-disaster periods should follow
established procedures and processes that are as close to the normal working processes as
possible. The procedures developed for disaster periods should follow established emergency
response procedures and processes that are as close to the normal working processes as possible,
without causing unnecessary delay, as personnel will already be familiar with existing institutional
structures and working arrangements.

•• Learning-driven approach: It is important that disaster risk management plans and risk reduction
measures are built on experiences, good practices and lessons learnt from previous emergencies.
This principle is addressed in DRM objective #8.

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Definitions for the concepts “civil defence” and “civil protection” in relation to DRM: The term Civil
Defence dates from the mid last century and was originally designed for war situations. While the general
idea behind the term is known, i.e., to protect the citizens in times of war, or disaster, the exact definition
is not clear. The focus is on preparing for and responding to an emergency and little attention is given to
reducing the risk of such an event or to longer term recovery needs.

To address this insufficiency of the term civil defence, great efforts have been taken in recent years to relay
the message to politicians that disaster-related management involves so much more than civil defence,
and that new and more specific terms have emerged, for example, through Hyogo Framework for Action
(UNISDR, 2005) and the recent Sendai Frame work for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR, 2015). Both of these
frameworks emphasize the importance of producing scientific risk-based planning scenarios, performing
risk reduction measures, and taking long-term recovery measures, creating a much wider approach to
disasters than the civil defence concept. This new approach is commonly called Disaster Risk Management,
which, while includes wars, is generally more focused on natural disasters, epidemics and other crises.

Civil Protection is a term that has been used for coordination of emergency services. Civil Protection
is included in the overall definition of DRM, and in general refers to the coordination of field activities,
including the following activities:

• Fire fighting

• Search and rescue

• Hazardous materials

• On-site medical assistance

• Ambulance services

• Site control and security

• Non-injured assistance

The definition of Civil Protection used herein is an integrated management, protection, and rescue and
relief system. Relief within civil protection is small-scale temporary assistance, and should not be confused
with larger scale humanitarian relief activities. Civil protection assistance consists of governmental aid
delivered in the immediate aftermath of a disaster provided by the emergency services, such as police, fire,
rescue, ambulance, hospitals, and relief teams. It can take the form of in-kind assistance, deployment of
specially equipped teams, or assessment and coordination by experts sent to the field. Assistance from civil
societies, the private sector, non-governmental organizations and other non-governmental entities can be
integrated into a civil protection mechanism.

Disaster and non-disaster periods: Disaster-related activities can be grouped into two alternating
periods: disaster period and non-disaster period. These periods are very different and require the entities
to work together following different procedures, but both follow the principle of normality:

26
 •• Non-disaster period: all entities work together within the normal, or daily, DRM system.

•• Disasters periods: all entities work together within a much faster system, which has procedures
and identified locations for coordination that are activated during disasters. All responding bodies
(governmental, non-governmental, civil, private, or other) are coordinated within this system to
create a unified, immediate, and long-term response to a disaster.

Pre, during and post disaster phases: A disaster can also be viewed from the perspective of three key
phases: before, during, and after.

•• Before a disaster: the focus is on understanding risk, mitigating risk and preparing for a disaster.

•• During a disaster: the focus is on dealing with the physical impact of the disaster, such as damages
and their consequences, life-saving operations, temporary relief, and recovery operations that
restore society to normalcy.

•• After a disaster: to learn from the disaster in order to clarify risk, improve mitigating measures, and
be better prepared for future events.

While the phases themselves are easy to define, in reality there is great overlap and uncertainty of when
one ends and another starts. Phases can start and end at different times for different entities. Standard
operating procedures are developed to reduce confusion and bring clarity to the operations. Clarity comes
by focusing on the situation and needs, not on definitions.

National Platform: A National Platform can be defined as a multi-stakeholder national mechanism that
serves as an advocate of DRM at different levels. It provides coordination, analysis, and advice on areas of
priority requiring concerted action.”

Command and Coordination Centres (CCCS): When a situation arises that calls for a reaction of Palestinian
entities, such as a storm warning, an earthquake, or a large accident, the entities react based on standard
operating procedures outlined in the entities Disaster Response Plan. Disaster situations call for different –
much faster – working procedures than are used during normal times. Two aspects of a response that are
customary to speed up the way of working are:

• Standard operating procedures that have been agreed upon by appropriate authorities allow
decision makers and staff to move ahead with actions that otherwise would require permission
from supervisors, thus allowing people to react to situations without delay.

• Preparing a location to collect, analyze and disseminate information, termed command centres or
coordination centres, depending on their authority level.

The Palestinian DRM structure utilizes both.

• Standard operating procedures will be written within each entity, at the sector level and each
government level, and for field operations.

27
 • Centres for dealing with command and coordination will be established, named Command and
Coordination Centres (CCC). There will be centres at all three governmental levels: one national,
in each district and in each local government unit. The national centre is the centre of the highest
executive level: the Prime Minister.

The general distinction between command and coordination is that the decision makers make decisions
that others are to follow (commanding decisions), while staff members work together in a coordinated
manner to implement decisions and the SOPs. No change of authority is given with the establishment
of the SOPs or the Centres; those that have the authority to give orders during normal times retain their
authority during disasters, unless otherwise stated in SOPs agreed upon by an appropriate authority.

Entities at each level and within each district or LGU should view the Centres as a place for them to work
together as partners and coordinate as needed. Deciding the details of how these Centres are operated
is part of the work performed within the Operations Preparedness Function (the details are therefore not
described herein).

3.2 Disaster-Related Objectives and Management Functions

Each of the eight objectives is reached by activities performed by various entities, managed within the
disaster functions. The concept of disaster functions as management functions for DRM is relatively new.
The concept emphasizes that many activities need to be organized across different entities by some
coordinator, in order to reach a specific objective. The objectives are not performed in a cyclic manner, but
are performed based on three general phases: before a disaster, during a disaster, and after a disaster. To
shed light on the activities within each function, various key activities associated with each function are
listed below.

A) Before disaster strikes

The Risk Analysis Function includes:

• Hazard analysis

• Exposure inventories

• Vulnerability relationships

• Disaster scenarios for mitigation and preparedness

Mitigation Function includes:

• Mitigation option analysis, including risk transfer.

– Mitigation options will present themselves through the risk analysis and damage scenarios, as
they describe the damages that can happen or other negative events.

– Common mitigation options include improving building codes, land-use planning, making
homes less vulnerable, flood barriers, insurance policies.

28
 • Cost/Benefit analysis per implementer.

• Choose combination and estimated reduced risk.

• Funding and implementation.

• Monitoring effectiveness and reviewing choices.

Operations Preparedness Function includes:

This function relates to all activities that prepare all entities for future short-term and long-term operations
due to a disaster, such as developing contingency plans based on the disaster scenarios developed in the
Risk Analysis Function, procuring any type of equipment needed for field operations, preparing emergency
rooms and other facilities, writing SOPs, and training people so that they will be ready when the time
comes. The Operations Preparedness Function focuses on preparing the following operations in case of a
disaster:

• Impact operations: reacting to damaging processes already initiated prior to, during, and after impact
of threat with exposure, e.g., early warning, real-time hazard and loss estimation, sandbagging, and
damage assessments.

• Rescue operations: saving lives of those caught in damaging processes, such as urban search and
rescue, medical assistance, and transport of victims to hospitals.

• Relief operations: providing temporary assistance to those affected, such as food, water, health,
nutrition, shelter, and family reunification.

• Recovery operations: implement final measures to bring a community to normalcy. Recovery

activities continue until all systems return to normal or better. They include two sets of activities:
Short-term recovery activities that return vital life-support systems to minimum operating
standards (for example, clean-up, temporary housing). Long-term recovery activities may continue
for a number of years after a disaster. Their purpose is to return life to normal or improved levels (for
example, redevelopment loans, legal assistance, and community planning).

Systematic learning Function includes:

• While the main activity of Objective #8 is performed after the disaster, experience has shown that if
the procedures for systematic learning are developed before the disaster then the learning process
will lead to better results.

B) During disaster operations

Impact Operations Function includes:

• Reacting to damaging processes already initiated prior to, during, and after impact of threat with
exposure, e.g., early warning, real-time hazard, and loss estimation, sandbagging, and damage
assessments.

29
Rescue Operations Function includes

• Any type of life saving operations or activities to support lifesaving operations, such as urban search
and rescue, medical assistance, transport of victims to hospitals, site control and security.

Relief Operations Function includes:

• Any type of operations that involve providing temporary assistance to those affected, such as food,
water, health, nutrition, shelter, and family reunification, until recovery measures have brought the
lives of the affected people to normal conditions and further assistance related to the disaster is no
longer needed.

Recovery Operations Function includes:

• Recovery operations: implement final measures to bring a community to normalcy. Recovery

activities continue until all systems return to normal or better. They include two sets of activities:
Short-term recovery activities that return vital life-support systems to minimum operating
standards (for example, clean-up, temporary housing). Long-term recovery activities may continue
for a number of years after a disaster. Their purpose is to return life to normal or improved levels (for
example, redevelopment loans, legal assistance, and community planning).

C) After disaster operations

Systematic Learning Function includes:

• Use the procedures developed before the disaster to guide systematic learning.

• Use the lessons learned to improve the system and increase state of readiness for next disaster.

3.3 Disaster-Risk Management and Development Sectors

DRM can be addressed from different perspective, national, single company or even from individual
perspective. The perspective will dictate the development of the disaster scenario created under the first
objective. Individuals might focus on damages to their homes, companies might develop scenarios that
reflect impact on their profits, and a national perspective requires disaster scenarios that span the entire
spectrum of society.

A national perspective involves serious disruptions to the overall development of society, and is likely
to have an impact on development plans. DRM as a concept is therefore highly linked with the concept
of societal development. For successful development, DRM policies need to be linked with national
development polices. A National Development Plan outlines the national policy agenda for the future.
When policies are developed at a micro level (single entities), sector level, and macro level (national level),
DRM policies should be developed at the same levels and through normal governance procedures, i.e.
within the pre-established development sectors, as part of any risk analysis that is important to lead to a
well–functioning society.

30
4. Unique Situation of the State of Palestine
4.1 Occupation
The occupation of the State of Palestine creates unique and hugely difficult circumstances for creating
an effective and efficient DRM system and for understanding, mitigating, and preparing for disasters. For
example, not being able to be a full member of the WMO prohibits the Palestinian Meteorological Office
from obtaining meteorological data, limiting their ability to perform meteorological risk analysis. The
fragmentation of the population into A, B, and C areas and East Jerusalem among which access is restricted
and controlled by the occupying forces, and the extra layer of governmental coordination through
Palestinian military and civilian liaison with the occupying military liaison make daily life very complex in
“regular” conditions and extremely complex in disaster situations.

According to the UNDAC Mission Report: Palestinian communities are subject to policies that undermined
their ability to live normal and self-sustained lives. The long-standing policies associated to the occupation
have resulted in territorial fragmentation of the State of Palestine; limited control over planning, trade
and the economy; severely restricted access to land, water and other resources; and major restrictions on
Palestinian movement and access within and between East Jerusalem, the rest of the West Bank, and the
Gaza Strip have resulted in humanitarian needs.

Despite difficult circumstances, the government in The State of Palestine has the ability to mainstream DRM
into the daily activities of the governmental and societal entities and take steps to strengthen resistance
and resiliency in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

4.2 Refugee Camps

The camps are the responsibility of the Palestinian Liberation Organization and the United Nations Relief
and Works Agency. The camps are managed by Camp Committees. This project met with representatives
from numerous Camp Committees, but does not provide recommendations on how to address DRM in the
camps, other than that it is highly needed. More focus is needed on improving the general living conditions
in the camps to reduce their vulnerability to disasters, diseases and other problems.

The PLO, the President, the camp population committee, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of
Education manage the camps, and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency is the main body that
provides education, health, and water services to the camps. The governors are not involved in the daily
management of the camps, but include them during an emergency.

4.3 The United Nations

The situation in The State of Palestine has led to a strong presence of the United Nations within Palestine.
The UNDP and UN OCHA play important roles in leading the strengthening of disaster resistance and
resiliency of the Palestinian people. National legislation includes only entities over which the government

31
can administer control, and therefore UN entities are not included with the recommendations in this
project. However, while the situation in The State of Palestine calls for the presence of the United Nations,
UNDP and UN OCHA, and other key UN agencies should be systematically linked to processes towards
meeting the DRM objectives.

4.4 Regional Cooperation

The so-called JIP project, entailing Jordan, Israel, and Palestine was established to create a common
framework for preparedness that supports the interests of all parties. It is developed to ensure the most
effective response and recovery in case of a disaster affecting the region. In the particular case of the
Jordanian, Israeli, and Palestinian disaster management framework, the shared impacts of disasters drive
the development of a common approach to disaster preparedness. The joint approach is needed to deal
with the consequences of large-scale disasters. A strengthened regional preparedness framework enables
more effective response and rapid recovery leading to more resilient societies. UN OCHA is leading the
project.

4.5 International assistance

The situation in The State of Palestine creates complications regarding how the Government of the State of
Palestine requests for and receives international disaster assistance in the event of a major earthquake, and
other major disasters. The Jordan Valley is a tectonic fault boundary and has caused major earthquakes, for
example in Nablus and Jericho. An earthquake in Jordan Valley rift zone is likely to affect Israel and Jordan
as well, requiring them to use their resources for their own people, and even requesting international
assistance at the same time as the Palestinians. It is therefore necessary that the Government of the State
of Palestine develop procedures with the international community to ensure speedy requests from the
government to the international response community and ensure speedy processing of international aid
into Palestine.

The March 2013 Table Top Exercise clarified various issues on how to incorporate international assistance
into the State of Palestine. SOPs for incorporating international assistance into the State of Palestine should
be developed in a future project.

International procedures, such as have been developed by INSARAG, UNDAC, IFRC, should be addressed
in Palestine.

The IASC Handbook for RCs and HCs on Emergency Preparedness and Response gives an overview of the
UN response mechanism and it will be useful for Palestine to review and work with the UN to link the two
systems together.

OCHA is the coordinating body for international assistance and has three regional offices, Nablus, Ramallah,
and Hebron. OCHA and the UN operate during a disaster through a clusters system that the Palestinian
entities are familiar with.

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5. DRM Institutional and Legal Framework
The proposed DRM Institutional Framework is designed based on the following factors:

• All entities have a mandate to address the DRM objectives from their perspective.

• The Prime Minister has mandate over DRM from a national level.

• The Ministry of Interior has mandate over civil protection.

• Sector leads address DRM within sector activity.

• The DRM systems operates on 5 different activation levels, the first being normal day-to-day
activities, the remaining 4 being operation activities.

• The 5 activation levels are guided by standard operating procedures for both decision makers and
staff.

• During disaster operations (operation levels 2-5), decision makers and staff coordinate through
Command and Coordination Centres (CCC) at the national, district and local levels and Mobile
Command Posts (MCP) at the field level.

• Declarations of state of emergency/disaster should be associated with funds, recourses, restriction

of movement, access to private property and compensation, or other factors, that would not be
available, or allowed otherwise.

• Cooperation is needed to make the system work.

• Accountability in regards to DRM is clear.

5.1 All entities given DRM Mandates

The fundamental components of the DRM structure are the governmental, private, and civil entities that
each individually address the DRM objectives from their own perspective. The actions they take and the
information they produce collectively define the level to which DRM is mainstreamed into Palestinian
society.

The level to which entities address each of the objectives will vary. For example, a university is highly
involved in risk analysis, but does not participate in life-saving operations. An insurance company in the
private sector may be involved in both risk analysis and mitigation, but not involved in relief activities,
while a governmental insurance company may be involved in all three. However, from a business continuity
perspective, all entities need to outline how they will work if they are themselves affected by a disaster
making it incapable of providing its services. Therefore, each entity needs to outline which objectives
pertain to it and why.

33
5.2 DRM at national level: Prime Minister´s domain
The active participation of the government in any country is crucial to the success of mainstreaming DRM
and well-coordinated response to disastrous situations. The entire government structure must see DRM
as a matter that concerns them. The fundamental DRM governmental coordination nodes are the same
three levels as for normal Palestinian administration: The Prime Minister coordinates line ministries, the
governors coordinate at the district level and heads of government units at the within their jurisdictions. If
this structure changes, then the structure of DRM would change accordingly.

DRM is a holistic societal matter, meaning that it includes everyone that can be mandated by national
legislation. Since DRM is a national matter, it is automatically place under the highest executive authority,
the Prime Minister. As the head executive authority in the State of Palestine, the Prime Minister is responsible
to the President for the state of disaster readiness and for actions taken during times of societal disruptions.

The role of the PM is not to take administrative control of all efforts of DRM, but to focus on three main
activities:

• Maintain overview of state of DRM in Palestine

• Coordinate national level DRM

• Provide support to other entities in Palestine

DRM is a highly specialized field. To fulfil the duties of the Prime Minister he/she requires specialized staff
within the Prime Minister´s office. Due to the expansive cooperation required with national and international
stakeholders, the Prime Minister should be given the mandate to set up a national DRM Centre that can
function both as an office during normal time and as a command and coordination centre during non-
normal times.

5.3 Civil Protection: Minister of Interior domain

The Minister of Interior has domain over Civil Protection (coordination of emergency services), as well as
having domain over some direct response activities, such as fire, rescue and hazards materials.

• Coordination of emergency services has to be clearly separated as an activity from direct response
activities, and strengthened, regardless of which entities manage the coordination and perform
response.

• The legislation for fire-related activities, including fire prevention needs to be addressed. It requires
legislation like all other activities.

• Accountable to the PM.

5.4 Sector DRM activity: Sector leads domain

Sector leads are responsible for developing DRM policy within their respective sectors, and as such are
accountable to the Prime Minister. The sectors are established to deal with broad-based societal objectives,

34
which each entity in the sector can individually contribute to and thus contribute to the bigger picture in
a coordinated manner.

The sector meetings are multi-stakeholder meetings established to provide and mobilize knowledge,
skills, and resources required for mainstreaming Disaster-Risk Management into policies, planning and
programmes.

The sector leads are responsible for ensuring that the DRM perspectives are brought into their sector
strategic objectives. This is done by systematically addressing each sector objective from a DRM perspective,
i.e., what is the risk to the activities in the sector objectives (DRM objective #1), how the sector objectives
can be made more resistant to this risk (DRM objective #2), and more resilient (DRM objective #3).

5.5 Five levels of activation

Five activation levels are defined. The first is monitoring of the situation. Various operations centres in
Palestine monitor the situation, such as the Meteorological department, the PCD, the PRCS and the Nablus
University Seismic Centre, which should maintain good communication with the CCC-PM.

Activation will be based on SOPs that have yet to be written. Writing the SOPs is part of the activities of the
Operations Preparedness Function. In general:

Level 1 Monitoring
The various centres monitor the situation and communicate if there is a change in the situation that
indicates an escalation. During this time, partners should participate in developing the National Response
Plan and training. This level follows normal DRM working procedures.

Level 2 Early Warning

Key people are notified, possibly the public too, key staff may be grounded or leave revoked, certain
precaution measures taken place and communication between the centres increased. This may also mean
measures that affect the population like closing roads and evacuating areas. The CCC-PM may call for
meetings, either at the decision makers’ level, headed by the Prime Minister, or the staff level, headed by
Centre staff. This level follows standard operating procedures for level 2.

Level 3 Emergency
The situation calls for a response of standby resources and some additional resources, however, additional
support and coordination is minimal, and the CCCs are partially activated. This will call for meetings and
might call for liaison officers to be situated in the CCC-PM. This level follows standard operating procedures
for level 3.

Level 4 Disasters in districts of West Bank or Gaza Strip

The affected areas require support and additional resources, which calls for full activation of the CCCs, both

35
in affected areas and in non-affected areas to support the affected areas. This will call for meetings and for
liaison officers to be situated in the CCC-PM, until the situation is under control. This level follows standard
operating procedures for level 4.

Level 5 Disasters in Palestine, where both the West Bank and Gaza Strip are affected
The districts require full-scale support and additional resources. This will call for meetings and for liaison
officers to be situated in the CCC-PM, until the situation is under control. This level follows standard
operating procedures for level 5.

5.6 DRM Procedures

In order to make a clear distinction between the set of procedures to be developed and followed during
normal times and the set to be followed during times of serious threat, emergency and disaster, the two
sets of procedures have been given separate terms, explained below.

Normal working procedures

During level-1 activation (normal times) the national, district and local levels follow established normal DRM
working procedures. The Prime Minister, governors, and heads of local units are responsible for producing
such normal working procedures in strong collaboration with their relevant entities. The Prime Minister is
responsible for en developing working procedures to guide coordination between the three levels.

Standard Operating Procedures during disaster operations

The purpose of having pre-agreed standard operating procedures (SOPs) is to allow decision makers and
staff to react to situations without delay. Standard operating procedures have to be developed by the
people who are going to be implementing them to ensure that the fully understand them, as SOPs are
usually very short and concise. Also, it is the role of the Palestinian DRM system as a whole to generate
SOPs for different levels that smoothly link to the other levels. This report outlines the type of SOPs that are
needed, but leaves developing the details to the Palestinian entities.

There needs to be a solid working relationship between the decision makers and the staff. The decision
makers need to make themselves available, review existing information, request additional information,
and set objectives for the operations from their perspective. The staff shall provide support and perform
tasks where the guidance is clear. The SOPs guide the activities to the extent possible, but will not replace
the guidance of the decision makers.

5.7 DRM Committees

At the national level the Prime Minister establishes and heads a National DRM Standing Committee
that meets yearly, but can be called to a meeting when needed. The members of the National Standing
Committee are all line ministers and all governors. It is the responsibility of the minister of local government
units to ensure and organize information flow between the National Standing Committee and the local

36
government units, as with other matters involving the units.

The district level has a DRM committee, headed by the governor, which includes, district level line ministerial
staff, and district level entities of PCD, Police, PRCS, and other that work at the district level. The committee
shall meet at least 3 times a year. The governor is responsible for sharing information between the National
Standing Committee to the DRM committee that is specific to the district.

The community level has a DRM committee headed by the heads of local government units and includes
village leads, camp committees, and representatives of relevant stakeholders that work at the local level.

5.8 Command and Coordination Centres and Mobile Command

Posts
When the DRM system is activated to higher levels (2-5), Command and Coordination Centres (CCC) in the
affected areas are activated. The CCCs are established at three levels.

1. National level CCC, headed by PM: National DRM Centre

The national level includes the Prime Minister, the Presidency, the Cabinet, line ministries and
authorities, national level entities such as the Palestinian Agriculture Disaster Risk Reduction &
Insurance Fund, the Palestinian Civil Defence at the national level, the Police, the Palestinian Red
Crescent, and others.

2. District level CCCs, headed by governors: District Emergency Rooms

The district level includes the governors, district level line ministerial staff, and district level entities
of PCD, Police, PRCS, and others.

3. Local Government Unit level CCCs, headed by heads of LGUs: Local Emergency Rooms
The community level includes the mayors of municipalities, village leads, and camp committees.

The heads of each CCC are responsible for ensuring that the Centre is operational when needed.

Each CCC has partners that either communicate with or come to the centre at times of unrest. The centres
are activated based on need, in order to speed up communications, for example:

• Information is collected and disseminated automatically, e.g. situation reports.

• Key information is readily available and visual for those coming into the centre.

• Meetings are short and to the point. The need to for meetings is decreased by the automated way
of sharing information (SOPs).

• Entities send liaisons to be at the centre, when needed.

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Mobile Command Posts
1. The field level is where PCD, Police, PRCS field units, ministerial field staff, such as from the Ministry of
Public Works and Housing, Social Affairs, and Health, and other field personnel tend to the affected
people, damaged structures, and disrupted services.

Operations are managed based on incident management systems. All parties require training in working
within incident management systems.

All CCCs are of equal importance and cannot function properly without the support of each other.
For example, the Mobile Command Post provides information about the situation and needs on the
ground, and the higher level supports the field level to accomplish their work. Each level has their own
coordination and assessment mechanism that connects to the centres above and/or below. The national
level coordinates with all district levels, which coordinate with the local level. The local level coordinates
between the district level and the field level. The Mobile Command Posts will also coordinate with the local
or district headquarters for support.

5.9 Declaration of a state of emergency or disaster

The Palestinian Basic Law of 2003 regulates the declaration of a state of emergency, where the President
of Palestine is granted the right of the enactment of a presidential decree to declare a state of emergency,
for a period not exceeding 30 days, when there is a threat to the national security caused by war, invasion,
armed insurrection, or a natural disaster.

Declarations are only of value if some sort of action accompanies them. The action could be access to funds,
resources or support, or allowing the government to take over public and private property and ensuring
owners’ compensation, request for international assistance, or other actions to support the operations.
It could also mean that government staff is granted the authority to turn their attention to support the
disaster activities, as opposed to their daily work.

Some countries have special disaster funds and some have special disaster insurance funds. For example in
the United States of America, the President declares a federal emergency in order to open access to funds
earmarked for disasters. The need for a declaration must not delay or hinder those reacting to a situation
from responding as needed. It is beyond the scope of this report to suggest whether Palestine should have
such funds and insurances, but it already has an agricultural insurance fund. SOPs for a declaration of an
emergency or disaster should be developed in cooperation with the Prime Minister and the Cabinet.

5.10 Cooperation
A well-functioning DRM system requires a high degree of cooperation between the entities in order to
ensure the above factors are addressed smoothly. The details of this cooperation need to be outlined
during further development of the system. There will be some overlap that needs to be addressed. This
overlap will become clear once the system is implemented. To clarify responsibilities, the following should

38
be kept in mind:

• Developing a national risk analysis is a cooperative effort. The basic hazards are common to all
entities, while the risks they face are different. It is logical that the PM office/CCC take the lead in
working with academia, research centres, and others in developing an overall risk analysis that can
be the basis for other agencies to build on.

• Mitigation needs to be implemented throughout society and as part of a development process.

The sectors therefore play a lead role in developing ideas and implementing mitigation measures.

• Disaster operations change with time. Early warning activities require steady monitoring of the
situation, life-saving and relief operations call for urgent and speedy activities. These measures need
to be described in a National Response Plan, in separate contingency plans. All plans need to be
based on standard operating procedures. The emergency phase of a disaster has to be coordinated
from a Command and Coordination Centre. As the emergency fades and the more longer term
relief and recovery processes set in, which may takes years, the operation gradually moves from
being coordinated by the CCC to being coordinated by the sectors. Eventually the recovery work
by the sectors merges into usual mitigation and development work and the recovery work is over.
The procedures for these operations need to be developed before the disaster under the disaster
function of Operational Preparedness.

The existing sector structure ensures that the entities address DRM from a development perspective and
the CCCs ensure that entities at national, district, community and field levels train for (level 1) and react to
(levels 2-5) disasters. Both the sectors and the CCC involve multi-stakeholder meetings on DRM. It is the role
of the PM Office/CCC to streamline the activities between them.

Entities at the national, district, LGU and Civil Protection Levels should meet on a regular basis to
stake stock on DRM issues, at least:

• The President.
• The Prime Minister
• Ministers.
• Governors.
• Local Administrator.

The legal review has shown that there are overlaps in legal authority among entities. Such overlaps cause
confusion during disasters regarding who is responsible for what. The PM Office/CCC also needs to take the
lead in addressing these issues to ensure smooth disaster operations.

5.11 Accountability in DRM

Accountability on the subject of DRM is therefore:

• Prime Minister is accountable to the President for the state of readiness in the State of Palestine in
regards to DRM.

• Ministers and heads of authority are accountable to the Prime Minister.

39
 • Government agencies are accountable to their respective ministries.

• Local Government Units are accountable to the Minister of Local Government.

• Governors are accountable to the President

• Sector leads are responsible for developing DRM policy within their respective sectors, and as such
are accountable to the Prime Minister.

5.12 Draft DRM Law

The factors explained previously in this chapter (with the exception of the five activation levels) and a
review of existing law on topics related to DRM in Palestine, were used develop a draft law presented in
Annex A. The five activation levels are not placed in the law to give the stakeholders necessary flexibility in
making adjustments to the levels based on experience.

The draft law takes into account the following:

• No article is long so as to be able to get a conceptual overview of the content

• It outlines the basic objectives and tasks of DRM

• It provides entities with the mandate (authority) to work on DRM

• It gives a legal basis to ensure that the DRM activities are performed.

• Only defines terms in article 1.1 that are used in the law

• Is a framework for basic activities, where additional efforts should be able to find a logical way to
link into.

As indicated herein, by-laws, normal working procedures and standard operating procedures need to be
developed to outline further details of DRM activities. These should be written in conjunction with finalizing
the draft in close cooperation with actors at the national, district, and local levels and civil protection.

40
6. Managing the Palestinian DRM system
This chapter describes DRM work in more detail and gives examples of what needs to be done. The role
of the Prime Minister is described in most detail. Other offices have similar roles at their level. There is a
template to help other entities define their roles. Future work in developing regulations and procedures for
these roles and responsibilities will spell out the details of entity roles and responsibilities.

6.1 Implementing objectives

A national DRM system is managed through operating procedures developed to reach the eight
general disaster-related objectives:

1. To understand disaster risk, its components and context.

2. To measurably reduce known disaster risk.

3. To prepare future operations for dealing with future disasters.

4. To react to damaging processes prior to, during and after impact.

5. To save the lives of those caught in damaging or otherwise injurious processes.

6. To provide temporary relief of suffering to those affected.

7. To implement non-temporary measures to return a community to normalcy.

8. To systematically learn from recent events and implement change.

The DRM activities of an entity are based on their daily mandated activities. DRM is an additional layer
of activities to the already existing mandated activities. Daily mandated roles and responsibilities do not
change during a disaster. Each entity shall produce statutory regulations relevant to DRM, and associated
normal working procedures to follow during normal times and standard operating procedures to follow
during non-normal times.

Each entity adopts these general objectives and adapts them to their own mandate on the basis of
questions of the staff members:

Before a disaster:

1. How will a disaster in our society affect our work or those that need our services?

2. What can we do to reduce the risk of the occurrence of such a disaster?

3. What can we do to prepare our staff in case such disaster happens?

41
During disaster operations:

1. How should we react to damaging processes throughout the event?

2. What is our role in saving lives?

3. What kind of temporary relief can we provide to those affected by the disaster?

4. What can we do to help return the society to normalcy?

After disaster operations:

What can we learn from our experiences and what changes should we implement to decrease the risk of
such an event happening again and to be more prepared should such an event happen again.

Answering these questions is a continuous, never-ending process and requires procedures that the staff
members follow. These procedures guide the staff in their work within their entity and with other entities.
For some entities it will be enough for a group of staff members to come together on a regular basis, for
example as a committee, to discuss and answer the above questions. Other entities will need to have a
special DRM person or even unit to deal with DRM issues. Each entity will have an internal DRM project to
determine how to answer these questions. Disaster functions are management functions for each of the
objectives. In other words, there will be various people from different department that answer the different
questions. Each entity needs to make sure that each of the 8 management functions are established in
some way, but there are many ways to do that.

6.2 Primary and Secondary Disaster Functions

While all entities shall address all disaster-related objectives from their own perspective, some entities have
a larger role than others regarding some objectives from a societal perspective, and others have no role
towards some of the objectives. The entities that have a larger role are either specifically set up to focus on
a certain disaster-function, or produce information that other entities benefit from.

The focus of each entity in regards to disaster functions can be divided into primary and secondary functions.
The difference between primary and secondary are presented in table #1. All are expected to participate
fully in recovery operations and systematic learning, regardless of the type and level of participation in
disaster operations.

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 Table 1: Activities for primary and secondary disaster functions

Disaster
Primary Secondary
Function
Those more likely to use the national
Those likely to contribute to a
Risk disaster as a basis to create their own
national disaster scenario
scenario

Those that manage services or Those having limited services or

Mitigation
physical structures/objects structures to manage

Those that participate in reacting

Those that focus on reacting to their
Preparedness to the needs of others during
own needs during operations
operations

Those who monitor real time risk, Those who receive information
Impact Operations monitor or react to early warning about real time risk and react to
and to impact news of increased risk.

Those who perform any type of

Those that may have some
Rescue Operations direct support operations for life
involvement
saving

Those who perform any type of

Those that may have some
Relief Operations direct support operations for
involvement
temporary relief work

Recovery Operations Refers to all entities Refers to no entities

Systematic Learning Refers to all entities Refers to no entities

Table 2 hereinafter presents primary entities within the same disaster function while table 3 lists how
ministries and the PRCS can be divided into primary and secondary disaster functions. The tables are based
on judgment. It should be reviewed as a combined effort among the entities and changed as the entities
find appropriate. It is recommended that these entities be used as a starting point for discussing how to
address the tasks for the relevant disaster functions.

43
When the role of an entity in DRM becomes clear, it organizes internal activities to reach the pertinent
objectives. The amount of effort an entity puts into reaching its DRM objectives will vary. Possibilities
include:

• DRM Focal point: DRM is the responsibility of a staff member who also has other responsibilities.
This is the least amount of effort an entity shall take. This person is the contact person for DRM
matters, writes the annual DRM reports, and performs small tasks.

• DRM manager: A staff member is responsible of DRM without any other responsibility. This person
is likely to report to the head of the agency.

• DRM unit: DRM is seen as such an important and large factor within the entity that it requires a
group of specialists in a unit/office.

In all cases, those responsible for the DRM involve people from all departments within the entity in the
DRM activities.

Once the entity has decided who are responsible for DRM, they need to organize the disaster functions.
Disaster functions are management functions geared towards each objective. In other words, what are the
activities the entity will take to understand risk, reduce risk, and prepare for a disaster.

All entities cooperate on DRM through sector work, and through Command and Coordination Centres
during emergencies and disasters.

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 Table 2: Primary entities within the same disaster functions.

Disaster
Primary Entities
function
Agriculture, Higher education, in particular universities, Finance,
Health, National Economy, Public Works and Housing, Social Affairs,
Risk
Telecommunications and Information Technology, Transportation (Met office),
Water Authority. Environment Quality Authority, and Red Crescent

Prime Ministry/Cabinet, Agriculture, Economic Development, Education,

Finance, Health, Local Government, Public Works and Housing, Social Affairs,
Mitigation:
Telecommunication and Info Technology, Transportation, Water Authority, and
Environment Quality Authority

Prime Ministry/Cabinet, Agriculture, Economic Development, Foreign Affairs,

Operations Health, Interior, including PCD and police, Local Government, Public Works
Preparedness and Housing, Social Affairs, Water Authority, Environment Quality Authority,
and Red Crescent.

Agriculture, Health, Interior, including PCD and police, Local Government,

Impact Operations Public Works and Housing, Social Affairs, Transportation (Met office), Water
Authority, Environment Quality Authority, and Red Crescent

Rescue Operations / Health, Interior, including PCD and police, Local Government, Public Works
Life saving and Housing, and Red Crescent

Agriculture, Awqaf and Religious Affairs, Finance, Health, Interior (including

Relief Operations PCD and police), Local Government, Public Works and Housing, Social Affairs,
Transportation, and Red Crescent

Recovery All participate, but Agriculture, Economy, Finance, Health, Local Government,
Operations Public Works and Housing, and Social Affairs are key to this process

Systematic Learning All, though it might be happening at different times

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 Table 3: Generalized primary and secondary functions for ministries and PRCS.

Disaster functions

Preparedness
Ministries and

Operations

Operations

Operations

Operations
Mitigation

Recovery

Learning
Rescue
Impact

Relief
PRCS

Risk
President S S S - - S P P
Prime Ministry/Cabinet S P P - - S P P
Agriculture P P P P S P P P
Awqaf and Religious S S S - - P P P
Economic Development P P P - - S P P
Education/ Higher Education S /P S/P - - S/P S/P P
Finance P P S - - P P P
Foreign Affairs S S P - - S P
Health P P P P P P P P
Interior, incl. PCD and police S S P P P P S P
Justice S S S - - S P P
Labor S S S - - S P P
Local Government S P P P S P P P
Public Works and Housing P P P P P P P P
Social Affairs P P P P S P P P
Telecommunication &Info
P P S - - S S P
Technology**
Transportation, incl. Met
P P P P S P P P
Office
Tourism S S P - - S P P
Women’s Affairs S S P - - S P P
Comm. of Civil Society
S S P - - S P P
Services
Water Authority P P P - - S P P
Environment Quality
P P P - - S P P
Authority
Red Crescent P S P P P P P P
*Universities are included in higher education, Universities are not designed to have an operational role during a disaster, other than tending
to their own needs. Deciding involvement of universities in operational functions must be done on a case-by-case basis.
*Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology

46
Table 3 addresses ministries; it does not separate their agencies. Ministries are requested to adjust the above
table to address both the ministries themselves and the agencies. For example, the Ministry of Agriculture
needs to differentiate between the ministry and the Palestinian Agriculture Disaster Risk Reduction &
Insurance Fund, and the Ministry of Interior needs to differentiate between the Ministry and the Palestinian
Civil Defence. Furthermore, universities, academic institutions, research centres, etc. need to outline their
roles other than disaster risk analysis.

Note that the private sector is so diverse that it cannot be added to the table under one heading of “private
sector”. Each entity within the private sector needs to be analyzed separately.

6.3 General roles and responsibilities

All entities shall develop DRM Standard Operating Procedures for reaching each of the eight objectives as
the objectives relate to them. The eight objectives can be grouped into three different types of focus:

• Before operations: procedures that slowly and surely cover all aspects and details needed, with the
assumption that there is enough time to do so, even though the time is unknown – it continues
until the next disaster occurs.

• During operations: Procedures that expedite daily procedures.

• After operations: Procedures that focus on improving the system.

Part of developing DRM procedures is to develop an internal business continuation plan that seeks to
enable the entity to:

• Function despite being directly affected by the disaster.

• Function despite overload.

• Support other entities.

All entities develop their DRM procedures in cooperation with their sector partners and CCC partners.

Table #4 depicts how each sector level shall have its own DRM procedures. The table also describes the
different types of DRM procedures required before, during and after operations. Note that the grouping
in the table says before, during and after operations – it does not say before, during and after disaster. The
beginning and ends of Operations, which are defined by those determining the response, are well defined;
the beginning and end of a disaster, which is the level of disruption, is not.

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 Table 4: Sector DRM Procedures Framework.

Before Operations During Operations After Operations

Daily is slowly, but
Focus When disaster, then faster Be critical, but kind
surely
Micro sector RA MIT OPP IPO RSO RLO REC SL
Intermediate
RA MIT OPP IPO RSO RLO REC SL
sector
Macro sector RA MIT OPP IPO RSO RLO REC SL

Procedures are associated

Explanation Procedures are incorporated Procedures are incorporated into
with disaster command and
into NDP procedures NDP procedures
coordination procedures
(Activation level) (Activation Level 1) (Return to Activation Level 1)
(Activation Level 2-5)

RA: Risk analysis

MIT: Risk Mitigation
OPP: Operations Preparedness
IPO: Impact operations
RSO: Rescue Operations
RLO: Relief Operations
RCO: Recovery Operations
SL: Systematic Learning

The following documents are suggested aids for how to format the procedures for operations and how to
make a link between Palestinian aid and international aid:

• UNDP SOPs for Immediate Crisis Response

• IASC Handbook for RCs and HCs on Emergency Preparedness and Response

6.3.1 Examples of “Before, During and After” Activities

The following are examples of activities that take place before, during, and after operations for consideration
during the development of procedures.

The President is responsible for sovereign affairs as these affairs are affected by disasters and the governors’
affairs tasks are the following:

Before:

• Put DRM issues on the agenda for Governors Council, with the support of the PM-DRM.

During, according to procedures:

• Check with Governors on the situation.

• Coordinate with affected Governors.

• Shorten lines of communication between Governors and PM-DRM as much as possible.

• Maintain continuous relations between governors and PM-DRM.

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After:
• Participate in Lesson Learned activities.

The Prime Minister on behalf of Council of Ministers:

Before:
• Put DRM issues on the agenda for the Council of Ministers.

• Develop statutory regulations for DRM within their domain.

• Update the President on the State of Palestine ´s state of readiness.

During, according to procedures:

• Ensure a functioning administrative body.

• Monitor ability of ministries and administrative agencies units to function. Support ministries,
bodies, authorities, and institutions that have been affected or are overwhelmed.

• Form temporary entities as needed to fill gaps.

• Monitor if all ministries, bodies, authorities, and institutions cover all the necessary activities
needed to address the disaster. Address any overlap or gap in addressing the situation created by
the disaster.

• Monitor public order and the internal safety and security, and respond accordingly.

• Update the President on the State of Palestine ´s state of response and progress towards recovery.

After:
• Ensure that there are lessons learned activities.

• Take the lead in Lesson Learned activities.

The Ministries
Before:
• Put DRM on their agenda.

• Coordinate internally.

• Prepare ministerial business plans.

• Provide focal points for DRM in the ministry and associated agencies.

During:

• Participate in CCC activities as needed, both at national and district levels.

After:
• Participate in lessons learned activates.

• Implement changes.

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The Governors:

The Governors’ Roles and responsibilities shall be according to their Role as per normal activities, as
representatives of the President. Their main Role in DRM is coordination at the district level and be the link
to the presidency. The governor monitors the situation at the district level and coordinates activities at the
district level to maintain an overview of the situation. Using the principle of normality, it is not advised that
the governor be given more power of the local ministerial staff than normal, as this will cause additional
confusion on what that power entails. Instead it is suggested that the new PM-DRM staff work with the
partners to develop procedures that are agreeable to all parties.

Before:

• Put DRM on the agenda of the Executive Council and the Local Advisory Council.

• Prepare a location for CCC.

• Convene CCC partner meetings.

During, according to procedures:

Activate the Emergency Committee and Operations Room as needed, to deal with all disaster issues
including:

– Monitor early warning and other impact operations.

– Rescue operations.
– Relief operations.
– Recovery operations.
• Coordinate the Emergency Committee.
• Coordinate with the Presidency and any coordination mechanism set up by PM-DRM.
• Appoint a person to manage the District Emergency Room.

After:
• Activate systematic learning within the district.
• Participate in Lesson Learned activities.

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The Local Administrative Units and their elected Councils

Before

• Put DRM on the agenda of elected Councils and Joint Service Arrangements.

• Construct health institutions: aid stations, sanatoria, and hospitals and supervising them with the
concerned Governmental bodies.

• Adopt all the awareness steps and measures required to protect the public health and to prevent
the epidemics from spreading among people.

• Plan cities, organizing buildings and streets, and constructing shelters.

During, according to procedures

• Activate the Emergency Committee and Operations Room as needed, to deal with all disaster issues
including;

• Monitor early warning and other impact operations.

• Rescue operations.

• Relief operations.

• Recovery operations.

• Coordinate the Local Unit Emergency Committee.

• Coordinate with the District Emergency Committee.

• Appoint a person to manage the District Emergency Room.

• Establish a Temporary Local Service Centre during periods of disruption in the community to
provide information and coordinate and expedite handling of matters for citizens affected by the
disaster. All responding entities shall be provided space in the Centre, such as the Red Crescent and
the Palestinian Agriculture Disaster Risk Reduction & Insurance Fund.

After

• Activate systematic learning within the Local Unit.

• Participate in Lesson Learned activities.

The following table presents examples of differences between normal working procedures and standard
operating procedures, where the latter aims to expedite the pace of communications between entities.

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 Table 5: Examples of comparison between procedure types

Normal Working Procedures Standard Operating Procedures

PM sends weekly reports to President on
PM sends hourly reports in the beginning of a
decisions that have been made in the cabinet and
disaster, moving to daily, then every other day,
recommendations to the President, for instance,
then twice a week and finally back to weekly.
on what laws and bylaws to sign.

President, PLO, Camp Population Committees, Hourly reports in the beginning of a disaster,
UNRWA, Ministers of Health and Education on moving to daily, then every other day, then twice
matters of the camps, have monthly coordination a week, then weekly, and then back to monthly
meetings at the national level. coordination meetings.

The PM gives orders to line ministers, have weekly The PM increases communication with the
meetings. ministers that are most involved with the event.

The Council of Ministers meets whenever

The Council of Ministers meets on a regular basis. necessary to make high-level executive decisions
to support the operations.

Normal communication between line ministries Increased communication between line ministries
and their entities. and their entities.

Joint Service Arrangements for LGU, supported by Temporary Joint service arrangements are set up
the Minister of Local Government. as needed to address the disaster

6.4 Ministries and Statutory Regulations

The ministries and authorities along with their agencies are experts in their respective fields. The ministries
are responsible for developing statutory regulations from their perspective.

After having developed with their agencies and any respective partners a full understanding of what
constitutes DRM from their perspective, the ministries prepare specialized draft laws and statutory
regulations pertaining to DRM in the domain their ministries as needed, and present to the Council of
Ministers.

6.5 PM Office/National Disaster Risk Managment Centre (NDRMC)

The DRM falls under the domain of the highest level of executive authority, the Prime Minister.

To fulfill obligations in meeting the DRM objectives the Prime Minister has staff directly reporting to him/
her to manage the day-to-day activities. They ensure that the PM is updated on any events that may
concern the PM or the Cabinet. The staff shall have expertise in matters of DRM to be able to take the lead

52
in developing and maintaining a Palestinian DRM system.

The Prime Minister’s office on DRM and the Command and Coordination Centre of the Prime Minister can
be merged into one; the same staff members who work in the PM office activate the Centre. The Prime
Minister ensures that command and coordination activities have the space and support necessary for
successful activation of all system activation levels.

The staff shall collectively have expertise in matters of DRM to be able to take the lead in developing and
maintaining a Palestinian DRM system (various experts in different fields). In general, the staff shall take
measures to:

• Lead the development of the DRM national strategy.

• Maintain an overview of state of readiness.

• Support the development of and maintain a national risk analysis.

• Maintain an overview of mitigation measures.

• Support the development of a national response plan.

• Take the lead on national level lessons learned projects following an event.

• Advocate for and provide knowledge support in DRM to Palestinian entities.

• Keep abreast with international activities and knowledge development.

The proposed system assumes that a technical DRM office be established that reports to the Prime Minister.
The office is the ears and eyes, arms and legs of the PM in DRM matters. The staff work using normal
office procedures during normal times, and follow standard operating procedures for a Command and
Coordination Centre during higher level of activation. The details of the PM Office/CCC need to be discussed
with the PM office in more detail before the proposed idea is fully developed, for example regarding space
for monitoring and displaying risk/current situations, and for accommodating partners during times of
emergencies, either for meetings or as liaisons, both decision makers (e.g. President, ministers, heads of
agencies) and their staff. The CCC shall have an active link to all existing Emergency Rooms at the national
level, such as PCD, RC, meteorological department, seismic centres, civil affairs and military affairs, and to
all governor´s centres, coordinated through the President´s Advisor and technical unit. The CCC shall have
the ability to contact any LGU.

This setup will support the PM to make fast and well informed decisions during emergencies and during
the longer-term recovery process. This setup will aid the Council of Ministers also in their decision making
process and ensure highest level coordination on DRM matters. Due to its high-ranking location, the office/
CCC can inquire about situations at all levels of society. It is stressed here that there is no change of authority.

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Key functions
The key functions are:

• Support the PM on all matters of DRM.

• Monitoring state of readiness.

• Coordination of actor and information.

• Facilitation of support.

• Mainstreaming DRM into national and agency policy.

• Secretary for CCC-PM partner meetings.

• Activating the CCC-PM and other CCCs as needed.

Scope of work
Due to the high administrative level, the scope of work is broad. The role of the PM Office/CCC is to coordinate
and maintain overview while the more detailed work is performed within the entities. The outline below
represents topics that the PM Office/CCC shall address, but does not reflect levels of effort needed for each
listed item.

DRM Strategy, Pan, Budget and Follow up in all Sectors and at all Levels
• Support the integration of DRM strategic framework within the National Policy Agenda and sector
related strategies.

• Provide administrative support to National DRM Standing Committee.

• Maintain regular contact with sector leads.

• Report on progress regarding the implementation of DRM strategic framework.

Risk Analysis and Scenario Development

• Responsible for producing a disaster scenario for national level planning.

• Develop disaster scenarios for societal levels and sectors.

• Support entities at the micro, intermediate, and macro levels to develop disaster scenarios for
mitigation and preparedness.

• Design, build, and maintain risk management information system.

• Collaborate with risk entities such as, universities, Meteorological department, and ministerial
departments.

• Disseminate risk information to stakeholders.

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Mitigation Measures for Disaster Risk
• Develop mitigation and adaptation options and ideas for societal and sectoral levels for government
agencies, the private sector, civil societies, and the general public.

• Promote disaster risk mitigation at the national level.

• Monitor and evaluate efforts at the micro, intermediate and macro levels.

• Identify institutional weakness that will negatively affect disaster response and suggest ideas from
improvement.

• Advocate for integration of risk reduction measures into government strategies.

• Maintain overview and report on progress in mitigation projects.

• Provide feedback on progress to the PM and President.

Preparedness for Activation of Levels 2-5

• Facilitate the development of a Disaster Assessment and Coordination mechanism in the State
of Palestine to deal with impact, rescue, relief, and recovery operations that operates at national,
district, community, and field levels.

• Develop multi-stakeholder contingency plans for impact, rescue, relief and recovery operations for
the national level (national response plan) with relevant partners.

• Include standard operating procedures for activation of system during early warning, small-scale,
large scale, and national events.

• Support the development of plans at other levels.

• Develop, maintain, and test business continuity plans for the PM office.

• Advise entities on preparation of facilities for disaster assessment and coordination.

• Develop and maintain procedures to receive international aid.

• Facilitate and monitor training of high level policy makers on disaster-related management.

• Hold training and exercises at the national level, and support others in training and exercises.

• Ensure the inclusion of government agencies, the private sector, civil societies and the general
public in training and exercises.

• Maintain an overview of state of readiness for disaster in the State of Palestine.

• Plans shall include procedure for incorporating international response.

55
During Activation of Higher levels of Activation (2-5)
• Continuously collect, compile, and assess information based on assessment procedures.

• Provide briefings, situation reports and disseminate information as needed.

• Support PM in performing high-level assessment and coordination in PM´s high-level role in DRM.

• Maintain continuous situational awareness.

• Maintain coordination with other national stakeholders.

• Maintain a national operations coordination centre to accommodate both the roles of the policy
makers and national level responding agencies, and insure their integration. The staff members of
the PM-DRM manage the centre. Stakeholders at the national level participate in coordination at
the centre during crises.

After Activation of Higher Levels, Systematic Learning

• Responsible for procedures for learning at the national level.

• Support development of procedures for learning at societal levels and sectors.

• Lead national learning and change processes after a disaster, small or large.

• Follow up and report on learning processes, including smaller emergencies and events.

• Coordinate systematic learning from independent sources financed by the Palestinian National
Authority and other entities.

• All entities responding to a disaster shall provide information towards systematic learning.

General Activities
• Ensure that the PM is updated and well informed on the status of DRM in the State of Palestine to
ensure that he/she can initiate vital interventions in his/her lead role in DRM.

• Implement DRM policies set by the PM.

• On behalf of the PM, maintain cooperation between Presidents’ Governor Advisors and Unit and
line ministries, using to the extent possible, current working procedures.

• Coordinate with councils at the district, community, and field levels.

– M in placing DRM on the agenda of the Council of Ministers.

• Presidency in placing DRM on the agenda of the Governors´ Council.

• Mayors, village heads, and camp committees in placing DRM on their agendas.

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During normal times, the staff organizes its work on a normal basis through non-disaster management
functions (Risk Analysis Function, Mitigation Function, Operational Preparedness Function, and Learning
Function). Staff members work closely with many actors, including;

• Other offices inside the Prime Ministry.

• Ministries who have the role of sector leads.
• Ministry of Local Government Units, on matters concerning Local Government Units.
• Ministry of Interior on matters concerning Civil Protection.
• National level agencies that deal with Civil Protection, such as Civil Defence, Red Crescent, Police,
Security forces, and Ministry of Health.
• Agencies established to deal with disasters, such as the Agriculture Disaster Risk Reduction &
Insurance Fund and the Meteorological Department.
• Representative of Presidents advisors and units on matters concerning districts.
• Entities that deal with occupation issues, such as civilian and military liaisons.
• Entities that deal with risk, such as universities and research centres, appointed by the Minister of
Education.
• Representatives of the private sector.
• Civil Organization representatives, appointed by the Minister of Civil Societies.
• International agencies, such as UNDP and UNOCHA.
• UN cluster leads.
• Regional actors.
• Donors on donor projects.

6.6 Sector Roles and Responsibilities from DRM Perspective

In the tables below, each sector objective of the four sectors is converted (column 1) to a DRM perspective
through two basic questions (column 2). The first question involves understanding the vulnerability of the
system in question due to earthquakes, floods, winter storms, etc. in order to understand how it can be
affected by such events. The second pertains to the level of disaster resistance and resiliency within the
system.

Procedures to address these questions should be developed as standard procedures with the sectors.
Answers to the first question should be based on a general knowledge of how the systems in question are
affected by the hazards, and on a scientifically developed disaster scenario for different areas of the State
of Palestine, based on different hazard levels of a hazard map. The second question involves determining
acceptable levels of disaster resistance and resilience.

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6.6.1 Good Governance and Institution Building Sector
Strategic approach of the Good Governance and Institution Building sector: Institution building on the
grounds of respect of human rights, fundamental freedoms, and citizenship rights, including freedom
of expression and the right to access information. Citizens will enjoy protection of the law without
discrimination under an independent, effective and efficient judicial authority and a professional security
establishment. In addition to effective and efficient national and sub-national governments that are capable
of high-quality proficient public service delivery, this strategic approach ensures public participation and a
decentralized approach to decision-making and public accountability processes.

Table 6: Good Governance and Institution Building sector DRM perspective

Good Governance and Institution Building Sector

Sub-sectors:
Justice and rule of law, Security, International relations, Local government, Administrative development
and Management of public finance and monetary, banking and financing policies

Strategic Objectives 2014-16 DRM perspective

How do earthquakes, floods, winter storms, etc. affect the

More effective, efficient, and
management and allocation of public finances?
transparent management and
How could management and allocation of public finances be
allocation of public finances.
adjusted to make them disaster resistant and resilient?

How do earthquakes, floods, winter storms, etc. affect the

Local Government Units throughout
public service delivery provided by LGU?
governorates are more capable of a
How could such service delivery be adjusted to make them
better public service delivery.
disaster resistant and resilient?

How do earthquakes, floods, winter storms, etc. affect public

More effective delivery of, and
services? How could public services be adjusted to make
equitable access to, public services.
them disaster resistant and resilient?

How do earthquakes, floods, winter storms, etc. affect security

Enhanced ability to provide security and access to justice?
and access to justice. How could the provision of security and access to justice be
adjusted to make them disaster resistant and resilient?

How do earthquakes, floods, winter storms, etc. affect

More effective Palestinian presence in
Palestinian presence in Arab and international forums, and
Arab and international forums as well
Palestinian communities in the Diaspora?
as within Palestinian communities in
How could such presence be organized to make it disaster
the Diaspora.
resistant and resilient?

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6.6.2 Economic Development and Employment Sector
Strategic approach of the Economic Development and Employment sector: Establish more robust
foundations for an independent, equitable, and sustainable national economy, which materializes
sustainable development, provides decent employment opportunities to citizens and enhances their
productivity.

Table 7: Economic Development and Employment sector DRM perspective

Economic Development and Employment Sector

Sub-sectors: National Economy, Employment, Agriculture, ICT and Tourism and Antiquities

Strategic Objectives 2014-16 DRM perspective

How do earthquakes, floods, winter storms, etc. affect

Investments creating employment investments planned/made for employment opportunities?
opportunities have increased How could these investments be adjusted to make
employment disaster resistant and resilient?

How do earthquakes, floods, winter storms, etc. affect

An enabling environment for balanced
economic growth and development?
economic growth and development is
How an environment for could be adjusted to make economic
in place
growth and development disaster resistant and resilient?

How do earthquakes, floods, winter storms, etc. affect

National productive capacity and businesses?
the competitiveness of Palestinian How could improvements for productive capacity and
businesses has improved competitiveness be adjusted to make businesses disaster
resistant and resilient?
Entrepreneurial and innovative
How do earthquakes, floods, winter storms, etc. affect
initiatives among the youth and
economic initiatives among the youth and women?
women in the economy sector have
How could these initiatives be adjusted to make them disaster
expanded, both quantitatively and
resistant and resilient?
qualitatively

6.6.3 Social Protection and Development Sector

Strategic approach of the Social Protection and Development sector: Continue to provide sustainable,
high-quality, rights-based and gender-sensitive social services, contributing to alleviating poverty and
maintaining social justice between social groups and areas. These will provide protection and empowerment
to children, women, young people, the elderly, and people with disabilities in a society governed by a
pluralistic, innovative national culture, which safeguards its heritage and preserves its social cohesion and
solidarity.

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 Table 8: Social Protection and Development sector DRM perspective

Social Protection and Development Sector

Sub-sectors: Social protection (and safety nets), Education, Health (mental and physical), Culture and
Heritage, Youth and Sports, and Empowerment of Women.

Strategic Objectives 2014-16 DRM perspective

A rights-based, gender-sensitive, and a How do earthquakes, floods, winter storms, etc. affect social
more inclusive, integrated and sustainable protection systems?
social protection system to alleviate
poverty, marginalization and social How could social protection systems be developed to make them
exclusion. disaster resistant and resilient?

Education, higher education, and TVET

systems ensure high-quality education How do earthquakes, floods, winter storms, etc. affect education,
for all without discrimination, linked to higher education, and TVET systems?
the labor market and society needs, and How do education, higher education, and TVET systems be
keep pace with scientific and academic developed to make them disaster resistant and resilient?
advancements.

How do earthquakes, floods, winter storms, etc. affect healthcare

A more integrated healthcare system, systems?
providing high-quality, equitable public
health care services for all. How could healthcare systems be developed to make them disaster
resistant and resilient?

More accessible cultural activities,

promoting a pluralistic, open and How do earthquakes, floods, winter storms, etc. affect cultural
innovative national culture, which activities?
denounces all forms of discrimination, as How could cultural activities be organized to make them disaster
well as preserving and renewing cultural resistant and resilient?
heritage.

Palestinian youth, including males and How do earthquakes, floods, winter storms, etc. affect the ability of
females, are more capable of participation young men and women to thrive in society?
in the labor market and social, political,
cultural and sports events, and contribute What initiatives could be taken to make young men and women
more effectively to national development. disaster resistant and resilient?

An empowered Palestinian woman

who enjoys more protection and better How do earthquakes, floods, winter storms, etc. affect the security of
participation in the labor market and women of all ages and their ability to thrive in society?
public life, with easier access to all basic What initiatives could be taken to allow women to enjoy more safety
services and with equitable opportunities and be disaster resistant and resilient?
without discrimination.

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6.6.4 Infrastructure Sector
Strategic approach of the Infrastructure sector: A sustainable, equitable Palestinian infrastructure, which
contributes to promoting economic development, independence, social justice and connectivity between
Palestine and the outside world.

Table 9 Infrastructure sector DRM perspective

Infrastructure Sector
Sub-sectors: Energy, Environment, Housing, Transportation, and Water and wastewater management

Strategic Objectives 2014-16 DRM perspective

Safer and more effective and efficient
How do earthquakes, floods, winter storms, etc. affect
transportation system and road
transportation systems and road networks?
networks in line with international
How transportation systems and road networks could be
standards and integrated with Arab
developed to make them disaster resistant and resilient?
and international networks

Energy secured and supplied to

How do earthquakes, floods, winter storms, etc. affect energy
consumers in sufficient quantities,
supplies and create environmental hazards due to damages
at reasonable prices, and in line
to the energy supply system?
with technical and environmental
How could energy supply systems be made disaster resistant
specifications that meet international
and resilient?
standards

A Palestinian water and wastewater

management sector that is more How do earthquakes, floods, winter storms, etc. affect water
organized and more capable of supplies and wastewater management?
securing water rights for citizens and How could water and wastewater systems be made disaster
materializing a fair distribution for all resistant and resilient?
purposes

A less contaminated Palestinian How do earthquakes, floods, winter storms, etc. contribute to
environment and safeguarded cultural the contamination of the environment, and affect the natural
heritage and natural environment, environment and cultural heritage?
which are managed in a more What initiatives can be taken to make the environment and
sustainable manner cultural heritage disaster resistant and resilient?

An adequate, affordable and culturally

How do earthquakes, floods, winter storms, etc. affect the
appropriate housing sector, which
housing stock and the public services connected to it?
ensures secure tenure, allows access
How could the housing stock and its associated public
to public services, and meets citizens’
services be made disaster resistant and resilient?
needs more effectively and efficiently

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6.6.5 National DRM Strategy
A national DRM system needs to be integrated into a country’s development plan. Therefore, the suggestion
presented herein to link it directly to the Palestinian National Development Plan (NDP). The NDP, the
UNDAF and the UNDAF Comprehensive Analysis provide information on the basics of what constitutes
the State of Palestine and its hopes for the future. They hold the key to describing the exposure and the
vulnerability of the State of Palestine from a strategic perspective. These documents should be used as a
basis for developing a DRM Plan.

• Develop a National DRM strategy and Plan as part of the development of the National Policy
Agenda.

• Implement the plan through:

– Budget programmes, developed by ministries and agencies responsible for the management
of their respective projects.
– A Project Management Cycle System.
– DRM project registry.
– PM and Finance Minister (FM) provide guidance, quality assurance and monitoring of
consistency and effective coordination between government bodies.
– The PM-DRM shall provide expertise to support the process.
– DRM guiding principles.
• Monitor and evaluate the implementation and strategy.

– At the micro level for micro level objectives.

– At the intermediate level for intermediate level objectives.
– At the macro level for macro level objectives.
• Each sector shall prepare semi-annual progress reports on targets, each in its own field, for
discussion in semi-annual meetings.

• As part of the strategy development, a disaster risks based on scientific risk analysis shall be included
in the Risk Management Framework.

• Implementation and monitoring shall follow the system set up for the National Policy Agenda. The
PM-DRM staff shall perform additional monitoring from a national perspective.

• The strategy shall outline specific and measurable targets for each of the eight DRM objectives.
These targets should be achieved by a given target date.

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6.7 Establishing the Proposed DRM System
It is recommended that steps taken to establish the proposed system include writing initial DRM reports
to stake stock current capacities to address DRM objectives. The initial reports that need to be written and
their recipients are listed below. Initial DRM reports towards DRM strategy and policy:

Each ministry writes a DRM report that includes both the ministry itself and its agencies and send it to
PM. For example the Ministry of Agriculture must state clearly its own role vs. the role of the Palestinian
Agriculture Disaster Risk Reduction & Insurance Fund, and the Ministry of Interior must state clearly its own
roles vs. the role of the PCD, the police and other entities.

Each entity writes a DRM report and send it to sector leads.

• This report is written by various staff members.

• This report shall include a discussion on whether the entity will in the future;

– Deal with DRM with current staff; or

– Need a DRM unit within the entity.
Sector leads write a DRM report for their sector and send it to PM.

• This report is based on DRM reports from entities within the sector, including civil societies and the
private sector.

• This report should reflect the DRM sector strategy/policy.

MoI writes a DRM report on Civil Protection and sends it to PM.

• This report is written with the emergency services.

MoLGU writes a DRM report regarding LGU and sends it to PM.

President´s Advisor on Governors’ Affairs writes a report and sends it to PM

The table of content for each report shall include:

• How will a disaster in our society affect our work or those that need our services?

• What can we do to reduce the risk of such disaster happening?

• What can we do to prepare our staff in case such disaster happens?

– How is reacting to damaging processes throughout the event relevant to us and how will we
do it?
– Is saving lives relevant to our mandate and if so, how will we do it?
– What kind of temporary relief can we provide to those affected by the disaster?
– What is our contribution to return the society to normalcy?
• Analyze how existing legal articles (see for example those listed in the legal analysis chapter) relate

63
 to DRM.

• What kind of effort is required within our entity to answer these questions?

• What information or assistance do we need from others to complete questions 1 to 3?

• The reports should take into consideration the contents of the 2015 Sendai Framework for Disaster
Risk Reduction document. It would be beneficial to those writing the reports to be given a course
in DRM.

Establish CCC and standard operating procedures:

Establishing CCC includes the activities below:

• Identifying suitable locations. Governors may already have suitable locations identified that they
use for their Emergency Rooms.

• Find solutions for mobile command post for field level activities.

• Identify staff members and other members to manage the centre during disasters.

• Develop standard operating procedures.

• Develop standard operating procedures for receiving international assistance.

• Secure methods of communication, e.g., through wireless communication, telephone/mobile

phones, satellites, drivers/runners, etc.

• Have training and mock-up exercise.

In regards to establishing and maintaining a CCC, it is the responsibility of each entity that manages a CCC
for coordinating multiple entities (i.e., PM-DRM, governors and LGUs) to decide if current staff members can
sufficiently maintain the system, or whether new people are hired to manage it. One solution to staffing
could be to hire a small group of people to maintain multiple centres. For example, LGU could have 2-3
people to set up, maintain and train people to operate in LGU CCC in the West Bank and another similar
group in the Gaza Strip. Similarly, the governors could hire 2-3 people to set up, maintain and train people
to operate in District CCC, or it could be PM-DRM staff members who manage all the centres.

Just like each entity and sector needs to write DRM report, so do those that head the CCCs, as a contribution
to the national strategy and policy.

Further legal DRM analysis:

This report grouped the legal articles based on their primary objectives. Further analysis of the law from a
DRM perspective involves analyzing the articles in detail and summarizing how they collectively address
all three pre-disaster objectives: risk analysis, mitigation, and operational preparedness. Comparing
existing legislation for each of these objectives with future DRM strategies and policies will identify gaps
in legislation.

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PM Office/NDRMC:

To be able to advocate for, initiate, guide, and follow up on the above listed activities, one of the first
activities is to establish the PM Office/CCC:

• Deciding arrangements of the PM Office/CCC, how the day-to-day office work and command and
coordination work is merged, exact mandate, etc.

• Staffing

• Training the staff members

• Finding a location that suites both office work and disaster operations work

Once the office is set up, some of the first activities are:

• Assist entities on writing the DRM, if needed, including;

– Entities

– Sector leads

– CCCs

• When convenient, hold a national CCC meeting with all the partners at the national level.

• Encourage other CCC heads to hold partner meetings and report on them.

• Set up a working relationship with the sector leads and encourage them to hold DRM meetings in
their sectors, and report on them.

• Analyze all reports as contributors towards a national strategy and policy.

• The challenges that lie ahead for the staff members include:

• Conventional risk analysis, mitigation and preparedness activities, and disaster operations.

• Merging the policies and activities from the sectors with the policies and activities from the CCC
partner cooperation to create one streamlined Palestinian DRM system.

• The unique circumstances that the occupation creates.

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References
• Ghuman, K. (2010) Management: Concepts, practice & cases, TataMcGraw Hill, New Delhi, India.

• IASC Handbook for RCs and HCs on Emergency Preparedness and Response.

• National Governors’ Association (NGA 1979).Comprehensive emergency management, a

governor’s guide, Centre for Policy Research, Washington, DC.

• Thorvaldsdóttir, Sólveig, and Sigbjörnsson, Ragnar, (2014) Disaster-Function Management: Basic

Principles. Natural Hazards Review 15(1):48–57.

http://ascelibrary.org/doi/abs/10.1061/(ASCE)NH.1527-6996.000.0118

• UNISDR Terminology (1999).

http://www.unisdr.org/we/inform/terminology

• UNISDR (2005) Hyogo Framework for Action.

http://www.unisdr.org/we/coordinate/hfa

• UNISDR (2015) Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

http://www.preventionweb.net/files/43291_sendaiframeworkfordrren.pdf

• UNDAC Report (2014) UNDAC Disaster response preparedness Mission to the State of Palestine,
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

https://www.ochaopt.org/documents/undac_mission_report.pdf

www.iso.org (2013) The International Organization for Standardization

http://www.unisdr.org/we/coordinate/national-platforms

• UNDP SOPs for Immediate Crisis Response.

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Annex A: Draft DRM Law
SECTION ONE
DEFINITIONS AND GENERAL PROVISIONS
1.1 Definition of terms
The following words and phrases shall have the below designated meanings, unless otherwise indicated
by the context:

Contingency Planning: Administrative processes that plans for specific possibilities of events or
conditions that may threaten the society or the environment, in order to prepare arrangements to help
respond effectively to these events or condition upon onset.

Disaster: A serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society involving widespread

human, material, economic or environmental losses and impacts, which exceeds the ability of the affected
community or society to cope using its own resources.

Disaster Risks: The potential disaster losses, in lives, health status, livelihoods, assets and services, which
could occur to a particular community or a society over some specified future time period.

Disaster Risk Management System: A set of procedures and measures adopted by specialized
entities as per this Law and other valid legislations to achieve objectives of disaster risk management, using
administrative directives, operational skills, strategies, policies, etc.

Early Warning Systems: The set of capacities needed to generate and disseminate timely and
meaningful warning information to enable individuals, communities and organizations threatened by a
hazard to prepare and to act appropriately and in sufficient time to reduce the possibility of harm or loss.

Emergency: A state that calls for urgent assistance or relief.

Emergency Services: Specialized entities with mandates targeted to serving and protecting human
beings and properties in emergency cases.

Normal working procedures: Procedures followed during non-emergency or non–disaster times

Preparedness: The knowledge and activities developed by governments, professional response and

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recovery organizations, communities and individuals to effectively be prepared for responding to and
recovering from impacts of future hazard events or conditions.

Response: Provision of emergency services and public assistance during or immediately after a disaster
in order to save lives, reduce health impacts, ensure public safety and meet the basic subsistence needs of
the people affected.

Recovery: Restoration of facilities, livelihoods and living conditions, reconstruction of the built
environment, and human rehabilitation to bring affected communities back to normalcy.

Risk: The combination of the probability of an event and its negative consequences.

Risk Mitigation: Reduction of disaster risk

Public Awareness: The extent of common knowledge about disaster risks, the factors that lead to
disasters and the actions that can be taken individually and collectively to reduce exposure and vulnerability
to hazards and prepare for disasters.

Standard operating procedures: Procedures followed during emergency or disaster times

Sustainable Development: Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising
the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

1.2 Purpose
This law aims to develop and sustain a Palestinian disaster-risk management system to manage disaster-
related activities before, during and after a disaster. The purpose of the system is to the extent possible
ensure a well functioning Palestinian society by minimizing the risk of widespread human, material,
economic or environmental losses and impacts due to disasters, to maximize its ability to cope with societal
disruptions using its own resources, to make the best use of national resources and international assistance
when a disruption level exceeds the ability of Palestinian resources to cope, and ensure that experience
from disruptions, large or small, is used to evaluate the systems

The outcome of implementing the law shall contribute to the following conditions
within the State of Palestine:
1. Stable and sustainable national comprehensive development and a safe and stable national
environment.

2. High governmental, private, and public awareness of disaster risks that will motivate individuals to
take initiatives to reduce disaster risk and prepare for disasters.

3. Low risk of occurrence of disasters whether in terms of their geographic coverage or their consequent
losses and damage in all domains, including human, material, economic and environmental.

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1.3 Objectives
To fulfill the aim of this law, the following disaster-risk objectives shall be met to the extent possible be met
and based on the provisions of this law:

1. Understand disaster risks in terms of their nature, magnitude and context;

2. Reduce known disaster risks to an agreed upon and measureable level;

3. Have the ability to cope with societal disruptions using own and international resources, through
contingency plans, trained personnel, equipment facilities and other preparedness activities, to
be able to perform the following operations in an efficient and effective manner during times of
serious threat, emergency and disruption:

A. Early detection of disruptive processes to the extent possible to enable concerned parties to
take informed decision based on up to date scientifically developed information, warn the
population to the extent possible, hinder real-time hazardous and damaging processes from
causing damage and disruption, and other real-time interventions against disruptive processes;

B. Save and protect the lives of those trapped, lost, injured or otherwise affected individuals;

C. Provide temporary relief and general assistance to those who suffer during disasters;

D. Implement permanent recovery measures to bring the lives of the affected people back to
normalcy;

4. Evaluate operations performed during past disasters in order to learn from them and improve the
current system.

1.4 General Responsibilities

All Palestinian Authorities, such as ministries, authorities, government agencies, governors, and local
government units, and the Red Crescent, private sector, civil society organizations, scientific and academic
institutions are responsible for meeting the objectives in article (1.3) based on their area of specialty, and
thus contributing to the outcome of implementing the law. All entities shall foster cooperation with other
entities based on their area of specialty, government level, and geological location to provide an active,
all-stakeholder disaster-risk management system within the Palestinian context.

In particular, each entity shall fulfill the following:

1. Develop policies, strategies and plans to meet the objectives of this law appropriate to their area of
specialty, government level, and geological location

2. Develop and follow daily working procedures during normal times, and standard operating
procedures during times of emergency and disaster, to meet the objectives of this law. These
procedures shall follow to the extent possible normal working procedures.

3. Appoint a disaster-risk management technical focal point for cooperation with other entities.

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 4. Create and participate in partnerships for implementing policies, strategies and plans developed
to meet the objectives of this law, including those to ensure citizen participation, for disaster and
non-disaster periods.
5. Submit disaster and non-disaster progress reports to appropriate reporting entity as outlined in
standard working procedures.
6. Review, following an emergency or a disaster, the operations and submit evaluation reports to
appropriate reporting entity. The National and Local Sanding Committees shall publish national
and local evaluation reports and enforce changes in the DRM system accordingly.

1.5 Specific Responsibilities

1. As the highest executive authority, The Prime Minister is responsible for

A. Cooperation and strategy development at the national level

B. Cooperation and strategy development between the national, district, and local levels, in
coordination with the relevant authorities.

2. The Minister of Local Government units is responsible for including the intent of this law in local
strategies and plans.

3. The Minister of Interior is responsible for civil protection according to the provisions in this law.

4. Sector leads are responsible for including the intent of this law in national strategies and plans.

5. Governors are responsible for cooperation and strategy development at the district level

6. Heads of local governors units are responsible for cooperation and strategy development within
their jurisdiction.

1.6 Accountability
1. The Prime Minister is accountable to the President of the State for the state of readiness towards
disasters, and the response and recovery efforts in the event of a disaster;

2. Ministers and heads of public entities are accountable, each within his/her specialization, to the
Prime Minister;

3. Directors of Directorates of Ministries and Public Authorities in the Governorates are accountable
to the concerned Minister or head of the concerned authority as the case entails.

4. Sector leads are accountable to the Prime Minister, within their areas of speciality.

5. The Governors are accountable to the Prime Minister on DRM matters and the state of readiness
within its jurisdiction.

6. The LGU are accountable to the Ministry of LGU on DRM matters and the state of readiness within
its jurisdiction.

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SECTION TWO
NATIONAL LEVEL COORDINATION
2.1 Prime Minister Daily DRM Responsibilities
The Prime Minister shall organize staff, facilities and resources to best reach the objectives of section1 from
the national perspective, and in accordance with normal Prime Minister staff organization to the extent
possible while taking into account the specific factors of disaster risk management, in order to:

1. Monitor the state of readiness in Palestine

2. Adjust policies, strategies, plans and budget and perform interventions relevant to the national
level to reach and maintain to the extent possible a high level state of readiness.

3. Brief the President of the State on the state of preparedness related to disaster risks.

The Prime Minister may call on Ministers, leads of sectoral development plans, institutions supporting
response operations, members of the private sector and civil society, and anyone the Prime Minister deems
suitable, to meet whenever needed to discuss disaster risk management plans and the state of readiness
to cope with a disaster.

Coordinated, sufficient and sustainable international cooperation secured by competent authorities to

fulfill the aim of this law shall be through bilateral and multi-lateral channels. The Prime Minister shall sign
international agreements on behalf of Legislative Council.

To achieve the aspired purposes of this law stipulated in section 1, the Prime Minister
shall:
1. Develop, coordinate and achieve effective cooperation among entity focal points in technical
programs.

2. Convene conferences and seminars, and establish projects.

3. Cooperate with international entities on disaster related management, including

A. Convening international conferences, seminars and projects,

B. Participate in international efforts and follow up the development of knowledge at international

levels.

C. Obtaining and administering international grants and other international assistance during
non-disaster periods.

Without prejudice to the provisions of the proposed law, the Prime Minister shall prepare its bylaw. The
bylaw shall be issued by the Council of Ministers and published in the Official Gazette.

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2.2 National Standing Committee on DRM
The Prime Minister shall strive to ensure strong cooperation and coordination among all national level
stakeholders. The Prime Minister shall establish and head a National Standing Committee.

The National Standing Committee shall include all sector leads, all governors, a representative from the
Red Crescent, and representatives with of the private sector. The committee shall meet at least once a year.

2.3 Prime Minister‘s Responsibilities during Societal Disruption

Notwithstanding the provisions of the Palestinian Basic Law, the Prime Minister shall declare the state of
readiness of emergency or disaster, clarifying the target geographic area and the necessary measures to
cope with society disruption in accordance with the Law. The Prime Minister shall prepare a bylaw on the
general and legal purpose of such a declaration

During an emergency or a disaster, the Prime Minister shall take measures or decisions within the provision
of DRM law and other Palestinian law to ensure successful operations in the event of a disaster, specifically:

1. Brief the President of the State on the state of threat, situation, response and recovery.

2. Supervise the operations at the national based on pre-established standard operating procedures.

3. Call on whomever suitable, including the Ministers of the Interior, Public Works, and sector leads of
the major sectoral development plans, the DRM Director, the leadership of the Security Apparatus,
the Police, Civil Defense and the Palestinian Red Crescent, for meetings, either individually or in
groups to discuss and follow up on any issues regarding a disruption in society.

4. Continuously monitor the performance of:-

A. Ministries and government entities response for gaps and overlaps and take steps to address
them, for example by establishing committees, councils and operation rooms whenever the
need prompts.

B. District and local emergency rooms and provide them with the necessary resources to ensure
proper functioning of public life.

5. Provide and coordinate national and international support to a district or local government unit,
when district and local resources are overwhelmed.

6. Coordinated with the Minister of Interior to ensure that Civil Protection is fully incorporated into
the national level in cooperation with the Minister of Interior.

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2.4 National DRM Centre
To facilitate fulfilling national responsibilities the Prime Minister shall set up a National Centre for Disaster
Risk Management, with departments and units necessary to achieve its purpose. The Prime Minister shall
appoint a Director to lead the DRM Centre from the higher management category, on the condition that
he/she has the experience, specialization and qualification in the field. The National DRM Centre Director´s
financial rights shall be identified in accordance with the post specified in his/her appointment decision in
line with the provisions of the Law.

Without prejudice to the provisions of DRM Law, the Prime Minister can delegate implementation of tasks
to the DRM Centre Director, who shall undertake tasks to implement articles (1.2) an (1.3) in DRM law and
the task of commanding and coordinating standard operating procedures and associated operations when
early warning indicates the need or once a disaster occurs at the level of the State, or district and local level
if these levels require national support. The DRM Centre Director duties include:

1. Report on an administration basis to the Prime Minister´s Chief of Staff. Normal working procedures
and standard operating procedures shall ensure sufficient communication between the Prime
Minister, Prime Minister´s Chief of Staff, and the DRM Director.

2. Prepare budget and financial reports and submit them to the Prime Minister for endorsement.

3. Recommend proposals of regulations and instructions on disaster risk management to the Prime
Minister and prepare by-laws as requested by the Prime Minister.

4. Issue the necessary decisions in accordance with disaster-risk management by-law.

5. Prepare its administrative structure and submit it to Prime Minster, who submits to the Council of
Ministers for endorsement.

6. Sign agreements of cooperation relevant to the Centre.

7. Prepare and submit regular reports to the Prime Minister regarding the Centre’s activities and
performance and propose solutions to face obstacles and difficulties impeding its work and the
work of its departments and units.

8. Manage the daily, emergency, and disaster operations.

9. Call on whoever he/she deems appropriate to attend meetings.

10. Delegate tasks to whomever he/she deems suitable as prompted by work requirements. Delegation
by the DRM Director shall be issued in writing articulating the delegated tasks, the title of the
delegated person and the duration of the delegation. The delegated person may not delegate any
of his delegated powers to any other person. Legal responsibility cannot be delegated.

11. Solicit the services of experts and advisors as needed.

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Concerning the permanent and temporary staffing of the Centre:
1. A sufficient number of qualified and specialized staff members shall be designated to the Centre.
The DRM Director shall organize and manage the Centre, and supervise its employees and different
administrations.

2. In accordance with the provisions of the legislations in force, the DRM Director may have any staff
member assigned, seconded or loaned to work at the Centre.

3. The Council of Ministers shall issue a special regulation specifying salary scale, bonuses, promotions
and allowances of the Centre’s staff.

4. Temporary staffing from other entities for specific assignments shall be encouraged.

Instructions and measures that are deemed suitable for the Centre shall be prepared by the DRM Director
and issued by the Prime Minister, in collaboration with the concerned Centres and parties in accordance
with the law. Instructions and measures to meet the goal and objectives of this law at the national level
shall include:

1. Coordinate directly with concerned parties and ministries that lead the sectoral development
plans in the different major and sub domains, to implement tasks assigned within this law and the
regulations issued thereunder.

2. Prepare National Standing Committee Meetings and follow through on action items.

3. Coordinate and follow up with the

A. Governors on matters concerning district level.

B. Minister of Local government on matters concerning local government units.

4. Ensure readiness of National Centre as a command and coordination Centre once a disaster occurs
in all technical, administrative and operational aspects.

5. Participate in activities targeted to enhancing international cooperation.

6. Put in place mechanisms to communicate with the public and advise them of the disaster risks,
how to reduce risks, how to prepare for disasters, and provide them with the instructions during
times of disruption, and coordinate these activities and advisories with the district and local levels.

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Financial resources:
1. The financial resources of the Centre shall consist of:

A. Funds allocated in the general budget.

B. Grants, donations and aid, and any other available resources to the Centre in accordance with
the in force laws and legislations in force.

C. Revenues of activities conducted by the Centre for the benefit of others.

2. The financial resources mentioned in Items (a, b) of Paragraph (1) of this Article shall be deposited
in a special account of the Centre, in accordance with a special regulation issued by the Council of
Ministers.

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SECTION THREE
DISTRICT LEVEL COORDINATION
3.1 Governors‘ Responsibilities
Coordination at the district level is the responsibility of the Governors.

1. The Governors shall organize staff, facilities and resources to best reach the objectives of this law, in
accordance with their normal responsibilities of coordination.

2. Without prejudice to the provisions of DRM Law, the Governors shall prepare bylaws for the Prime
Minister, in coordination with other bylaws prepared for the purpose of DRM law. The bylaw shall
be issued by the Council of Ministers and published in the Official Gazette.

3. Each governor represents their district in the National Standing Committee

4. The governor is responsible for ensuring that the objectives and task outlined in this law, shall be
implemented at the district level in accordance with normal responsibilities of the district level.

5. Have procedures to request for assistance to the national level, if district resources are overwhelmed.

6. Have procedures to offer assistance to neighboring Palestinian districts, if neighboring districts are
overwhelmed.

3.2 District DRM Command Centre

Each governor heads a district DRM command Centre. The governors shall ensure that the objectives of this
law are met in context of their geographical area and in cooperation with local level stakeholders.

1. Members of the command Centre are all governmental heads of municipal and rural councils and
Camp committees in the district, the directors of directorates of Ministries and government entities
in the district, the Civil Defense, Police Directorate, the National Security and the Palestinian Red
Crescent.

2. The Governor may call on whomever he/she deems appropriate and representatives of civil society
organizations and private sector and others in his/her governorate, to attend meetings of the
Emergency Room without having the right to vote.

3. The district DRM committee shall convene regularly, at least once every three months with the
attendance of at least the majority of its members. It shall convene any time on an exceptional basis
at the invitation of the governor, or at the request of one third of its members. The meeting shall
be considered valid if the absolute majority of its members, including the Chairperson, attend the
meeting.

4. Decisions shall be made by majority vote of attending members. If a tie in votes occurs, the side
with the Chairperson’s vote shall determine the decision adopted.

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To facilitate fulfilling their responsibilities governors will prepare a location for the distrect command
Centre for the purpose of multi-stakeholder coordination of disaster operations, to include impact, rescue,
relief and recovery operations.

1. The purpose of a District command Centre is to provide a coordination platform for all entities that
work at the district level during higher levels of system activation.

2. The District Centre is managed by the Governor who ensures the Centre‘s readiness to operate
when needed, including ensuring communication equipment

3. The District command Centre shall coordinate with the National Centre and with Local command
Centres in the district, and with mobile field coordination units, as required in line with the normal
responsibilities of the district.

4. Working procedures shall outline how to conduct the operations described here. Any gaps or
overlaps regarding working procedures that cannot be resolved by the district level entities due to
legal contradictions shall be taken up by the National Centre and resolved by the Prime Minister and
the Council of Ministers.The District Emergency Rooms shall operate based on standard operating
procedures that have been developed during non-disaster times

5. In case of disasters and emergency the District command cenetr shall convene permanently.
During such times it shall be staffed fulltime with technical, specialized or otherwise component
representatives of the stakeholders working at the district level.

6. District DRM committee meetings during times of disruption shall be called when decision makers
are needed to provide strategic or other guidance to the operations and are considered valid in any
manner it deems appropriate, including distant communication in any possible means, and with
the participation of any number of its members.

7. The governor, or the governor´s representative, shall convene DRM committee meetings as needed
to coordinate and update committee members on the situation. Decisions set before the DRM
committee in this case shall be taken by majority of votes of members participating in the meeting.

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SECTION FOUR
LOCAL LEVEL COORDINATION
4.1 Head of Local Goverment Unit Responsibilities
Coordination at the local level is the responsibility of the head of the Local Government Unit.

1. The Heads shall organize staff, facilities and resources to best reach the objectives of DRM law, in
accordance with their normal responsibilities of coordination.

2. Have procedures to request for assistance to the national level, if local resources are overwhelmed.

3. Have procedures to offer assistance to neighboring Palestinian jurisdictions, if neighboring

jurisdictions are overwhelmed.

Without prejudice to the provisions of this Law, the local government unit shall prepare bylaws for the
Minister of Local Government Units, in coordination with other bylaws prepared for the purpose of DRM
law. The bylaw shall be issued by the Council of Ministers and published in the Official Gazette.

4.2 Local DRM Command Centre

With due consideration to the “Local Authority Law no. (1) of 1997” or any other law replacing it, each LGU
heads (heads of municipal and rural councils) a DRM Centre within the Authority’s geographic scope in
accordance with this Law and regulations issued thereunder.

1. The heads of LGU shall ensure that the objectives of this law stipulated are met in context of their
geographical area and in cooperation with local level stakeholders.

2. The purpose of th Local DRM Centre is to serve as a platform for coordination for stakeholders
within the jurisdiction of the LGU.

3. The head of a LGU may call on whoever he/she deems appropriate and representatives of civil
society organizations and private sector and others in his/her governorate, to attend meetings of
the Centre without having the right to vote.

4. The Local Authority Centre shall convene regularly once every three months with the attendance
of at least the majority of its members. It shall convene any time on an exceptional basis at the
invitation of its head or at the request of one third of its members. The meeting shall be considered
valid if the absolute majority of its members, including the Chairperson, attend the meeting.
Decisions shall be made by at least the majority of attending members. If a tie in votes occurs, the
side with the Chairperson’s vote shall determine the decision adopted.

5. To facilitate fulfilling their responsibilities the head of local government unit will prepare a location
for a command and coordination Centre for the purpose of multi-stakeholder participation of
disaster operations, to include impact, rescue, relief and recovery operations.

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 6. The Local command and coordination Centre communicates and coordinates directly with national
DRM Centre the command and coordination Centre in its governorate and the field teams, as the
conditions require.

7. In cases of disasters and emergency the Centre shall convene permanently and its meetings shall
be considered valid in any manner it deems appropriate, including distant communication in any
possible means, and with the participation of any number of its members. The decisions in this case
shall be taken by majority of votes of members participating in the meeting.

4.3 Temporary Local Service Centres

The heads of local units shall establish temporary local service Centres during disasters to provide
information and coordinate addressing the needs of disaster-affected individuals. The Centre shall
undertake coordination and follow up with the National Centre when a disaster occurs as needed, and
shall undertake any other task specified in the provisions of regulations issued under this Law.

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SECTION FIVE
CIVIL PROTECTION
5.1 Responsibility of the Ministry of Interior
Civil protection is the coordination process of emergency services, such as police, fire, rescue, ambulance
teams, national auxiliary teams, and volunteers established to cope with on-site emergency situations. Civil
protection coordination is performed at field, local, district, and national levels to ensure well organized
on-site operations.

During an emergency or a disaster, without derogation of any authorities granted to it as per any legislation
in force, the role of coordination the emergency service operations and other civil protection requirements
is the responsibility of the Ministry of Interior.

The Minister of Interior is responsible for:

1. Preparing, in cooperation with all civil protection stakeholders, working procedures, facilities,
equipment and training for civil protection for all government levels, and shall prepare such
procedures in collaboration with the National Centre, the district and local emergency rooms, and
relevant civilian and security entities. Working procedures during a response shall be in the form of
an incident command system, especially for coordination within mobile field units.

2. Developing a preparedness strategy and plan for civil protection finalized in accordance with a
national risk assessment.

3. Develop an emergency management system that ensures effective and efficient cooperation of all
relevant entities, both civilian and security units, and volunteers, and also coordinates with other
on-going disaster operations.

4. Training and exercises for civil protection.

5. Progress reports on the development and state of readiness of civil protection.

6. Evaluation reports after an activation of civil protection coordination.

5.2 High Council of Civil Protection

The Minister of Interior is the head of the Higher Council for Civil Protection.

1. The Higher Council for Civil Protection shall include national stakeholders that work within civil
protection procedures.

2. The role of the High Council of Civil Defense is to be a board for Palestinian Civil Defense as is
stipulated in law #3 from 1998.

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SECTION SIX
PRIVATE SECTOR
1. Without derogation of any legislations in force, the Prime Minister may, during a disaster issue
decisions related to the use of private properties in disaster risk management, in return for a fair
compensation, the standards and mechanisms of which shall be specified within a special regulation
issued by the Council of Ministers.

2. Notwithstanding the provisions of Paragraph (1) above, estimating the compensation shall take
into account the special provisions stipulated in the concession contracts concluded with the
private sector.

3. In case the affected party does not concider to the specified estimated compensation, the party
shall be entitled to litigation before regular courts to claim compensation in accordance with the
Law.

4. The decisions of the Prime Minister shall be executed by the chief of staff and/or Director based on
pre-determined working procedures.

Notwithstanding the provisions of any other legislation, the private sector

organizations shall commit to cooperation with the National Centre to achieve its
tasks, including:
1. Providing the Centre with information and data requested within the duration specified by the
Centre.

2. Undertaking any tasks requested by the Centre in the framework of its specializations, including the
implementation of corrective disaster risk management requirements within those organizations,
and contributing in the Centre’s activities nationally and locally, and enforcing principles, regulations
and systems proposed by the Centre in accordance with the Law.

3. Establishing specialized units for disaster risk management within their organizational structures
on permanent or temporary bases as needed, and designate working teams to respond to disaster
risks whenever needed.

Notwithstanding the provisions of any other legislation, the private sector organizations shall commit to
cooperation with entities at the district and local levels achieve the aims of this law.

1. Cooperation with the private sector shall be organized through the district and local DRM
committees.

The governors and head of local government units shall provide the Director of the National Centre with
recommendations regarding decisions relating to the private sector.

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SECTION SEVEN
PENALTIES
Without derogation of any harsher penalty stipulated in the provisions of any other
legislation:
1. Any of the public servants or persons assigned a public service who violate the provisions of this
Law shall be punished by imprisonment for a period no less than three months and no more than
two years, or by a fine not exceeding ten thousand Jordanian Dinars or the equivalent in the legal
currency in circulation, or by both penalties.

2. Nothing in Paragraph (1) above detracts in any way from the provisions of the disciplinary
accountability in accordance with the Law.

3. Anyone who declines or slows to obey the orders and directives of the authorities and persons
assigned to enforce this Law, without legitimate excuse, shall be punished by imprisonment for a
period not exceeding six months or a fine not exceeding five thousand Jordanian Dinars, or by both
penalties.

4. Every natural person who declines to provide assistance that is in his capacity when requested,
shall be punished by imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year or by a fine not exceeding
three thousand Jordanian Dinars, or by both penalties.

5. Every legal person of the private law who violates any of the rules of this Law shall be punished by
a fine of no less than seven thousand Dinars and no more than two hundred thousand Jordanian
Dinars or the equivalent in the legal currency in circulation.

6. Anyone violating any of the provisions of this Law, not covered by a special penalty, shall be
punished by a fine not exceeding five hundred Jordanian dinars or the equivalent in legal currency
in circulation or by imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months, or by both penalties.

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SECTION EIGHT
FINAL PROVISION
A sufficient budget for emergency and disaster risk management shall be allocated in the State’s general
annual budget.

Each Ministry, entity and public authority shall allocate an independent budget within its annual budget
for disaster risk reduction purposes.

Except for those authorized by the provisions of the laws and regulations in force, any person or entity
shall be prohibited from publishing any news, instructions or decisions, and the like, during a disaster risk
readiness and response phases.

Any person shall be prohibited to remove any sign, banner, announcement or warning or relocate them
or render them unfit for their intended disaster risk management purposes. The violator shall, on his/her
personal expense, reinstate the original state of the aforementioned items, in addition to any other penalty
stipulated under the provisions of the Law.

Members of the National Centre, district and local emergency rooms, field teams, public servants and
persons assigned a public service shall be invested with Judicial Powers as soon as they start their work at
the outset of the disaster and in enforcing the provisions of this law and its implementing regulations and
decisions. They shall have the right to enter any place to ensure the enforcement of stipulated measures in
this law and regulations in force.

As per the provisions of the Law, the regional and international treaties and agreements and the provisions
of the international entities and organizations, in which Palestine is part of, shall be an integral part of this
Law.

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 Basic Structure of National Disaster Risk Management - Normal Situation

President

Prime Minister
National Center for
Disaster Risk Management
- Risk Analysis
Annex B Graphics

- Mitigation Actions
- Operational Preparedness National Committee for
- Capacity Building Learning
- National Emergency Operation Center
Disaster Risk Management
Formed from the heads of the development sectors
and governors, and representatives of the private
sector on the level of decision makers.

National Technical Team for

Disaster Risk Management
Formed from the the focal points in the ministries, Lines to clarify the
the government commissions, the current emergency relations between the
rooms representatives, the private sector, and the Prime Minister and the
civil society on the technical level. National Center for
DRM, and the main and
sub-sector coordinators
and the Governors.
Command and Coordination
Centers in Governates
Lines to clarify the
Headed by the Governor and it formed from the coordination between
DRM coordination structure for normal situation

ministries and government commissions the National Center for

representatives and the rivate and civil society sectors DRM and the National
on the technical level within the governates. Committee of sectors.

Command and Coordination Lines to clarify the

Centers in Local Government Units coordination between
the National Technical
Headed by the Municipal Council and is formed Team of DRM and the
from representatives who provide services within Command and
municipality (ambulance - fire/rescue - water - coordination Centers
electricity - works). and LGU.

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National Disaster Risk Management Coordination Structure - Disaster Situation

President Coordination
International Descision
Assistance/
Coordintion
National Disaster Risk Prime Minister
UN Country Team
Management Center
UN Humanitarian - Risk Analysis and Strategic Planning
- Capacity Development
Country Team - Operational Preparedness
- Mitigation Actions

National
Countries/Donors - National Emergency Operation Center
National Committee
Governors Ministry
Governors for Disaster Risk of Interior
Management Higer Council of National Palestinian
Civil Protection Security Forces Red Crescent
(HCCP) (NSF) Society
(PRCS)
National Technical Team for
PCD
Disaster Risk Management

Command and Coordination PCD Regional

Support Security Forces
Centers in Governates
Units

Governate/District
DRM coordination structure for disaster operation

Command and Coordination Local

Local Local
Centers in Police Units
PCD Units

Local/Municipal
PRCS Units
Local Government Units
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