Disaster response in the Middle East and North Africa

For more than two years, the project on prevention, preparedness and response to natural and man-made disasters  has been underway in the Middle East and North Africa. 

The European project has been coordinated by the French agency Expertise France, and has had the support of the FIIAPP in Spain. Civil Protection specialists from France, Spain and Italy have worked with their counterparts from Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and the Palestinian Territory. 

The ultimate goal has been to strengthen national capabilities to reinforce resilience against all hazards and threats. To achieve this, work has been carried out through training activities, legislative, operational and institutional advice, while support has also been given to cross-border cooperation frameworks. 

Spanish specialists have contributed to the Civil Protection authorities being better equipped with communication tools to involve the population in the management of a possible emergency, promote volunteer programmes and encourage women’s participation in emergency situations in the field of civil protection. 

THE POPULATION IS A MAIN PART OF THE SOLUTION

For any Civil Protection organisation, the population initially appears as a problem to be dealt with during a crisis. But the reality is that often, the population is the main part of the solution when this same population is well-educated, informed and aware of its own responsibility during a crisis. The more aware the population is, the more resilient it will be and the more it will increment the government’s action. 

Some of the main results of the project have been the development of three guides (communication, volunteering and gender) in three languages (English, French and Arabic), which have been produced under the coordination of the General Directorate of Civil Protection and Emergencies. Furthermore, important tools and skills have been developed for communication during disasters or critical events, such as the e-learning platform and VOST (Digital Emergency Volunteering). 

In terms of communication, training activities have been offered on the function of spokespeople, media and social networks, and a strategy has been provided to combat hoaxes and fake news.