Crisis and Emergency Management Conference 2010 at the Emirates...

11 January 2010 News

Under the kind patronage of General H.H. Sh. Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, H.H. Sh. Hazaa bin zayed Al Nahyan, National Security Advisor and President of National Crisis and Emergency Management Authority (NCEMA) inaugurated Crisis and Emergency Management Conference 2010 at the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Researches until 13th January 2010.

Present at the opening ceremony was H.E. Dr Hanif Hasan Ali, Minister of Health, H.E. Dr. Rashed Ahmed bin Fahd, Minister of Envrionment and Water, H.E. Ahmed Jumaa Al Zaabi, Deputy Minister of Presidential Affairs, H.E. Obaid Al Huiari Al Kutbi, Deputy Chief of Abu Dhabi Police, H.E. Staff General Hamad Monamed Thani Al Rumaithi, Chief of Staff of Armed Forces, General Saif Abdullah Al Shaafar, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Interior, H.E. Sharwan Al Farajallah Al Waeli, Iraqi Minister of National Security and other guests.

H.E. Mohamed Khalfan Al Rumaithi, Director General of the National Crisis and Management Authority, gave an opening speech welcoming guests.
In his speech, Al Rumaithi, thanked General H.H. Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Deputy Supreme Commander of Armed Forces for his patronage of the conference and the continuous support and follow up. He also thanked H.H. Sh. Hazaa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, National Security Advisor, President of the National Crisis and Management Authority, for inaugurating the conference.
He emphasized that the conference was held in a very critical international and regional circumstances that mandate everyone to stand united with a sense of responsibility towards societies.

Al Rumaihti underlined that the UAE gives a special interest and care to human beings under the guidance of H.H. Sh. Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE. He added that the country was keen to protect souls and properties and the wise leadership has laid the right foundations to deal with emergencies and crisis and respond in an effective and prompt manner. He said that the country was keen to make laws and legislations to protect souls and properties, and coordinate efforts in the field of national work.

“The Authority has just finished drafting the federal law regarding crisis and emergency management as a step to finally being approved from concerned authorities,” he explained.

“The untiring and continuous efforts exerted by the National Crisis and Management Authority in UAE has a major goal which is protecting the UAE nationals and expatriates from any emergency situations and guarding important national gains by our lovely country through organizing efforts with concerned authorities in the country.

“This is the main motive behind organizing this conference and inviting elite experts to learn from their experiences in thoughts to deal with emergencies. Thank God that the Authority succeeded in cooperation with official authorities concerned to combat some diseases that spread recently and deal with them successfully.

We are striving to achieve success in facing any emergency,” he concluded.
In a press conference after the conclusion of the first day of the conference, H.E. Mohamed Khalfan Al Romaithi, emphasized that the National Crisis and Emergency Management Authority was keen to interpret the guidance of the leadership as stated in the Authority mandate to be prepared for any emergency. He underlined the great and continuous support of the leadership to the Authority which reflected the keenness to protect souls and properties of anyone living on the UAE soil.

He added that when drafting the federal law, a group of legal experts did a benchmarking with other countries bearing in mind the local nature of the UAE society. The law will pass into official channels before finally approving it. The law will respond to all requirements and will decide the specialization of each authority on the local and federal level.

Referring to setting up a GCC center for Crisis and Emergency, he said that the trend now was each country would set up its own center. Once that was done, it would be easy to set up a unified GCC center. He added that NCEMA has a big job to do in 2010 and will set up its priorities including e-linking and doing joint exercises in preparedness for any emergency.

He stated that dealing with crisis has many stages: prevention, preparedness, planning and exercises, dealing with crisis and finally brining things to their ordinary status. The Authority could in a short period of time do a lot by joint efforts and working as a team. An example, he referred to the UAE’s preparations to deal with H1N1 saying that the UAE was one of the few countries that dealt with the situation efficiently which is a source of a pride and optimism.

That was reflected through several awareness programs and coordination of efforts of the Ministry of Health in the UAE and its counterparts in other countries. The UAE was one of 5 countries who first provide 1 million vaccine doses in a short period of time, and soon the number will go up to 2 millions. High priority in receiving the vaccine was given to pilgrims.

Al Romaithi urged nationals and expatriate not to be afraid of getting the vaccine as it is safe and recommended by WHO which keen on the health of people. General H.H. Sh. Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander imitated receving the vaccine and he did not suffer any symptoms after several months of getting the vaccine.
He added that NCEMA has a modern and state-of-the-art integrated center equipped with all technology that will enable the team to deal with big crisis. Referring to voluntary programs, he said that the UAE people was known for its love to voluntary work. NCEMA organized volunteering programs to deal with all cases. The Authority now has trained around 700 volunteer who did their jobs in many cases. The Authority has plans to train 15,000 national and expatriate volunteers. A new law for volunteers will be issued soon in the UAE.

Many experts spoke today including Jason Mackinmara, Amer Hussein, Jamal Al Mutawa, Rashed Al Nayadi, Team Steer, and Ahmed Butti Ahmed. They all stressed the importance to be prepared to deal with crisis and emergency as well as the vital role of leaders in commanding the crisis.
Jason spoke in the first session about confusion during crisis saying that disasters do not acknowledge borders and will hit everyone. It was the duty of people and governments to be prepared to deal with crisis and emergency stressing the importance of a team work to protect people from dangers.

Amer Hussein talked about crisis in the Middle East which varies between diseases, epidemics, pandemics, climate change, flood, drought, earthquakes, hurricanes, terrorism, wars, and transportation disasters.
He added that there should training programs in place to deal with psychological effects on rescuers and doctors who see blood and dead people daily. He also spoke about the psychological effects of disasters on people in a country like Lebanon where 46% of the people suffered post shock traumas with 25% children.

Dr Jamal Al Mutawa of Health Authority of Abu Dhabi (HAAD) gave a presentation on HAAD preparations to deal with H1N1 in 2009, where in HAAD followed the highest international standards and put hospitals on alert to deal with pandemic.
Rashed Al Nahyadi of NCEMA summarized the specialization of NCEMA in terms of preparing a strategic plan for crisis management, coordination with other entities, deciding roles of each entity and supervising national centers.

Ahmed Butti Ahmed, Head of Dubai Customs, said that it was important to be prepared and equipped for the worst. He added: “In Dubai we could have a crisis. We depend on IT and what will happen if data destroyed, we should have backup. In Dubai we are catching daily people smuggling drugs, so we have challenges. We have to protect our economy. We are catching copyright violations especially medicines that are killing people. We are in the front line to protect our country. All Customs in the world are playing the frontline. We do not depend on ourselves, one hand does not clap. We work with police and ministry of defense and interior, municipality. We exchange information. We prevent ourselves from crisis. As an example of linking power within GCC to face disaster, if there is a power cut, we have a backup with GCC. We are also building relations internationally with WTO, Interpol and other organzations, to exchange information and experiences.”
A workshop on nuclear energy has been organized focusing on joint coordination between NCEMA, Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation, and CNIA to have future plans to manage crisis and emergency in nuclear reactors and to implement safety and security measures.