June 22^nd. In an invitation from the Untied Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) and the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR), An-Najah University, represented by Dr. Jalal Dabbeek, Director of the Earth Sciences and Seismic Engineering Center (ESSEC) and Vice President of the National Authority for Disaster Risk Mitigation in Palestine, participated in a workshop that was held in Kuwait under the title “The Architectural Strategies for the Reduction of Disaster Risk in the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf”.

Representatives of all the countries of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf who work at the different municipalities, planning ministries, ministries of interior, housing, public works and civil defense participated in the workshop.

The workshop addressed several issues including the risks’ identification mechanisms, the evaluation of the consequent hazards and the determination of the levels of accepted risks which were explained by Dr. Dabeek, in addition to other topics such as the climate change, disaster preparedness mechanisms, emergency planning, as well as the strategies for dealing with disasters in urban areas.

Dr. Dabbeek reported that several experts in the fields of disaster risks, disaster management and climate change participated in the event. During the workshop also, a number of interviews were conducted with the representatives of several ministries and municipalities in the Gulf countries.