Dr. Jalal Dabbeek, Director of the Urban Planning and Disaster Risk Reduction Center at An-Najah University and the Vice President of the National Authority for Disaster Risk Mitigation in Palestine, conducted a scientific visit to the United States that aimed to establish scientific cooperation between An-Najah and several American institutions that work in the field of disaster risk reduction. The visit targeted institutions in New York, Washington, Boston and San Francisco.

During his visit, Dr. Dabbeek met with a number of staff working in several research institutions, governmental and non-governmental organizations and donor institutions. In the meetings, Dr. Dabbeek presented a number of lectures and participated in several workshops in which he spoke about the activities that are implemented by the Urban Planning and Disaster Risk Reduction Center in cooperation with local ministries, municipalities, civil defense, the National Authority for Disaster Risk Mitigation and the Engineering Association.

These activities covered topics including studies and evaluation of seismic hazards, the vulnerabilities of buildings, infrastructure in Palestine, and public awareness programs that are mainly based on the concepts and principles of the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015 and the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction.

The meetings also included discussion of the different aspects of future cooperation between An-Najah and several American institutions with respect to disaster risk reduction. Some of the meetings focused on the points of weakness and strength in the different Palestinian institutions with respect to dealing with disasters. The clear progress that the Palestinian Civil Defense has made has been described, in addition to the standards and the regulations that the Palestinian Ministry of Education adopts in building schools which correspond to the international standards.

Dr. Dabbeek also said that the different Palestinian institutions have begun to adopt the seismic design of buildings. It is also expected that the Palestinian Engineering Association will soon set the necessary mechanisms for the application of seismic design in coordination with the related institutions and the Earthquake Engineering Unit at the Urban Planning and Disaster Risk Reduction Center.

The visit also included the formulation of preliminary proposals for the establishment of cooperation with the different American institutions which will cover joint projects, studies and activities.