Regional Cross-border Disaster Collaboration: A Joint Standard Operating Procedure between Jordan Israel and Palestine
(2022) VBRM15 20221Division of Risk Management and Societal Safety
- Abstract
- This case study research aims to identify the enabling factors and challenges for developing a joint Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for Disaster Response Preparedness between Jordan, Israel and Palestine. Twelve qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with experts either involved in the SOP project, the region and/or with extensive experience in developing cross-border SOPs. Three key factors were identified that enabled the development of the joint SOP. Effective partnership building; the neutrality of the project and actors; and creating a realistic exercise scenario to test the SOP were the critical enabling factors. The nine main identified challenges include political sensitivities and conflict; access restrictions;... (More)
- This case study research aims to identify the enabling factors and challenges for developing a joint Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for Disaster Response Preparedness between Jordan, Israel and Palestine. Twelve qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with experts either involved in the SOP project, the region and/or with extensive experience in developing cross-border SOPs. Three key factors were identified that enabled the development of the joint SOP. Effective partnership building; the neutrality of the project and actors; and creating a realistic exercise scenario to test the SOP were the critical enabling factors. The nine main identified challenges include political sensitivities and conflict; access restrictions; organisational issues; information exchange; participation of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs; shifting priorities; unequal power relations; adherence and sustainability SOP; and finalising the exercise scenario. The results revealed that developing an SOP between Jordan, Israel, and Palestine is a challenging endeavour; on the one hand, the SOP project faces generic challenges related to the SOP development process, which are often encountered in other Disaster Risk Management projects. On the other hand, a majority of the challenges and enabling factors are directly related to or exacerbated by the conflict dynamics. Nevertheless, this case study suggests that regional disaster collaboration between Jordan, Israel and Palestine is not impossible provided there is sufficient political will, a strong partnership and the project and actors are perceived as accepted and neutral by all three entities. (Less)
- Popular Abstract
- While the Jordan, Israel and Palestine (JIP) region is often characterized by conflict, its vulnerability to earthquakes, floods and other hazards is often overlooked.
This thesis looks at a regional collaboration project on disaster preparedness in the JIP region. Because of the complex political situation in the region, this project does not go without its challenges making it a research topic worth exploring.
The goal of this thesis is to identify the enabling factors and challenges for creating a common step-by-step plan for when a disaster strikes as part of this regional collaboration project. This step-by-step plan is called a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and should enable the different disaster responders in JIP to... (More) - While the Jordan, Israel and Palestine (JIP) region is often characterized by conflict, its vulnerability to earthquakes, floods and other hazards is often overlooked.
This thesis looks at a regional collaboration project on disaster preparedness in the JIP region. Because of the complex political situation in the region, this project does not go without its challenges making it a research topic worth exploring.
The goal of this thesis is to identify the enabling factors and challenges for creating a common step-by-step plan for when a disaster strikes as part of this regional collaboration project. This step-by-step plan is called a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and should enable the different disaster responders in JIP to have a common procedure for disaster response. In total, twelve interviews were conducted with people involved in the project and/or region. This thesis found that the enabling factors and challenges this project faces can generally be categorised into two categories. On the one hand, there are procedural factors that have to do with the process of developing an SOP between JIP. On the other hand, there are enabling factors and challenges that have to do with the conflict dynamics in the region. The procedural enabling factors consist of having a strong partnership between the parties and having a realistic exercise scenario to test the SOP, while the procedural challenges consist of issues such as a lack of funding for Disaster Risk Management, a high staff turnover, shifting priorities and regularly updating and adhering to the SOP once it is developed. The enabling factor that is related to the conflict dynamics consists of the need for the project and actors to be perceived as neutral by all three parties of JIP. Finally, challenges related to the conflict dynamics consist of political sensitivities and the conflict and the related access restrictions, issues with agreeing on information exchange, the participation of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the project, unequal power relations between JIP and finalising the exercise scenario to test the SOP. These results can be useful for this regional collaboration project as they provide a starting point for further research and analysis on how these challenges can be tackled. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9100497
- author
- Rinaldi, Nadia LU
- supervisor
-
- Per Becker LU
- organization
- course
- VBRM15 20221
- year
- 2022
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Regional Cooperation, Disaster Preparedness, Standard Operating Procedure, Disaster Risk Management, Middle East
- language
- English
- id
- 9100497
- date added to LUP
- 2022-09-21 10:14:14
- date last changed
- 2022-09-21 10:14:14
@misc{9100497,
abstract = {{This case study research aims to identify the enabling factors and challenges for developing a joint Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for Disaster Response Preparedness between Jordan, Israel and Palestine. Twelve qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with experts either involved in the SOP project, the region and/or with extensive experience in developing cross-border SOPs. Three key factors were identified that enabled the development of the joint SOP. Effective partnership building; the neutrality of the project and actors; and creating a realistic exercise scenario to test the SOP were the critical enabling factors. The nine main identified challenges include political sensitivities and conflict; access restrictions; organisational issues; information exchange; participation of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs; shifting priorities; unequal power relations; adherence and sustainability SOP; and finalising the exercise scenario. The results revealed that developing an SOP between Jordan, Israel, and Palestine is a challenging endeavour; on the one hand, the SOP project faces generic challenges related to the SOP development process, which are often encountered in other Disaster Risk Management projects. On the other hand, a majority of the challenges and enabling factors are directly related to or exacerbated by the conflict dynamics. Nevertheless, this case study suggests that regional disaster collaboration between Jordan, Israel and Palestine is not impossible provided there is sufficient political will, a strong partnership and the project and actors are perceived as accepted and neutral by all three entities.}},
author = {{Rinaldi, Nadia}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Regional Cross-border Disaster Collaboration: A Joint Standard Operating Procedure between Jordan Israel and Palestine}},
year = {{2022}},
}