Antecedentes: la infancia y la educación infantil a través de la historia.

Emergency and Disaster Management in the UAE is still in its infancy and can be said to be an evolving field. This means that there are limited documented materials and literature in this field. However, this limitation was managed through a rigorous review and examination of reports and procedures used in practice as guidance for the operational field of disaster management in the country. Secondly, published literatures written on emergency management in the UK was also used, because the UAE adopted the emergency management standard used in the UK, thus, there are similarity of procedures for emergency and disaster management between the two countries. In the 1990s, emergency management in the UAE was underdeveloped, lacking any plan and documented operational procedures (Dhanhani et al., 2010). Despite this, there was a designated organization i.e. Ministry of Interior (MOI), assigned to be responsible for emergency management in general. However, in 2006, there was the development of strategic plans governing mechanisms to deal with all the possibilities of risk and disaster were a requirement

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stipulated by the national Federal Law No."23". Prior to this, the national or federal plan stipulated the civil defence in the Federal Law No."3" since 1979.

As the world began to experience unprecedented scale and magnitudes of disasters, preparation began in the UAE in 2000 with respect to developing a "plan of the Federal disaster". This process motivated the active participation of all stakeholders in the state, which was approved by the civil defence Council on 4 February2002. This joint arrangement was also approved by the Council of Ministers in its meeting No (3) that was held in2003and issued its resolution55/1for the year2003. The Federal Disaster Plan for 2003 in the United Arab Emirates identified the plan participants, and those related to activating the early warning (see Figure 3-1).

Figure 3- 1: Institutions that fall under the Federal Plan in the UAE(MOI, 2014)

Although the MOI still coordinate emergency and public safety issues in general in the UAE till date, the organization directly given the responsibility of emergency, crisis and disaster management at the moment in the UAE is now called National Crisis and Emergency Management Authority (NCEMA). In addition to this, there are other organisations such as the Civil Defence, Red Crescent, media to mention a few who have different responsibilities during

Ministry of Interior (MOI) Civil Defence

Ministry Of Energy National Media Council (NMC)

Ministry of Public Works (MOPW)

Minisrty of Culture Youth and Community Development Ministry of Health (MOH) UAE Red Crescent Telecommu nications Regulatory Authority (TRA) Ministry of Education

National Crisis & Emergency Management Authority (NCEMA) Ministry of Environment andWater (MOEW) Ministry Of Energy, Electricity &Water Sector (MOEWS)

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disaster to support NCEMA and the Police. The Police have primacy at any incident and they coordinate response just as done in the UK.

3.2.1 Federal Disaster Plan in the UAE

Unlike the UK, official policies and documents are not publicly available either in print or on the website of any emergency stakeholders in the UAE. The national response plan or disaster plan is only available for the use of emergency managers working in NCEMA, Civil Defence, MOI and the Police (Dhanhani et al., 2010). These organisations can then share information about response procedures with any stakeholder working in partnership with them to manage any imminent incident or hazard. In addition to this, there are no published academic work on NCEMA and their role as the authority in charge of emergency, crisis and disaster management in the UAE. Regardless, through the use of internally available documents provided by NCEMA staffs during this study, the strategic, tactical and operational responsibilities of NCEMA and other stakeholders who work with them to mitigate, prepare for, respond to and recover from the impact of any hazard.

Similar to the Civil Contingency Act (CCA), the formation of NCEMA was due to the global efforts to improve disaster and emergency management (NCEMA, 2014). Nationally in the UAE, NCEMA works with other agencies to conduct continuous evaluation and assessment of security and its stability so that national assets and resources can be protected as much as possible (Dhanhani et al ., 2010). Based on its institutional structure, NCEMA is accountable to the National Supreme Security Council (NSSC) and operates under Federal Law No.2 of 2011. This means that NCEMA is a major force in the UAE and has the support of law reinforcing its activities. Furthermore, NCEMA in partnership with other emergency organisation such as the Civil Defence and Police coordinate all emergency, crisis and disaster management efforts in the UAE. The organisation is also responsible for developing and maintaining the national plan for responding to emergencies.

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Therefore, the main focus and functions of NCEMA is to develop, consolidate and maintain the laws, national policies and procedures which relates to emergency and disaster management in the country. This is done using the four pillars (internationally known as the phases of emergency or disaster management). These pillars are illustrated in Figure 3-2.

Figure 3- 2: The Four Pillars of NCEMA(NCEMA, 2014)

Evidently, the UAE adopted the UK model; however, NCEMA is an independent authority whose concept was borrowed from the United States (US) as there is no direct equivalent of NCEMA in the UK. Regardless, attempts are made to follow the legal framework used for emergency management in the UK.

As stated by NCEMA, in terms of informing and communicating with the public, responsibilities regarding this are shared between NCEMA and the Civil Defence and other organisation involved in public safety in the UAE. To ensure that there is good coordination between all stakeholders; NCEMA ensures that there is agreeable level of cooperation between everyone involved through joint training and partnership which is consented to through the signing of memoranda of understanding (MoU). Thus, in terms of EWS, in principle, the UAE modelled the

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UK timeline for maintaining arrangements to warn, inform and advise the public. This timeline is called public communication timeline (CCA, 2004). The timeline is:

Figure 3- 3: Public communication and EWS timeline (CCA, 2004)

The public communication timeline for EWS shows that there is specific description of information provided and disseminated at each stage. It also shows that contrary to many general perception, warning messages does not end during the event, it is provided post-event so that emergency responders will know the immediate actions to take to minimise the risk of the event to health and welfare of people, animals, environment and property (Keeney, 2007). The informing and advising the public stage also involve the actions the public needs to take to minimise the impact of the emergency on them as well as the actions the responders need to take to assist with recovery phase (Oliver, 2010).

According to Perry (2007), a comprehensive EWS include dissemination of information to the public so that the public will know how to obtain further information should they require it. Lastly, such information and good dissemination of EWS help the responders to know the end of emergency and when to return to normal public safety arrangement (Reason, 2008). After reviewing the plan, the federal response to natural disasters in the United Arab Emirates and the Government measures and the parties participating in the plan, the scope of this research will be

Public Awareness (Pre-event): Informing & educating the ublic about risks and preparedness.

Public Warning (at the time of an event or when one is likely): alerting by all appropriate means the members of a community whose immediate safery is at risk

Informing and advising the Public (immediate and long-term post-event): providing relevant and timely information about the nature of the unfolding event

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restricted to how EWS is activated and deployed. An evaluation of the EWS in the UAE in all the seven emirates will also help to determine the requirements for successful and effective EWS in the UAE.