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19:49 GMT
CAIRO, Nov 29 (KUNA) -- The Arab League in cooperation with the EU and the UN launched Sunday the second phase of its effort to strengthen crisis response capacities in its secretariat and member states.
The phase was launched in a ceremony attended by the Arab League Assistant Secretary General and Head of Media and Communication Sector, Haifa Abu Ghazaleh, the UN Assistant Secretary General and Director of the UNDP Regional Bureau for Arab States, Sima Bahouth and several representatives of the European Union (EU).
This phase of the initiative, to last for 36 months, will enhance regional institutional capacities and cooperation for early warning and effective response to regional crises, conflicts, man-made disasters and post-conflict/post-disaster situations.
This initiative comes under a joint project agreed between the Arab League and EU and implemented by the United Nations development Programme (UNDP), which started in 2010.
The first phase of the project established a crisis management platform at Arab League, which today provides a pan-Arab early warning and crisis response system that facilitates timely and efficient responses to natural and man-made disasters.
"We continue to lead by example, consolidating and enhancing the capabilities of our own Crisis Response Platform," said Abu Ghazaleh.
"In this phase we will extend our support to help strengthen capacities of national crisis response entities in our Member States and contribute to the establishment of an Arab Cooperation Framework that covers the areas of crisis prevention, mitigation and recovery."
This phase of the project will deepen the policy dialogue and increase coordination between the Arab League and the EU and possibly other similar regional and international bodies on crisis related issues of mutual interest.
"The European Union remains dedicated to furthering cooperation on crisis response and early warning with the Arab League member states' pursuant of joint commitments articulated in the Athens EU-Arab League Foreign Ministerial Declaration of June 2014," underlined the Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Egypt, Ambassador James Moran.
"This cooperation constitutes an important component of an enduring and fruitful EU-Arab League Strategic Dialogue on political and security matters."
As in the previous phase, UNDP will continue to provide technical expertise and support to all project activities, including supporting the restructuring of the Crisis Management Department in Arab League and strengthening its institutional capacities along with other relevant sectors in League.
The UNDP will also facilitate in-depth training in conflict management and maintenance of peace and security to Arab League taskforces working on developing an Arab cooperation framework on early warning and crisis response.
"UNDP places building the resilience of people, communities and countries to prevent and recover from crises at the top of its development priorities," said Bahouth.
"In the current Arab reality, perhaps there is no other region in the world that is in more need of strong capacities to anticipate, analyses, prevent and respond to threats to sustainable human development and stability posed by man-made conflicts and disasters than the Arab region." (end)
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