His Excellency Lieutenant General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, Minister of Interior and Chairman of the Civil Defence Council, received Dr. Ioana Creitaru, Early Warning, Disaster Preparedness, Recovery, and Resilience Programme Specialist at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in the presence of Major General Tariq bin Hassan Al Hassan, Chief of Public Security, and Ms. Asmaa Shalabi, UNDP Resident Representative in Bahrain.

His Excellency welcomed Dr. Ioana Creitaru, praising the role of UNDP in strengthening regional and international cooperation and expanding partnerships in the field of disaster risk reduction, as well as in building communities that are more resilient, capable of recovery, and sustainable. His Excellency also highlighted the importance of further enhancing cooperation with UNDP in the coming period.

His Excellency emphasized the importance of developing an integrated national emergency management system that aligns with international best practices in disaster risk reduction, noting the adoption of a proactive approach to enhance national preparedness and capabilities in a manner that ensures effective emergency response.

His Excellency also referred to the role of national early warning programs in enabling rapid response and coordination among government entities, the private sector, and civil society. He stressed the need to ensure that alerts reach all segments of society through multiple channels within comprehensive community awareness programs. In this context, he pointed to the development and updating of data on the National Civil Protection Platform, which was launched in November 2023 as a national project based on the use of modern technologies and the promotion of security awareness within the community.

The National Committee for Civil Emergency Management, as part of a national approach to building an integrated crisis management system based on coordination, efficiency, and proactive planning, had recently concluded the “Get Airports Ready for Disasters (GARD)” workshop—one of the most prominent global programs in this field. Through this program, Bahrain International Airport became the first airport in the GCC to implement the full model and join the network of internationally accredited airports.

During the meeting, ways to further strengthen cooperation and coordination with UNDP were discussed, with a focus on advancing initiatives aimed at building effective early warning and response systems and developing Bahrain’s disaster risk reduction framework in line with global trends under the Sendai Framework 2015–2030.