Oman Humanitarian Background

4.2 Oman Humanitarian Agency Contact List

For more detailed database on disasters by country, please see the Centre for Research on Epidemiology of Disasters:

http://www.emdat.be/country-profile

Calamities and Seasonal Affects

Like the rest of the Persian Gulf, Oman generally has one of the hottest climates in the world, and receives little rainfall. Annual rainfall in Muscat averages 100 mm (3.9 in), falling mostly in January. The Dhofar Mountains area has a tropical-like climate and receives seasonal rainfall (from late June to late September) as a result of the monsoon winds from the Indian Ocean, saturated with cool moisture and heavy fog. The mountain areas receive more plentiful rainfall, and annual rainfall on the higher parts of the Jabal Akhdar probably exceeds 400 mm (15.7 in). Low temperatures in the mountainous areas result in snow cover once every few years. Some parts of the coast, particularly near the island of Masirah, sometimes receive no rain at all within the course of a year. The climate generally is very hot, with temperatures reaching around 50 °C (122.0 °F) (peak) in the hot season, from May to September.

Capacity and Contacts for In-Country Emergency Response

Government

The history of Emergency Management in Oman is patchy. The first record of establishing a national-level emergency management system started in the year 1988. The inception of the idea was initiated by four main different government departments: the Royal Oman Police, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Social Affairs. They together established the National Committee for Emergencies in 1988. According to the best of available records, it appears to be unique in the region at that time. In the same year, another committee was established – the National Committee for Natural Disasters. However, in the time period between 1988 and 1999 there seems to be a gap in emergency management history in Oman. There is no record of any activities during this time even though few large scale well-documented disasters occurred during this period. Perhaps, it is safe to assume that this time period was one of complacency for emergency management initiatives in Oman. Emergency management measures came to a halt as a result of changes in global and regional diplomatic forces following the Gulf War and the financial crisis that followed in 1991. The nation’s priorities had changed.

However, in 1999, the National Committee for Emergencies was revived again and it merged with the National Committee for Natural Disasters to become the National Committee for Civil Defence (NCCD). The new organizations was placed under the leadership of the Royal Oman Police. The NCCD was not really active for some time because it was first established to be a reactive governmental body for national disasters and emergencies (so it did not actively engage in disaster preparedness activities). This was changed in 2002 when the NCCD became an identified semi-autonomous section within the overall structure of the Royal Oman Police. In other words, before 2002 the National Committee for Civil Defence was a section within the civil defence directorate of the Royal Oman Police and in 2002 it became a separate entity with an executive office to run its operations. Perhaps this change followed a global expansion of the concept of emergency management following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In 2003, 8 subcommittees were formed from the main NCCD body. These committees are specialized regional-level emergency management bodies that were tasked to carry out emergency preparedness activities in 8 regions of Oman. Since 2003, smaller specialized emergency response teams were formulated under the Royal Oman Police. These include the first national emergency medical service (Al-Shaqsi 2009), the national chemical response team, and other search and rescue teams.

The first national-level disaster was Cyclone Gonu in 2007. Following Gonu, the Sultan Qaboos gave the NCCD the authority to appoint members and he ordered a major reform in the structure of the NCCD (making it more proactive in emergency preparedness measures rather than reacting to disasters in the country). In June 2010, the country was battered again by another cyclone (Cyclone Phet) and the Sultan ordered the NCCD to establish a national-level crisis management expert’s panel to actively work on comprehensive future plans for emergency management in Oman. The 2010 Sultan’s orders directed the NCCD to ramp up its capabilities and decentralise its operations in all parts of Oman. Sultan Qaboos emphasised the need for increased health and search and rescue capabilities for the NCCD as it was previously focused on logistical support to emergency response only.
In a wider sense, the NCCD structure is the foundation for the newly-established Regional Crisis Centre that is based in Kuwait. The Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC) Regional Crisis Centre is tasked with improving prevention, mitigation, preparedness and response measures to natural and human-made disasters in the region. The following time-line indicates the corner stones of emergency management in the Sultanate of Oman.

Current structure of the NCCD

The current National Committee for Civil Defence (NCCD) consists of 16 members from different governmental departments. It has a Chairman who is the Inspector General of the Royal Oman Police as well as a deputy-chairman who is the assistant Inspector General of the Royal Oman Police. The daily operations of the NCCD are coordinated by the Executive Director who is a senior rank police officer. The graph below shows the current members of NCCD in Oman.

There are a few observations to note regarding the current structure of NCCD in Oman. Firstly, the NCCD is still largely attached to Police operations, largely because the original inception of emergency management in Oman in 1988 was championed by the Police. This organizational arrangement may also be a reflection of the wide range of services provided by Police in Oman. Another striking observation is that there is no representative from Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in the overall structure of NCCD.  This is somewhat ironic since NGOs, such as Oman Charitable Organization (OCO), have had a long history of disaster relief and response to many incidents in the country and abroad. Besides this omission, there is no representative of private services in Oman. The current emergency management regulations in Oman demands that the government ministries have senior level representation in the NCCD. This is usually the minister or the under-secretary of the respective ministry.  This creates a logistical challenge as it is difficult to arrange meetings with all very senior official of government ministers are present. Therefore, the meetings of NCCD have been sporadic and few.

Emergency Management legislation in the Sultanate of Oman

There are two laws that regulate emergency management in the Sultanate of Oman. The first is the Civil Defence Law that was instituted by the Royal Degree 76 in 1991. The second is the State of Emergency Law, which was outlined by the Royal Decree 75 in 2008. Here is a translated description of these two laws with a specific emphasis on the articles that directly outline emergency management operations in Oman.

Civil Defence Law (Royal Decree 76/91): Section one of this law clearly recognizes “Civil Defence” as a Directorate in the Royal Oman Police structure and is headed by a Director General appointed by the Sultan of Oman Himself. In this section, a collection of terms are presented such as the definition of Civil Defence and a State of Emergency.  The law also referred specifically to the value of volunteers and defined them as “anyone who steps in by invitation or self-volunteering to help during a national crisis time” (Royal 1991). It is interesting to note that the Civil Defence Law in Oman identified the role of volunteers in emergency management from the early days of emergency management in Oman.

Section two of the Civil Defence Law outlines the measures that Civil Defence should take to achieve the goals of the civil defence operations. These measures include:

1.         Proper planning to ensure the safety and security of all people in Oman during the time of emergency.

2.         Establishment of evacuation plans for affected areas and rescue the impacted population.

3.         Establishment of a mechanism to assess and monitor the radiological hazards in the country.

4.         Establishment of national teams for search, rescue and medical care provision during emergencies with defined standards and protocols.

5.         Establishment of a national plan to ensure the functionality and backup for all communication systems in the country during a national emergency.

6.         Establishment of a national warning system for all-hazard emergencies and designate evacuation zones in all main populated areas.

7.         Stockpiling of essential consumables and items required for national emergency response.

8.         Establishment, training, and upgrading of national assistance teams ready to be deployed during emergencies. 

9.         Initiation of a Memorandum of Understanding with the media to increase the awareness of people in Oman to the hazards and the preparedness measures the public should engage into to effectively mitigate, prepare and response to emergencies.

This section therefore outlines the broad goals of the Civil Defence that are common in any civil defence system. However, it is interesting to note that the regional political system at that time influenced this law with a clear emphasis on radiological hazards, as this was a serious threat after the first Gulf War in 1991. Another unique issue alluded to by this section is the importance and need to establish volunteer-based assistance teams to augment the civil defence operations. This issue is very central to contemporary disaster management around the world and lessons from Haiti draws the global attention to the value of proper national level volunteer-based assistance teams (Ivers, Cullen et al.). Currently there are no assistance teams in Oman and the experience from Cyclone Gonu and Phet highlighted again the urgency to establish such teams. The royal orders in 2010, after the review of Cyclone Phet response, call for prompt action in this direction especially the urgency and need to establish the Omani Medical Assistance Teams (OMATs).

Section three of the Civil Defence Law delineates command during an emergency and it gives the authority to the Chairman of the National Committee for Civil Defence to be the Commander of the national response (Royal 1991). This section also gives the authority to the National Committee for Civil Defence to override the normal national laws and regulations in order to save lives and preserve property during emergencies. It allows the Chairman of the NCCD to institute any measure to achieve the mission of the committee during a national emergency response. However, this authority and power of the NCCD chairman has to be endorsed by all members of the NCCD.

Section four of the law recognizes the privileges, financial reimbursement and support for volunteers during national emergencies. The Royal Oman Police is to be the responsible agency to establish, train and assess national volunteer teams. The teams’ financial support should follow the Civil Defence salary guidelines. For example, a medical doctor working for the ministry of health that gets deployed to a disaster management mission should be reimbursed for the work done as if he is employed by the civil defence. This regulations provides the incentives guidelines for all people to participate in emergency management missions when required.

Interestingly, article 9 specifically states that it is the responsibility of the Civil Defence to assess health care facilities preparedness to receive victims of national emergencies. This clearly gives the Royal Oman Police an over-arching power to audit the governmental health care preparedness. Article 13 of this section indicates that all governmental departments can request material and logistical support from the Civil Defence to enhance their preparedness. Finally, article 18 of this section outlines that it is paramount to teach civil defence and disaster management skills to all people in all levels of education in Oman including, schools, polytechnics, universities and colleges (Royal 1991). The current reality in Oman is that there is no teaching of civil defence or disaster management skills to the public.  

State of Emergency Law (Royal Decree 75/08): This law is perhaps a result from the lessons learned from Cyclone Gonu in 2007. The Civil Defence law alluded to above was the governing law of emergency management in Oman before the inception of this law. Following are the main sections of the Law (Royal 2008).

Section one outlines the process of declaring a “State of Emergency.” It clearly states that the Sultan of Oman is the one to declare a “State of Emergency.” The Sultan’s declaration should include the reasons for the declaration and the extent of the declaration. It is the responsibility of the National Security Council to advise the Sultan about the initiation, extent, and termination of the “State of Emergency.” The Sultan of Oman is the ultimate commander of the national emergency response in the country. This authority is clearly stated in the foundation document of the Omani Law.  Article 42 of section 1 in the White book: the Basic Law of the Sultanate of Oman, states that one responsibility of the Sultan is to “declare a State of Emergency, general mobilization, or war and making peace in accordance with the Basic Omani Law” (White 1996). 

Section two outlines the authorities and powers of the National Security Council during an emergency. This includes imposing curfews as required, determining the functions of government agencies during emergencies, controlling communication modalities in the country for security purposes, making decisions on evacuations and the command of responders or any other government and non-government personnel to carry out specific tasks to help in the emergency response.

Section three states that the operational arm of the emergency response in Oman is the responsibility of the Royal Oman Police unless ordered otherwise by the Sultan after consultation with the National Security Council. The armed forces are not to be involved in operations of emergency responses unless directed by the commander of the armed forces (i.e., the Sultan of Oman). This section therefore reflects the heavy involvement of the Royal Oman Police and specifically the Civil Defence Directorate in emergency response in Oman.

Section four outlines the regulations during civil unrest that are considered during an internal emergency. This section also refers to the role of the National Security Court in such emergencies. This section could be seen in response to one event in 2005 in which a small group of Omanis were charged with acts of plotting and planning a national unrest (2010).

In summary, there are two main legislations in Oman outlining the emergency management. The laws delineate that the Commander for national-level emergencies is the Sultan Qaboos with assistance from the National Security Council. The operational arm of the emergency response is the Royal Oman Police and the National Committee for Civil Defence with its 20 governmental representatives. The laws also highlight the importance of training, education, public awareness and volunteerism during emergencies.    

Humanitarian Community

The Oman Charitable Organization (OCO) was founded in 1996. The OCO is equivalent to a national Red Crescent society, but is not part of the Red Cross/ Red Crescent movement. It has diverse social activities inside Oman, but is also operating currently in Yemen, Afghanistan, Somalia and Darfur. The OCO is deploying around the world during emergencies.

OCO is the designated first point of contact for WFP for all operational negotiations inside Oman and the focal point also for interacting with the Government.

For deliveries inside Yemen the OCO is facing the same challenges as WFP, fuel shortages and lack of trucking capacity due to the security situation