Middle East and North Africa is one of the world's most disaster-prone regions, where droughts, earthquakes, floods, and extreme heat continue to threaten lives and strain humanitarian systems. While the number of natural disasters worldwide has nearly doubled since the 1980s, the average in the MENA region has almost tripled over the same period — yet legal and institutional frameworks for disaster preparedness and response across much of the region remain underdeveloped, with fragmented coordination mechanisms, unclear roles and responsibilities.
IFRC's Disaster Law extended its technical support to the MENA region in mid-2024, beginning with a structured knowledge-building phase through webinars and bilateral consultations with National Societies across the region. In December 2025, IFRC held its first MENA regional workshop on disaster law, bringing together National Society representatives to build capacity and define a shared regional roadmap on disaster law and auxiliary role priorities.
At national level, the most intensive engagement has been in Syria, where a tripartite collaboration was established in 2025 between IFRC, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent Society, and the newly established Ministry of Emergencies and Disaster Management to review and develop Syria's DRM legal framework. In Lebanon, IFRC has collaborated with the Lebanese Red Cross and Lebanese public authorities on disaster law related matters. In Libya, following the devastating 2023 Derna floods, IFRC and the Libyan Red Crescent Society have initiated contact to addressing the legal shortages that have led to the mismanagement of the response. In Morocco, a desk review of the national DRM framework was conducted in partnership with a university faculty of law. Most recently, engagement was initiated in early 2026 with the Iraqi and Yemeni Red Crescent Societies, two National Societies with strong auxiliary role recognition and significant potential to drive legal reform in their respective contexts.
At regional level, IFRC Disaster Law has engaged actively through the League of Arab States' Disaster Risk Reduction mechanism, with an aim to initiate advocacy on the revival of the Arab Agreement on Cooperation in the Field of Organizing and Facilitating Relief Operations and on the Draft Articles on the Protection of Persons in the Event of Disasters (PPED) — a role recognized in the decisions of the 7th Arab DRR Follow-up Mechanism held in Manama in October 2025. In 2026, IFRC further expanded its regional engagement with the Union for the Mediterranean's (UfM) Civil Protection Platform, as well as UNDRR and UN-OCHA offices for the Arab region. When it comes to the UfM, IFRC aims at guaranteeing consistency when civil protection mechanisms and processes are extended to the MENA med countries, as well as positioning National Societies as key partners in emerging Euro-Mediterranean civil protection frameworks. Looking ahead, IFRC is aiming to intensify its collaboration on Disaster related legal preparedness matters with both regional bides, LAS and the Civil Protection mechanism of the Union for the Mediterranean.
Our MENA Disaster Law Coordinator is based in Beirut.
