Today's Edition
SARA ALZAABI (ABU DHABI)
Abu Dhabi is scaling up its approach to business continuity, with innovative measures in place and a growing number of critical centres following enhanced standards. This has emerged as a key highlight at Murona Forum 2026, which opened in the capital on Tuesday.
Organised by the Emergencies, Crises and Disasters Management Centre Abu Dhabi (ADCMC), the sixth edition of the forum is being held at Erth Hotel and runs until January 28. It brings together local and international experts to enhance institutional resilience and readiness across the emirate.
Speaking to Aletihad, Shaikha Al Azeezi, Director of the Business Continuity and Alternative Services Department at ADCMC, said one of the most significant outcomes highlighted at this year’s forum is “the expanded application of business continuity across a larger number of critical centres in the emirate.”
She said strategic efforts are underway to ensure continuity across 10 vital sectors, including transport, media, technology, energy and food.
The forum is focused on developing detailed sector-specific standards to strengthen capabilities across the full emergency management cycle, from anticipation and prevention to preparedness, response and recovery, Al Azeezi added.
“We now have a dedicated standard for healthcare in Abu Dhabi (Abu Dhabi Standard for Healthcare Business Continuity) that enhances the readiness of critical facilities, and we are currently finalising the Abu Dhabi Standard for Energy and Water Business Continuity,” she said.
Another notable outcome is the growing pool of national alternative service recruits, with 2,024 graduates now deployed across vital sectors in the emirate, Al Azeezi noted.
Alongside the expansion of business continuity frameworks, ADCMC is increasingly leveraging artificial intelligence in emergency and crisis management.
The centre’s new Jaheziya platform, for example, “uses AI agents and simulation tools to predict potential incidents across the emirate and assess levels of readiness”, Al Azeezi said. The platform also assesses institutional performance and helps identify opportunities to raise overall readiness.
Placing Abu Dhabi’s efforts in a global context, Niels Holm-Nielsen, Head of the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), highlighted how leading preparedness models have evolved worldwide. He pointed to countries such as Japan, Türkiye and Italy, which have developed robust resilience systems through decades of experience with natural disasters, as well as small island states that have built advanced frameworks for cyclone response.
What distinguishes Abu Dhabi, however, is its capacity and determination to innovate, Holm-Nielsen said. He highlighted the growing role of artificial intelligence, data and geospatial technologies in modern risk management.
“Abu Dhabi has an opportunity to show the world how much it has already innovated and to share some of this with the world,” he said.
9th Understanding Risk Global Forum
At Murona Forum 2026, the upcoming ninth edition of Understanding Risk Global Forum (UR26) also took centre stage as it is set to be held for the first time in the region.
Abu Dhabi will host UR26 from October 19 to 23, reinforcing the emirate’s leadership in developing efficient and effective preparedness systems, Al Azeezi said.
Holm-Nielsen described the event as “a big opportunity from a knowledge perspective” and “a visibility opportunity for ADCMC.”
The forum has been held every two years since 2010 in nearly every region of the world except the Middle East, he noted.
“We are likely to attract a few thousand people who work on disaster risk and climate risk management from industry, academia and government, because they want to learn from Abu Dhabi and share their experience,” Holm-Nielsen said.
