Developing a Safety Framework for Construction Health & Safety in the Kurdistan Region: A Systems Approach

Construction is one of the riskiest industries across the world, especially in emerging economies with poor health and safety (H&S) legislation and enforcement compared to fast-track infrastructure development. The present H&S management standards in such environments can be fragmented, causing unabated avoidable occupational hazards that result in inferior project performance. This research article aims to fill existing systemic gaps in H&S management by developing a comprehensive, context-specific framework that can shift atomized practices to an integrative safety culture.

Based on a systems thinking (ST) perspective, this research adopts a mixed-design method involving induction analysis and deduction model development. This also enables the creation of a comprehensive H&S architecture that maps the relationships between risks and organizational interfaces throughout the project's life cycle. (This model was empirically founded on data collected in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq).

The proposed framework offers a holistic, dynamic H&S performance management system that is about more than just compliance. It clearly identifies the roles, obligations, and desired outcomes of all stakeholders— from government officials to site operators — throughout every step of the project development process. The structure of the framework was confirmed using a two-stage process, including type Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and expert qualitative interviews.

This proposed framework is a feasible, logical approach to reducing job hazards while promoting employee health and contributing toward building an enduring culture of safety in construction.

By orienting local site actions with universally applicable standards (e.g., WHO guidelines), the framework may provide project managers, decision-makers, and site managers with a systematic method for integrating safety into project completion, thereby guaranteeing regulatory approval and the sustainability of projects across emerging markets. This contrasts with generic global frameworks, and this paper explicitly incorporates the ‘institutional void’ and ‘regulatory weakness’ of the Kurdistan Region, and hence serves as a baseline for future empirical on-site testing.