High-level international conference on large-scale natural disasters: Towards building resilient societies

Conference objectives:

• To share experiences of and lessons learned from recent large-scale natural disasters including Great East Japan Earthquake
• To conduct discussions at ministerial level on the major themes related to disaster risk reduction in order to build resilient societies
• To support discussions on establishing post-Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) in the third World Conference on Disaster Reduction in 2015 (which Japan has announced its intention to host)

Additional details will be released once available.

Venue addendum:
Plenary Sessions will take place Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture

Breakout Sessions will take place in:
1. Ichinoseki City, Iwate Prefecture;
2. Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture; 
3. Fukushima City, Fukushima Prefecture.

Representatives from the Governments of 63 countries, including the Ministers for Foreign Affairs and other relevant Ministers, and 14 international organizations, as well as representatives from local governments, the private sector and civil societies participated in the Conference.

The Conference marked a significant opportunity to make comprehensive discussions on the need to build resilient societies to disasters, the critical importance of realizing human security as a basis of such resilient societies, the long-term economic efficiency of investment in disaster reduction, the importance of disaster preparedness and sustainable recovery, and the call for mainstreaming disaster reduction at every level of public services and international efforts for that end. The Conference gave impetus to ongoing discussions on a successor framework of the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015 to be adopted at the third United Nations World Conference on Disaster Reduction.