Press release

The unprecedented scale, cost, and human impacts of China’s freak month of snowstorms, its worst in 50 years, herald a need for the world to get ready for “new kinds of disasters,” according to Sálvano Briceño, Director of the secretariat of the

Hundreds of hospitals and heath facilities are destroyed or damaged every year by disasters caused by natural hazards such as earthquakes, hurricanes and floods. Millions of people are left without emergency care during and after disasters when hospitals

2007 saw a marked increase in the number of floods compared with the average of the last seven years, and Asia was the continent hit hardest by disasters according to figures released today by the Belgian WHO collaborating Center for Research on

The secretariat of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN/ISDR) stressed the importance of including climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction policies in the Bali talks on climate change that will start next Monday. The United

13 November 2007. The UN/ISDR secretariat is launching PreventionWeb.net, a new website for increasing knowledge sharing on disaster risk reduction (DRR) issues, for both the general public - including media and teachers - and DRR specialists, on 15

After the devastation caused by the tropical storm Noel in the Caribbean states and the current floods in Tabasco, Mexico, the UN secretariat of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction is urging governments and the international community to

After the fires in southern California (USA) the ISDR secretariat - the UN agency dealing with disaster reduction - is highlighting the importance of urban planning and building regulations to reduce our vulnerability to all disasters. Wildfires are

The International Strategy for Disaster Reduction secretariat is opening a new office, the “ISDR Hyogo Office” in Kobe, Hyogo, Japan, to work more closely with Japanese institutions that have extensive experience and expertise in disaster risk reduction

10 October 2007. To mark the International Day for Disaster Reduction and the conclusion of its two year campaign on education, the secretariat of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction is launching today a new publication showing how children

Professor Yoshiaki Kawata from the Disaster Prevention Research Institute in Japan, and Tony Gibbs, a highly respected Caribbean engineer in building safety, have been selected as the two 2007 Sasakawa Laureates.