Update

UN News Service. Ahead of tomorrow's address to the Economic and Social Council by former United States President Bill Clinton, United Nations Special Envoy overseeing recovery efforts from December's devastating Indian Ocean tsunami, Secretary-General Kofi Annan has issued his recommendations on how national, global and regional responses to natural disasters can be improved.

Professor Kawata, a prominent professor in the field of disaster risk reduction at Kyoto University, was awarded for his promotion of research and knowledge about past disasters. In particular he has highlighted the bitter lessons learned from the Great Hanshin Awaji Earthquake (the Kobe Earthquake)...

The UN Sasakawa Award Jury has selected Tony Gibbs, a national of Grenada and Barbados currently working with the Pan American Health Organization (World Health Organization in the Americas) on hospital safety, as one of its two 2007 Sasakawa Award Laureates.

On 29 September, the ISDR System submitted a proposal to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat in response to the Bali Action Plan’s call for enhanced action on adaptation through consideration of disaster risk reduction strategies, risk management and risk transfer mechanisms...

To help Member States find solutions to cope with climatic disasters, BAN Ki-moon, the United Nations Secretary-General, convened a ministerial meeting in New York on Monday 29th of September...

The main outcome document of the UNFCCC 13th Conference of the Parties, the Bali Action Plan, sets the path toward a new international climate change agreement. UNISDR is supporting countries in implementing the Bali Action Plan.

The 29th session of the IPCC meeting (Geneva, 1-4 September 2008) agreed to hold a scoping workshop on the IPCC Special Report on Managing Extreme Events to Advance Adaptation proposed by Norway and the ISDR system with support from Luxembourg...

European countries will meet in Moldova to discuss ways to reduce the impacts of natural hazards through strengthened collaboration among National Meteorological and Hydrological Services and disaster risk management institutions....

"With current knowledge and strong political commitment it is possible to protect health facilities from disasters" says assistant Director-General for Heath Action in Crises at WHO. The two-year campaign launches from Davos...