UNDRR News

The concerns and capacities of indigenous peoples need to be taken into account at all times when it comes to curbing disaster risk, leading members of communities from across the Americas said today at a high-level conference.

The vast Americas region today started a high-level conference on a wide-ranging plan that will seek to reduce the risks posed by natural and human-induced hazards.

There was a call today for urgent support to improve disaster risk management in Haiti following a damning investigation of the country’s losses from Hurricane Matthew six months ago.

Governments from across the Americas are gathering this week in Canada for a high-level conference where they aim to make their vast region more resilient by adopting a plan to curb the risks posed by natural and human-induced hazards.

The 5th Regional Platform for the Americas opens in Montreal next Tuesday. Hurricane Matthew affected several countries in the Region but none worse than Haiti. The three year recovery effort comes with a price tag of US$2.72 billion following losses estimated at US$2.8 billion.

Mexico’s historical Maya civilisation created not only a written language and a binary mathematical system, but also a hurricane warning system that still works today.

In the build-up to the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction which takes place in Cancun, Mexico, from May 22 to 26, the UNISDR Support Group is hearing presentations on progress in implementing the Sendai Framework including the Czech Republic.

Deploying the power of technology worldwide and ensuring that communities know how to act in an emergency are the keys to curbing the risks posed by tsunamis, experts said this week.

Europe has launched a new drive to protect its heritage sites from the risk of disasters, an issue given added urgency by a string of earthquakes that wrecked age-old buildings in central Italy.

Already grappling with an extended dry spell, countries in Greater Horn of Africa are bracing for an even deeper drought, with the approach of the traditional March to May rainy season offering little cause for comfort.