UNDRR News

A private sector initiative for Africa was launched today by UNISDR Chief, Margareta Wahlström, at the 4th Africa Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction.

Speaking at the opening of the 4th Africa Regional Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction, the Tanzanian Minister for the Environment, Dr. Terezya Huvisa Luoga, expressed her fears that climate change could cause community conflict in her country.

It’s not instantly recognised, in Africa or anywhere else. But there was standing room only today for an intensive round-table discussion hosted by UNISDR, to tease out what this policy instrument has done for Africa over the last seven years and what direction should its successor take two years from now.

Representatives of 40 African States are gathering today for the 4th Africa Regional Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction to discuss Africa's position on a new global framework for disaster risk reduction amidst continuing concern over the ravages of climate change, drought, floods, heat-waves, wildfires and other natural hazards.

For the last three weeks, the Maputo-based weekly newspaper "Domingo" has featured the Mozambique floods on its front page. Domingo editor, Jorge Ernesto Rungo, was today able to give journalists from across Africa an insight into the challenges of covering one of the largest disasters to hit the country since the floods of 2000 when he spoke at the latest media training organized by UNISDR with the support of ECHO.

The East African Community (EAC) today announced that it is renewing its commitment to implement the global disaster risk reduction framework, the Hyogo Framework for Action, and that it had agreed last week on a new plan.

Work is entering the final stages on UNISDR's new edition of the Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction (GAR13) which will appear in May this year. It is already being hailed by many peer reviewers as a "pioneering" piece of work because of its focus on risk as a major blind spot for the private sector.

At least five people are reported to have died in a tsunami which struck a remote part of the Solomon Islands earlier today. More than 5,000 people could have been seriously affected by the one meter wave, but early warning systems worked...

Heads of State, government ministers, parliamentarians, CEOs, scientists and civil society representatives will meet in Geneva in May to discuss a new global framework to reduce disaster risk.

Bita Roohi is the first woman to be appointed a disaster manager in Iran where she is in charge of disaster management and risk reduction for the city of Hamadan, situated 360 km south-west of Tehran on the slopes of Mount Alvand. Hamadan province has a long history of earthquakes.