UNDRR News

Colombia's cutting edge reputation for disaster risk management received a boost this week as high-level experts gathered in Bogota to identify strategic actions for disaster risk reduction in advance of this year's Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction which will be a landmark event in discussions on a Post-2015 global framework for disaster risk reduction.

A new report acknowledges the Philippines as a global leader in enacting legislation on disaster risk reduction but finds this is undermined by poor urban governance resulting in ineffective building codes and poor land use planning at the local level.

Governments from over 50 countries in Africa will meet in Arusha, Tanzania from 13-15 February for the Fourth Africa Regional Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction (ARP) to address the challenges of building a disaster resilient society.

The Secretary General of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC) has called for strong regional commitment towards development of a disaster risk reduction strategy to strengthen the resilience of nations and individuals to natural hazards.

Heavy rains caused massive flooding in Jakarta yesterday bringing the city to a halt with many government offices and businesses forced to close because employees could not get to work.

The largest chain of shopping malls in the Philippines, SM Prime Holdings, has taken its leadership in disaster resilience to yet another level by becoming the newest member of the UNISDR Private Sector Advisory Group (PSAG).

In 2014 Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico, Italy’s biggest public works project which began nine years ago is scheduled to begin reducing the flood risks faced by the population of Venice each year. Venice stretches across numerous islands in the Venice Lagoon along the Adriatic Sea. At high tide, parts of the city are flooded. Rising sea levels and groundwater pumping are causing the city to sink.

Asia suffers from more disasters than any place on earth. While the number of people killed by disasters in the region have decreased in 2012, the economic impact remains a major cause of concern. The 'Inside Story', an Aljazeera English program, looked at the economic implications of disasters and what can be done to better protect people from these recurrent disasters.

The Italian Government is urgently seeking EUR 40 billion over the next 15 years for flood prevention following a week of heavy rains that began on 10 November in the north and then wreaked havoc in Umbria and Tuscany in central Italy.

She was the first woman to take office as a Mayor in Mauritania and her stature as a champion for resilience and disaster risk reduction in Africa was confirmed last week when she was elected President of the Women’s Federation of Mayors in Africa.