UNDRR News

The UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, Margareta Wahlström, today welcomed Nablus' commitment to become the first Palestinian city to join UNISDR's Making Cities Resilient Campaign.

Within days of its launch, a new UNISDR survey has received over 1,000 responses spelling out what cities and towns would like to see included in the new global framework for disaster risk reduction which will follow on from the existing Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) in 2015.

The Government of Palestine supported by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) has taken steps to establish its first national disaster loss database. The initiative was launched in the presence of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction and UNISDR Chief, Margareta Wahlström, who began a visit to Palestine this week.

Algeria has held North Africa's first national review of the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) as UNISDR's consultations continue around the world on developing a new global framework for disaster risk reduction by 2015.

The 4th Africa Regional Platform concluded today with a detailed set of commitments and recommendations on the complex challenges Africa faces due to surging economic growth, rapid urbanization, climate change and a wide range of natural hazards.

Risks that have historically played out in rural areas like drought, floods and wildfires "are being transferred and transformed and expressed differently across Africa's fast growing cities and towns," said Dr. Ailsa Holloway in her keynote address to the 4th Africa Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction today.

Ethiopia is on course to build Africa's most comprehensive risk profile database by 2015 and today urged other countries on the continent to follow its example.

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.