UNDRR News

Eighteen countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have agreed to tighten up on school safety while also integrating disaster risk reduction into the school curriculum, following high-level talks on education in Panama City.

Japan is to hold an international conference to share the lessons learned from the Great East Japan Earthquake in the latter half of next year, according to a debate at the United Nations in New York on the latest report of the United Nations Secretary General on Implementation of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), The World Bank, the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), and the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) are convening the “ASEAN Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance Forum” to help ASEAN Member States build greater financial resilience to natural disasters.

The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, Margareta Wahlström, is in China today for a first round of consultations on disaster risk reduction with entrepreneurs and business people.

Cyclones, earthquakes, floods and drought combined with poverty have spurred the Myanmar government into complete acceptance of the need for a radical overhaul of its approach to disaster management and risk reduction.

Turkey’s 23 October quake revealed that only 9 per cent of building owners were insured despite it being mandatory in the country’s municipal areas.

Role model cities from around the world are meeting for two days in Geneva to brainstorm the next phase of the campaign “Making Cities Resilient – My City is Getting Ready!” and have agreed on extending it to 2015.

When unexpectedly heavy floods displaced more than a million people in southern Africa in 2007, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) began to meet annually to prepare for future occurrences, culminating in the creation of the SADC Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction this month.

As the number of people in Central America affected by tropical depression 12-E rises to 1.9 million, the UN has launched its second flash appeal in two days and is now asking for US$14.3 million to assist Nicaragua which is being devastated by heavy rainfall and floods.

Disaster risk reduction was high on the agenda as government auditors met in Turkey this week to discuss accountability and good practices in the area of disaster-related aid, against the tragic backdrop of Sunday’s 7.2 quake that left over 400 dead and 2,000-plus buildings destroyed.