UNDRR News

This week’s European Ministerial Meeting on Disaster Risk Reduction has made a series of recommendations for the Post-2015 Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction in advance of next week’s Intergovernmental Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) meetings in Geneva which will produce the first draft.

Efforts to ensure political commitment to a new global agreement on reducing disaster losses have received a major boost as representatives from 40 European countries agreed to a series of sweeping recommendations designed to build resilience to disasters. Europe experienced over 40 major disaster events last year affecting millions. Major flood and hailstorm events generated $25 billion in economic losses.

Figures released today show that for the fourth consecutive year, direct economic losses from major reported disasters have exceeded $100 billion. It has happened on seven occasions since 2004 including the last four years: 2010 ($138 bn), 2011 ($371 bn), 2012 ($138 bn) and 2013 ($116 bn). Some 315 disasters killed 22,000 people in 2013 and affected 95 million.

Next week’s intergovernmental meeting (PrepCom) in Geneva is a major milestone on the road to Sendai, Japan, where the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction will convene in March, 2015, to adopt a new global agreement on reducing disaster risk, the head of UNISDR, Margareta Wahlström, said today.

China has succeeded in keeping its direct economic losses from disasters to within a target of 1.5% of GDP for three consecutive years, according to a new film which celebrates the country’s achievements in implementing the five priorities of the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA), the global blueprint for reducing disaster losses adopted in 2005 by all UN member States.

The major push for disaster-safe schools in the Kyrgyz Republic perfectly illustrates how good risk information can focus political will and help direct resources towards reducing underlying risk factors (in line with Priority 4 of the Hyogo Framework for Action, the global agreement on reducing disaster risk).

The vast majority of towns and municipalities in the earthquake-prone Italian Province of Potenza, have joined the UNISDR Making Cities Resilient Campaign. Over 10,000 people died and several towns in Potenza were destroyed in the 1857 Basilicata or Great Neapolitan Earthquake which led to significant advances in the study of seismology.

“Their houses may fall, their businesses may be lost, but, by God, the men of Guiuan will look good.”

Ministers, top government officials and more than 3,000 delegates from Asia Pacific today recognized the achievements of the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) as a springboard to implement a more comprehensive Post-2015 Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

25 June 2014, LONDON – The International Insurance Society today hosted a “Financial and Private Sector Disaster Resilience Global Summit” for 500 insurance and business leaders to discuss how to integrate the business sector and financial system within the new global framework on disaster risk reduction which will succeed the current Hyogo Framework for Action in March, 2015.