UNDRR News

Community-based projects to enhance resilience of hazard-prone Pacific island countries have grown in number over the past 20 years. Some university studies have shown that benefits were particularly apparent in cases where development bodies worked with communities to identify risks using local knowledge.

The need to communicate and share information is strongest at a time of disaster. As social media and mobile phone use has grown, so too has the use of these technologies to signal the onset or aftermath of a disaster. Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and other social media were also used extensively during Haiti to connect people affected by the earthquake with the outside world with reports about the devastation, as well as to ask for help.

As governments enter the second week of negotiations at the United Nations climate summit in Cancun, Mexico, UNISDR today signed an agreement with the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) to strengthen collaboration on disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation.

Kisumu, Kenya – Kisumu, the third largest city in Kenya will join the UNISDR-led campaign “Making Cities Resilient -- My city is getting ready!” at a ceremony on 8 December, adding to the list of over 150 other municipalities worldwide. Kisumu is the leading communication and trading centre for countries of the Great Lakes Region that includes Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. Like many cities in Africa, Kisumu is vulnerable to risks brought by climate change, which coupled with rapid urban growth, will pose mounting challenges for the local government as it seeks to protect citizens from disaster.

Among the Karamajong pastoralists in Uganda, hundreds of thousands are struggling to find enough pasture. Seasons appear to have shrunk in number and variety. Rainfall is more unpredictable and shorter in duration. Wind storms have increased in strength. Worsening drought and changing rainfall patterns are ever-present.

Turning disaster into opportunity: In October 2010, Cyclone Giri wrecked homes, roads and bridges in Myanmar and Thailand, leaving 100,000 people homeless and twice as many needing humanitarian assistance – forming an apt backdrop for the decision by Asian governments a few days later to recognize disaster risk reduction as a tool for climate change adaptation.

In the lead-up to Cancun, the City of Cairns is a local government that is already taking action in DRR and CCA. Empowering local governments to engage in DRR is the world’s hope to build resilience against climate change.

One of the most important tests of a successful agreement is its achievability. Through the Chief Executive Board, the highest level coordination mechanism in the UN system, over 50 UN organizations have advanced a common agenda in Cancun to show how adaptation could work.

Parliamentarians from ten Asian countries have issued a call to national governments to allocate at least 1 per cent of the national budget and development funding for reducing disaster risk.

As the world’s climate officials descend on Cancun today to begin addressing the causes and consequences of climate change, they would do well to recall the words of fellow government officials sitting in the UN General Assembly in New York: “we must do more to build resilience and mitigate the impact of climate-related disasters.”