UNDRR News

A tsunami survivor who has dedicated herself to building and supporting safe schools in disaster zones has been appointed as the UN’s first World Tsunami Awareness Advocate by Mr. Robert Glasser, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction.

A review of tsunami hazards over the last 400 years highlights “seismic gaps” or locations in the Pacific region where there may be complacency about the tsunami threat following long periods of seismic inactivity.

Nine years ago, scientists from the UK, Europe and the USA met in London to discuss a new and unexpected way that global warming might be threatening the planet.

World Tsunami Awareness Day falls on November 5 and there was a major gathering of tsunami affected countries today at the UN in Geneva to discuss lessons learned from past events.

“The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction gives us the tools to address new challenges and opportunities,” said the UN Deputy Secretary-General, Ms. Amina J. Mohammed, speaking at an ECOSOC meeting in the aftermath of the recent Atlantic hurricanes.

The role of disaster risk reduction was at the heart of discussions this week on he implementation of Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) commitments on environment and energy.

The African Union has announced plans to increase the number of member States with national disaster loss data bases and to put a training programme in place in preparation for the roll-out next year of the Sendai Monitor, the UNISDR-backed mechanism for measuring progress in reducing disaster losses.

The UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, Mr. Robert Glasser, today announced that next year will see the start of worldwide monitoring of disaster losses from extreme weather events and earthquakes through the Bonn office of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR).

The UN Secretary-General António Guterres marked International Day for Disaster Reduction with a call to reduce the numbers of people affected by disasters and said the Sendai Framework is essential to achieving the SDGs.

The Prime Minister of Fiji and the incoming COP23 President, Mr. Vorege Bainone, is hosting a pre-COP23 meeting to galvanise action on climate change and disaster risk.