UNDRR News

Living on an island in the middle of the ocean with no internet, television or mobile phones is a real-life disaster risk nightmare for one Pacific nation. Yet, the prospect of reaching the last mile – a phrase with true meaning in this part of the world – has inspired the tiny band of disaster risk reduction policymakers and practitioners of Tuvalu to establish an early warning system to protect some of the world’s most isolated communities.

The escalation of economic losses from disasters is expected to draw a record attendance of 7,000 people at a biennial UN forum that will bring world leaders and representatives of civil society together to agree ways and means of preventing and mitigating disaster impacts.

A two day Multi-Hazard Early Warning Conference is underway in Cancun, Mexico, and its recommendations will feed into the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction which opens tomorrow.

The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) today announced a major revision to its Disaster Resilience Scorecard designed to boost the number of cities and towns reducing their disaster losses by 2020 in line with a key global agreement.

For island nations on the frontline of climate change and a swathe of natural hazards, the issue of whether communities should give up the battle and leave is never far away.

Dozens of the world’s most climate-vulnerable island nations today spotlighted efforts to curb threats posed by hazards and to make development sustainable, ahead of the 2017 Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction.

The island nation of Cabo Verde and landlocked Swaziland have joined 26 other countries in Africa that are implementing the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, a 15-year global agreement which seeks to save lives, reduce disaster losses and improve management of disaster risk by enhancing risk knowledge.

China’s Minister of Civil Affairs has reaffirmed his country’s commitment to increasing international cooperation to address the common challenge of disasters.

Young researchers in China have been urged to take up the ‘noble pursuit’ of applying science and technology to save lives and protect livelihoods from disasters.

The United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, Mr. Robert Glasser, today marked China’s National Disaster Risk Reduction Day by expressing his condolences on the loss of at least eight lives in yesterday’s earthquake in Xinjiang Province and praising the country’s commitment to keeping economic losses at 1.3% of GDP or below.