UNDRR News

European countries on Friday issued a broad-ranging plan to energize their implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, an international agreement that aims by 2030 to reduce substantially the number of deaths and economic damage caused by natural and man-made hazards.

A small community on the disaster prone coast of Bangladesh is translating the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction into the local dialect as part of an ongoing community revival since it was hit hard by Cyclone Sidr in 2007.

The head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), Margareta Wahlström, today marked the anniversary of the 7.8 Pakistan earthquake which killed 19,000 schoolchildren and their teachers with a call for more countries to join the new Worldwide Initiative for Safe Schools.

European countries has begun three days’ of talks that will play a key role in driving forward the continent’s implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

A French start-up that uses image sensors to monitor water levels in order to head off the threat of flood has today won a pan-European award that recognizes innovative approaches to reducing disaster risk.

The head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), Margareta Wahlström, today said that urban areas must invest more in reducing the risk from flash floods such as those which have claimed hundreds of lives in Guatemala, South Carolina in the US and the south of France in recent days.

The head of UNISDR, Margareta Wahlström, today welcomed the adoption of a global action plan by 24 countries to advance the Worldwide Initiative for Safe Schools (WISS) in line with the targets for reducing disaster losses set out in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

Implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 received another boost this week with the announcement in Tehran that the text has now been translated into Farsi, a language used by some 100 million people in Iran and neighbouring countries.

Iran’s commitment to ensuring Safe Schools was made clear yesterday as it announced plans to spend $3 billion over the next five years to complete its programme of retrofitting or reconstructing all public schools located in the country’s seismic zones.

The tiny community of El Solís in rural Guatemala is tapping into its local knowledge on biodiversity and maintaining a native seeds bank to help it cope with drought, food insecurity and climate change.