UNDRR News

A firm resolve to build a more resilient future in honour of those who lost their lives in the Kobe earthquake 20 years ago was evident amid the sombre services of remembrance over the weekend.

The Head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), Margareta Wahlström, today congratulated the Japanese people and government for their steadfast remembrance of the 6,434 people who lost their lives on 17 January 1995, when the Great Hanshin Awaji Earthquake struck at 5.46 a.m. local time

African youth leaders are taking action to make their communities better informed and prepared to reduce their exposure to the effects of disasters.

The new Latvian Presidency of the Council of the European Union is pressing ahead with plans to strengthen measures across the 28 EU Member States to include persons with disabilities in disaster risk management activities.

Battered by repeated flooding for the best part of a decade, European governments have stepped up efforts to stem the economic and human impact.

Two capital cities, Tbilisi and Bishkek, are among eight towns and cities from Central Asia and the Caucasus, joining UNISDR’s Making Cities Resilient Campaign in the new year.

The draft programme for the first global conference on disasters in ten years has been published by UNISDR ahead of negotiations next week in Geneva on a post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction, the first of three interlocking international agreements expected this year.

Turkey was yesterday praised as an emerging leader in disaster risk reduction as it marked the 5th anniversary of the creation of AFAD, the national disaster and emergency management authority under the direct control of the Prime Minister’s office.

The Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004 was the springboard for an international accord on reducing disaster risks, the Hyogo Framework for Action, which was adopted just weeks later.

Accounting for disaster losses in Serbia gained considerable ground at a special training event focusing on how to use DESINVENTAR as an effective tool to support decision-making about investments on prevention measures.