UNDRR News

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.”

The Third Session of the Global Platform will bring together disaster risk reduction, recovery and reconstruction experts. Over 2,000 policy makers and practitioners from both developing and developed countries will be invited to collect, assess and share information as well as set new directions for disaster risk reduction. The Third Session will be from 8-13 May 2011 in Geneva, Switzerland.

Municipalities and local Governments of El Salvador are focusing on reducing disaster risk as part of the 2010-2011 World Disaster Reduction campaign - Making Cities Resilient: My City is Getting Ready Campaign.

Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard – who is poised to sign a historic emissions reduction agreement with over 70 other mayors days before the UN climate summit in Cancún – will be named champion of the Making Cities Resilient campaign by the UN’s top disaster risk reduction official, Margareta Wahlström, at a ceremony during the World Mayors Summit on Climate in Mexico City on 21 November.

Jordan is the first country in the Arab region to complete a standardized national disaster database. Egypt and Syria are in the finalization stage, and Morocco and Yemen are expected to be ready by end of December 2010. The establishment of national disaster databases with a specific standardized methodology and tools has attracted other countries such as Djibouti and Lebanon in developing nation disaster losses databases as well.

A new joint report from the World Bank and the United Nations says that annual global losses from natural disasters could triple to $185 billion by the end of this century, even without calculating the impact of climate change. Climate change could then

ADDIS ABABA -- Delegates of the the 11th Regional Coordination Mechanism for Africa (RCM-Africa) in Addis Ababa, November 14-15, 2010 closed the meeting on a high note confirming that they will strengthen their efforts to deliver as one for the AU and its NEPAD Programme. Key presentations focused on the need for the RCM, cluster and sub-clusters to be more result and impact oriented. Clusters were requested to develop programmes in consultation with the AUC and RECs based on their priorities and programmes. The participants also recommended to improve interaction among the AU Departments and inter-cluster relation especially on some cross-cutting issues.