UNDRR News

The ministers and heads of delegations of the Arab Member States of the United Nations announced the adoption of Rabat Declaration for Disaster Risk Reduction.

The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, Regional Office for Arab States, launched the Regional Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction in the Arab Region 2021 (RAR-Arab States), during the Fifth Arab Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction. The report represents a major step towards a twenty-first-century regional view of disaster risk and its reduction.

Africa has often been called a “continent on the move” and this is especially true for West Africa, which is one of the most mobile regions in the world. More than 50% of global migration flows from the West African and Sahel countries. At the same time, people are very much reliant on rain-fed agriculture. This makes the region highly vulnerable to the impacts of global warming, including droughts and flooding.

Climate change is undermining the ability to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, says the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction.

Small island developing States are at the forefront of the climate emergency and suffer from “double exposure” to both economic and environmental shocks. If the world’s future is uncertain, then the future of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) is only m

We urgently need to accelerate action to reduce the impact of climate-related disasters. The world needs greater investment in climate change adaptation as called for by the Paris Agreement, and in national and local DRR strategies as called for by the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

While tsunamis are not common in the Caribbean – the last major one hit 75 years ago – people are well aware of the impact of storm surges and quick to get on board with the “Tsunami Ready” program.

8 November 2021 – Under the theme “From Risk to Resilience: Accelerating Local Action for Disaster Risk Reduction,” the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, Regional Office for Arab States (UNDRR ROAS), the Kingdom of Morocco, and the League of Arab States launched the Fifth Arab Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, a ministerial-level conference The platform is organized virtually and hosted by the Kingdom of Morocco.

Tsunamis remain the deadliest of all sudden onset natural hazards and they expose shortcomings in the built environment with deadly precision and fatal consequences. They are the ultimate test for risk governance and the rigor of DRR strategies when it comes to managing risks that originate in the world’s oceans and threaten the coastlines where 650 million people are exposed to tsunami risk, storms and tidal surges. Rising sea levels and industrial pollution are all contributing to the expansion of the tsunami threat. The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction is encouraged by the progress we have seen since the celebration of the first World Tsunami Awareness Day five years ago.

Over 500 people joined an online high-level event to mark the 6th World Tsunami Awareness Day today. The accent was very much on science and youth, and the inclusion of tsunami risk in the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.