UNDRR News

A new report acknowledges the Philippines as a global leader in enacting legislation on disaster risk reduction but finds this is undermined by poor urban governance resulting in ineffective building codes and poor land use planning at the local level.

Heavy rains caused massive flooding in Jakarta yesterday bringing the city to a halt with many government offices and businesses forced to close because employees could not get to work.

The largest chain of shopping malls in the Philippines, SM Prime Holdings, has taken its leadership in disaster resilience to yet another level by becoming the newest member of the UNISDR Private Sector Advisory Group (PSAG).

An early view of disaster trends in 2012 across Asia, the world's most disaster-prone region, shows that mortality from flood events continues to decline but economic losses remain a major cause of concern.

The UN Office for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) today praised the improved performance of early warning systems in the Philippines as Typhoon Bopha cut a swathe of destruction across the country resulting in over 200 deaths and significant economic losses.

It's a scenario from hell which could rival the 2010 Haitian earthquake in terms of human losses.

Government officials from Armenia, Cambodia, Gambia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Mongolia and Republic of Korea arrive in Incheon today for a five-day "Leadership Forum on Mainstreaming Adaptation and Disaster Reduction into Development." Over 30 officials from a variety of backgrounds will examine entry points for introducing disaster risk reduction into economic development.

A courageous disabled 24-year-old woman from a flood-prone part of Bangladesh was the centre of media attention today at the first UNISDR Asia Disaster Risk Reduction Film Festival in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, as a story woven around her life took a top prize in the human interest category.

High-level delegations from 50 countries across Asia and the Pacific -- the most disaster-prone region in the world -- today united around a call for an international agreement on disaster risk reduction to follow on from the Hyogo Framework for Action* in 2015.

Governments across Asia must involve children when they plan and implement projects to help disaster-prone communities mitigate risks and the impact, youth participants at a regional ministerial meeting said.