UNDRR News

The UN-EU Partnerships Report for 2010 highlights the increasingly important role of disaster risk reduction in the joint activities of the United Nations and the European Union. The report was released following the opening of the 66th session of the General Assembly of the United Nations on 13 September.

Serbia has taken a major step towards establishing a National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction with the announcement that 32 Serbian cities have now formally joined the World Disaster Reduction Campaign – Making Cities Resilient: 'My city is getting ready!'

Recognizing the political importance and impact of recent disasters, UNISDR and the European Parliament organized a debate "Prevent or react: The EU approach to Disaster Risk Reduction" to discuss the European Union's approach to disaster prevention.

On 22nd until 24th March the 20th Session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe was held in Strasbourg to discuss issues including City Safety and the ISDR Making cities resilient 'my city is getting ready' world disaster reduction Campaign.

In an official ceremony today, the Mayor of Rome, Gianni Alemanno, and the Mayor of Florence, Matteo Renzi, officially marked their cities’ participation in the United Nations World Disaster Reduction Campaign “Making Cities Resilient – My City is Getting Ready!” which involves over 600 cities worldwide. The Mayor of Milan, too, has officially declared her willingness to join the campaign.

The province of Tyrol and all its 279 municipalities joined the Making Cities Resilient campaign, with the City of Lienz taking the lead. Tyrol follows an innovative approach to disaster risk reduction: Between 2010 and 2013, each municipality will hold expert-led workshops in order to prepare a comprehensive risk portfolio following a standardized methodology. Tyrol will share its extensive disaster risk reduction knowledge in the context of the campaign.

This briefing note highlights that climate change adaptation relies on the reduction and management of climate-related disaster risks and why both need to become central to development planning and investment. It incorporates evidence that illustrates how climate risks are constructed and which risks can be reduced cost effectively.

In a message from Helena Molin Valdes, Deputy Director of UNISDR, all campaign cities and partners are encouraged to submit a nomination for the UN-Sasakawa award to highlight good practice and achievements against as many of the "ten essentials" for making cities resilient as possible.

National media organizations play an important role in promoting national disaster risk reduction policies and programmes. They need to know about disaster risk reduction and to establish contact with their national disaster risk reduction representatives who can provide them with accurate and timely information. To support this, UNISDR, Thomson Reuters Foundation, UNRIC and ECHO, are organizing a two-day media training in Brussels from 15 to 16 November 2010 with ten media organizations and national platform representatives from European countries.

UNISDR is launching a call for "good practices" and lessons learned by cities/local governments in support of the "Making Cities Resilient – My City is Getting Ready!" campaign. Selected examples will be published by the end of 2011, and others will be showcased during the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction on 8-13 May 2011.