UNDRR News

Disaster risk reduction is at the center of a raft of commitments and actions in the outcome document officially adopted today at the conclusion of the four days of the International Conference on Small Island Developing States in Samoa. The outcome document is titled SAMOA – SIDS Accelerated Modalities of Action – Pathway.

“I am not a leading expert but a leading victim in the issue of climate change. Sea level rise is already happening and what is happening in my island, it is not only a problem for all SIDS but for all of us as more than 75 per cent of the world population lives close to coastal areas,” said Anote Tong, President of Kiribati, when he opened the second Stakeholder Partnership dialogue on Climate Change and Disaster Management yesterday at the UN Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in Samoa.

The need for animals to be included in disaster risk management planning was highlighted yesterday at the International Conference on Small Island Developing States which heard an appeal for them to be included in the revised Hyogo Framework for Action, the international framework for disaster risk reduction.

The private sector is set to have a major impact on the Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS) which opened in Samoa on the 1st of September, with a strong focus on how to reduce the exposure of 52 million island dwellers to future disaster events amplified by climate change.

The 6th Pacific Platform for Disaster Risk Management closed yesterday with a call for strengthened action to prevent risk accumulation and to build resilience.

The Pacific ‘would not be where it is today’ in terms of building resilience without the influence of the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015 (HFA), according to a review presented at the 6th Pacific Platform for Disaster Management which concluded today in Fiji.

A trio of creative organisations supporting the development of community resilience have been recognised for their great work in the Pacific region.

Not one child died at a school or kindergarten during the Christchurch earthquake of February 2011. It was one of the few bright spots from the major disaster that hit New Zealand’s principal city of its South Island.

The Pacific region today challenged itself to grasp what was described as a ‘pivotal moment’ to shape disaster risk and climate change efforts for at least the next 20 years.

To help mark the approaching 10th anniversary of the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA), the global strategy for reducing disaster losses worldwide, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) Sub-Regional Office for the Pacific today launched the inaugural Pacific Innovation and Leadership Award for Resilience (PILAR), a pioneering initiative in the region.