UNDRR News

Businesses that bounced back quickly from a recent spate of disasters have a lot to teach policymakers and community leaders about resilience, a banking executive told a major Pacific development forum today.

Pacific government ministers today said community leadership was the key to success of innovative approaches to integrated climate change and disaster risk reduction action across the region.

The Head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), Margareta Wahlström, today hailed the Pacific as it committed to a world first of integrating action in disaster risk management and climate change in one strategy to secure a sustainable future for this increasingly threatened region.

Every day the Pacific wakes up and goes to work ahead of the rest of the world and next week it will do the same as it kicks off a series of regional consultations that will shape the successor agreement to the Hyogo Framework for Action after 2015.

UNISDR Chief, Margareta Wahlström, today welcomed a major policy decision by Pacific Island States to help formulate a new international framework on disaster risk reduction to replace the current Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) in 2015.

The 4th Session of the Pacific Platform for Disaster Risk Management opened today with a strong call for Pacific Island Countries and Territories, and donors to address the challenges of climate change in a smarter way.

A 15-day state of disaster is currently in effect in areas on the west coast of Fiji that have been ravaged by floods which began on 22 January. A flood watch is in place as periods of heavy rain are expected. All those living in flood-prone areas have been advised to evacuate and take with them food, water and a change of clothes. As of today, there are 21 active evacuation centres with a total of 1,333 evacuees.

The UNISDR Sub-Regional Office in Suva together with its partners, held a Pacific regional celebration of the International Day for Disaster Reduction to highlight the role of children and youth as active partners in disaster risk reduction.

Amidst growing concerns about drought crises in some of the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) of the Pacific, the Government of Tuvalu today began a three-week nationwide needs assessment of water, agriculture and health facilities.

The Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction (GAR11) titled Revealing Risk, Redefining Development will be launched today in Auckland (New Zealand) at the Third Session of the Pacific Platform for Disaster Risk Management which is the main gathering of disaster risk management experts and decision makers in the Pacific region.