UNDRR News

A five-day meeting was held from 1st to 5th of December in Nairobi, Kenya, - under the auspices of the African Union Commission (AUC) and with the support of the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) - bringing together the Regional Economic Communities (RECs), National Focal Points on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), non-governmental organizations (NGOs), regional technical institutions, UN agencies and the World Bank.

A four day workshop was held between the 14 th and 17 th of April in Dakar, Senegal bringing together DRR focal points from over 30 countries in Sub Saharan Africa including government officials (National Platform/HFA Focal Points/Ministry of Finance senior members), World Bank and UNDP staff, African Union representatives, African Development Bank staff and DRR partner institutions/civil society/academic institutions.

The World Disaster Reduction Campaign 2008-2009: ' Hospitals Safe from Disasters' is a global campaign being launched in Davos, Switzerland on 25 January, by the secretariat of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN/ISDR) and the World Health Organization (WHO), with support from the World Bank.

The secretariat of the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction launches an on-line game aimed at teaching children how to build safer villages and cities against disasters.

The 31th Summit of ECOWAS Heads of States held on 19 January 2007 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, adopted the ECOWAS Policy and Mechanisms for Disaster Risk Reduction. At the request of the ECOWAS Secretariat, UN/ISDR Africa provided its support in the development of the Policy framework, whose implementation would focus on areas of importance to the West African situation under the guidance of the Africa Union Strategy for disaster risk reduction and the Hyogo Framework for Action.