UNDRR News

The Head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), Margareta Wahlström, today extended condolences to the families of those who have lost loved ones in the collapse of an eight-storey building in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and reiterated that Dhaka is also in a high risk earthquake zone.

Five years after energy black outs and major floods exposed serious weaknesses in the city’s infrastructure and services, the Spanish city of Barcelona was recognized today by the United Nations as a role model for urban resilience in recognition of its efforts to reduce the vulnerability of critical infrastructure and services.

The UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, Margareta Wahlström, today welcomed the city of Hoboken, New Jersey, into UNISDR's Making Cities Resilient Campaign in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Hoboken brings to four the number of US cities who have joined UNISDR's global campaign which has 1,400 adherents.

Within days of its launch, a new UNISDR survey has received over 1,000 responses spelling out what cities and towns would like to see included in the new global framework for disaster risk reduction which will follow on from the existing Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) in 2015.

Algeria has held North Africa's first national review of the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) as UNISDR's consultations continue around the world on developing a new global framework for disaster risk reduction by 2015.

Heads of State, government ministers, parliamentarians, CEOs, scientists and civil society representatives will meet in Geneva in May to discuss a new global framework to reduce disaster risk.

The Italian Government is urgently seeking EUR 40 billion over the next 15 years for flood prevention following a week of heavy rains that began on 10 November in the north and then wreaked havoc in Umbria and Tuscany in central Italy.

Margareta Wahlström, the UN Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, today said that the economic losses inflicted on the US and Caribbean island states by Hurricane Sandy underlined the growing threat posed by extreme natural hazards to the world economy.

On 13 October, the International Day for Disaster Reduction (IDDR) will be an occasion to pay tribute to millions of girls and women around the world who are on the frontline making their communities and societies resilient to the impacts of disasters and the effects of climate change.

The Mayor of Mashad, Seyed Mohammad Pezhman, is leading a major push for more Iranian cities to join UNISDR's "Making Cities Resilient" campaign as ten cities from disaster-prone Khorasan Razavi Province in north-eastern Iran signed up to the campaign yesterday.