UNDRR News

A powerful State committee for safeguarding Venice will meet today in Rome for the first time in three years to consider a proposal from the Mayor of Venice and UNISDR Champion, Giorgio Orsoni, to ban large cruise ships from sailing past the city’s most famous landmarks including the Piazza San Marco and the Doge’s Palace.

Cooperation in disaster management is a key element of building peace and prosperity in North-East Asia, a high-level regional conference has been told.

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.

The city of Gaziantep, Turkey, officially joined the UNISDR’s Making Cities Resilient Campaign today at a special event “Making Gaziantep Resilient: My City is Getting Ready” co-organized by Turkey’s Prime Ministry, Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) - Regional Office for Europe.

UNISDR Chief Margareta Wahlström today welcomed the creation of a new collaboration between nine key players in the global effort to build urban resilience to disasters and to strengthen the social, economic and environmental fabric of the world’s urban spaces.

A major step towards implementation of a disaster risk financing framework in South Eastern Europe has been taken with the completion of a first round of training workshops on new approaches to earthquake insurance last month.

The Head of UNISDR, Margareta Wahlström, arrived yesterday in Chile, where she was received by the President, Michelle Bachelet, prior to a regional consultation on disaster risk reduction with the eleven member countries of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR).

The Mayor of the Argentinian city, Sante Fe, José Corral, returns to his home city tomorrow from the 7th World Urban Forum (WUF7) as a Champion of UNISDR’s Making Cities Resilient Campaign .

A final season of regional consultations with governments on the Post-2015 agreement on disaster risk reduction got underway this week in Almaty, Kazakhstan, as top disaster management officials from eight countries in Central Asia and the Southern Caucasus came together.

GENEVA, 2 April 2014 – The Head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, Margareta Wahlström, today praised the prompt action of the Chilean government in issuing a timely tsunami warning in response to last night’s earthquake and the orderly evacuation of thousands of people out of harm’s way.