UNDRR News

A UN Report released today at the opening of the Fifth Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk reduction shows that Asia and the Pacific is paying a huge price for extreme weather events which are now impacting negatively on the continent's economic development.

UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, Margareta Wahlström, praised the efforts of the Government of Lebanon over the last years to create a firm foundation in building resilience and reducing disaster risk in the country.

More than 1,200 participants including 49 Government Ministers and high level delegates from Asia will gather next Tuesday in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, at the Fifth Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR) where the devastating consequences of disaster losses across the region will be top of the agenda.

Eleven short films on disaster risk reduction have been selected for competition in the first Asian Film Festival on Disaster Risk Reduction which will take place at the Fifth Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction next week in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

A panel of eight leading women experts meeting at the birthplace of the Hyogo Framework for Action called on UNISDR Chief, Margareta Wahlström, to exert pressure for gender equality in disaster risk reduction. The dialogue with Ms. Wahlström was part of Kobe's observance of International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction.

The Head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, Margareta Wahlström, today marked International Day for Disaster Reduction with a call for women and girls to take leadership in disaster management in a world where disasters are on the rise.

The UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, Margareta Wahlström, today honored the Prime Minister of Thailand, H.E. Yingluck Shinawatra, as a leading woman figure in disaster management.

The shooting of 14-year-old schoolgirl, Malala Yousafzai, in Pakistan on Tuesday by the Taliban because of her campaigning for girls to stay at school and avoid forced early marriage provides a tragic back-drop to today's first-ever International Day of the Girl Child which focuses on these issues.

UNISDR today recognized Sendai, the largest city in Japan's tsunami-struck region of Tohoku, as a role model for the Making Cities Resilient Campaign for "promoting community-based disaster risk reduction and empowering people to act on disaster risk reduction."

UNDP and the Lebanese Government are to cooperate on developing a plan to boost media coverage on disaster risk reduction following a high-level meeting with media institutions last Friday hosted by the Minister for Information, Walid Al Daouk, and opened by UN Resident Coordinator, Robert Watkins.