UNDRR News

Investors in partnership with UNISDR held an Entrepreneurial Finance Seminar on 25 October to provide Kenyan entrepreneurs with training on capital formation options in the over-the-counter market in the United States. > View full story

Earthquakes in Haiti, Chile and China have provided stark reminders of the increasing disaster risk in urban areas. Smaller and more frequent disasters in communities around the world attest to rising vulnerability and insufficient capacity to cope with disaster risk at the local level. The report of the Secretary General provides an overview of progress in the implementation of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction.

From promoting women’s empowerment in Indonesia, to teaching architects to build structures resilient against hurricanes and earthquakes, the Sasakawa Award for Disaster Reduction has helped fund innovative disaster reduction work by a range of professionals from geologists to engineers for the past 23 years. Nominations are now open for the 2011 Sasakawa Award to be given to an individual or organization for outstanding and internationally recognized action that contributes to building the resilience of nations and communities to disasters.

As a region hard hit by weather-related events, UNISDR is urging Asian government ministers meeting at the Fourth Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction this Monday to incorporate disaster risk reduction as part of their national policies to cope with climate change, and with it, more predicted floods, cyclones and drought.

The second round of government-led progress review on the implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action is underway. More than fifty countries have already carried out the self-assessment. A number of regional bodies have also started to conduct an assessment of their progress in disaster risk reduction. The results of the country and regional assessments received before the end of 2010 will be presented in the 2011 Global Assessment Report. > View full story

A mentoring programme created by UNISDR and the Stockholm Environment Institute trained its first batch of young researchers, most in the mid-20s to mid-30s, in response to a request from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for more peer-reviewed literature by authors from developing countries. > View full story

The campaign was officially launched in the Arab region by Margareta Wahlström, Special Representative for the Secretary-General on Disaster Risk Reduction, followed by a roundtable discussion between city officials from Arab cities participating in the

Nairobi is one of the latest cities to join the World Disaster Reduction Campaign “Making Cities Resilient - My city is getting ready!” The signing in ceremony was led by Pedro Basabe, Head of the UNISDR Regional Office for Africa and it took place on 13 October during the celebration of International Day for Disaster Reduction at the Korogocho informal settlements. > View full story

Over 200 people attended a public debate on what makes a city resilient against disaster, in Shanghai, China, moderated by top Chinese anchorman Bai Yan Song of CCTV. Mr. Bai posed questions to both the panelists and the public, challenging them to think about creative solutions to reduce disaster risk. > View full story

“Disaster risk reduction is an obligation for all–donors, governments and the private sector,” said Toni Frisch from the Swiss Humanitarian Aid Department. “We cannot wait for more disasters to happen to understand the benefits of disaster risk reduction policies. It is easy to show the damage caused by a disaster but much more difficult to get attention when the damage is invisible.”