UNDRR News

Mom Rajawongse Sukhumbhand Paribatra, the Governor of Bangkok, was appointed today Champion for the UNISDR World Disaster Campaign, Making Cities Resilient: My City Is Getting Ready! The appointment of Mom Rajawongse.Paribatra recognizes the work that has been accomplished in Bangkok by all the governors over the past 25 year to reduce flood risk. The awarding ceremony took place at the UN Conference Centre in Bangkok during the official campaign launch in Thailand.

The nominated candidate can be an individual or an institution that has carried out outstanding and internationally recognized action that contributes to the strategic goals and priorities of the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015.

The UN system and ASEAN will commemorate the 2010 International Day for Disaster Reduction, and the ASEAN day for Disaster Management under the theme "Making Cities Resilient: My City Is Getting Ready!" The commemorations will take place on Wednesday, 13 October 2010 from 09:00-17:30 hours at the UN Conference Centre in Bangkok. > View full story

This year's theme: My City is Getting Ready! To mark the International Day for Disaster Reduction, the UNISDR secretariat is calling on its partners to play a more active role to protect cities against disasters. Many cities have been disrupted this year by disasters: earthquakes in Haiti, Chile and New Zealand; floods and heavy rainfalls in Pakistan, Eastern Europe, Mozambique and other parts of Africa; forest fires in Russia; and volcanic eruptions in Indonesia and Iceland. All have caused huge human suffering and economic damage. Cities have never been so at risk.

The Inter-Parliamentary Union passed a resolution, which calls on their governments to provide adequate and accessible resources to support the UN in developing a parliamentary programme on disaster risk reduction that focuses on mitigation, prevention and preparedness and UN agencies involved in providing disaster assistance. UNISDR, the UN’s agency for disaster risk reduction, is calling on international lawmakers to take action on disaster risk reduction as a means to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and adapt to climate change.

The “Making Cities Resilient: My City is Getting Ready!” campaign was officially launched today in the Arab region, during an event in the margins of the General Assembly meeting of the Arab Towns Organization. The event also took place in presence of H.E. Abdulaziz Yousef Al-Adsani, Secretary General of the Arab Towns Organization and Dr. Fadel Safar Ali Safar, Minister of Municipal Affairs, Kuwait. > View full story

The City of Nis, Serbia, became the one-hundredth city to join the 2010-11 World Disaster Reduction Campaign “Making Cities Resilient – My City is Getting Ready!” at the city’s “Strategy for Safety Promotion” event on 30 September, a highly publicized event attended by over 40 Serbian cities. Nis joined the campaign along with 17 others.

As part of its Making Cities Resilient: 'My City is getting ready!' world disaster reduction campaign, UNISDR will encourage more mayors and local governments to join the 100 cities that have already signed up to the global campaign...

On Wednesday, the UN General Assembly acknowledged in the outcome document of the 2010 MDG Summit the importance of disaster risk reduction (DRR) and the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The outcome document, which includes an action plan for achieving the MDGs by 2015, was adopted by consensus on 22 September at the end of the three-day summit in New York. > View full story

Tackling urban risk is everybody's business -- from national to local governments, community groups, professional associations and the international community -- and will help reduce poverty, said an UNISDR official today at the global launch of the World Disasters Report 2010 in Nairobi, published by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). The report’s focus on urban risk coincides with the theme of the World Disaster Reduction Campaign "Making cities resilient- My city is getting ready!", which was launched by UNISDR and partners last May in Bonn, Germany.