Eighteen countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have agreed to tighten up on school safety while also integrating disaster risk reduction into the school curriculum, following high-level talks on education in Panama City.

The UN has issued a flash appeal for US$15.7 million to provide emergency assistance to El Salvador which has now been pounded by heavy rains and floods since 10 October.

International efforts to mitigate climate change are insufficient to meet the goal of keeping global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, a United Nations report warned, just a month before a major conference on the issue is held in Durban, South Africa.

The new Government of Myanmar intends to adopt the disaster risk reduction plan that was drawn up after Cyclone Nargis two years ago following a series of meetings with the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, Margareta Wahlström.

Recognizing the importance of risk reduction, the Japanese city of Saijo expanded their disaster risk reduction (DRR) education program to train children and young people to be future leaders in DRR. The program, which now trains students older than twelve-years old, was launched as part of the International Day for Disaster Reduction celebrations in the city.

The Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Disaster Risk Reduction, Margareta Wahlström, arrived in Myanmar today at the invitation of the government, on a three-day visit during which she will engage with senior Government Ministers on a national action plan for disaster risk reduction and a Disaster Management Law.

Vulnerability to natural hazards is rapidly on the increase in Europe, UNISDR Chief, Margareta Wahlström, told the Second Annual European Forum for Disaster Risk Reduction (EFDRR) yesterday in Skopje, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

UN Disaster Risk Reduction Chief, Margareta Wahlström, met today for the first time with Pakistan’s President, Asif Ali Zadari, to discuss how Pakistan responds to “the new normal” in dealing with floods which have inundated the country for two successive years.