Mexico

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.

As the number of people in Central America affected by tropical depression 12-E rises to 1.9 million, the UN has launched its second flash appeal in two days and is now asking for US$14.3 million to assist Nicaragua which is being devastated by heavy rainfall and floods.

Between observance of the 26th anniversary of the September 1985 earthquake in Mexico City and Mexico’s hosting of the global celebration yesterday of the 2011 World Habitat Day under the theme Cities and Climate Change, the municipal government of the capital city has passed a new law on structural safety that will further protect people living with earthquake risk.

President Mauricio Mobarak of global consulting firm UC&CS has signed a statement of commitment announced by UNISDR's Private Sector Advisory Group during the Third Session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in May.

While at the Cancun cliamte conference on 8 December, UNISDR Deputy Director Helena Molin Valdes discussed the "Making Cities Resilient" campaign at a UN system-wide side event on "Cities and Climate Change: Enhancing mitigation and adaptation action," attended by approximately 150 national officials, members of UN agencies, and civil society representatives.

The need to communicate and share information is strongest at a time of disaster. As social media and mobile phone use has grown, so too has the use of these technologies to signal the onset or aftermath of a disaster. Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and other social media were also used extensively during Haiti to connect people affected by the earthquake with the outside world with reports about the devastation, as well as to ask for help.

Turning disaster into opportunity: In October 2010, Cyclone Giri wrecked homes, roads and bridges in Myanmar and Thailand, leaving 100,000 people homeless and twice as many needing humanitarian assistance – forming an apt backdrop for the decision by Asian governments a few days later to recognize disaster risk reduction as a tool for climate change adaptation.

One of the most important tests of a successful agreement is its achievability. Through the Chief Executive Board, the highest level coordination mechanism in the UN system, over 50 UN organizations have advanced a common agenda in Cancun to show how adaptation could work.

As the world’s climate officials descend on Cancun today to begin addressing the causes and consequences of climate change, they would do well to recall the words of fellow government officials sitting in the UN General Assembly in New York: “we must do more to build resilience and mitigate the impact of climate-related disasters.”

Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard – who is poised to sign a historic emissions reduction agreement with over 70 other mayors days before the UN climate summit in Cancún – will be named champion of the Making Cities Resilient campaign by the UN’s top disaster risk reduction official, Margareta Wahlström, at a ceremony during the World Mayors Summit on Climate in Mexico City on 21 November.