Mexico

Mexico City, a high-risk mega city, expects to train 10,000 civil servants on their responsibilities and options to consistently help reduce risks facing their city. The training is sponsored locally and supported by the UNISDR regional office and the Capacity Development for Disaster Reduction Initiative (CADRI) of the UN. Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, known for his commitment to disaster risk reduction and improving the city's resilience to climate change, made an opening statement where he stressed the importance of training decision makers and technical staff from all the City dependencies and departments, especially those that have a multiplying effect on decisions and plans. > Click for links to news coverage

The event addressed current initiatives related to urban risk reduction, in particular in Port-of-Prince, Tijuana and Kathmandu. Eminent speakers from Haiti, Mexico and Nepal highlighted the importance of reducing risk in the urban context - relevant to achieving the Millennium Development Goals...

This issue includes:

Editorial -

Voices & Ideas:
- Chosica: Prevention Bears Fruit
- Crisis or Mitigation?: The role of relationships between institutions and communities in disaster recovery assistance
- Contingency plans for coping with disasters: A

The torrential rains that caused flooding and huge mudslides, resulting in over a hundred deaths in Central America and southern Mexico prove again that we need to be better prepared against what is the most destructive type of natural hazard in the world

Good practices and lessons learned:

This publication is part of ongoing efforts facilitated by the UNISDR secretariat to build a global partnership for mainstreaming gender issues into the disaster risk reduction process. Such efforts have become urgent