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Turkey’s 23 October quake revealed that only 9 per cent of building owners were insured despite it being mandatory in the country’s municipal areas.

As the international community gears up for the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development to be held in June next year, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is calling for any future framework for sustainable development to include a “clear prescription for incorporation of disaster and climate risk management.”

At the opening of the General Debate of the 66th session of the UN General Assembly yesterday, incoming Assembly President Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser identified disaster prevention as one of the key issues that will “help frame our work this session”.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Irene that hit the east coast of the United States just over a week ago, it is a reminder that disasters caused by extreme weather events are becoming common place even for countries and cities that are considered to be at the pinnacle of development.

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.

Joseph Deiss, President of the General Assembly said DRR was crucial for protecting progress made towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and for achieving sustainable development, at the GA Thematic Debate on DRR on 9 February. Throughout the day, he and other participants called for the enhancement of data collection and the scaling-up of investments in education, better urban planning, the sharing of information and technology, and the raising of awareness, especially to ensure that specific disasters and the needs of victims, remained high on the international agenda long after they had dropped from the news headlines.

A new joint report from the World Bank and the United Nations says that annual global losses from natural disasters could triple to $185 billion by the end of this century, even without calculating the impact of climate change. Climate change could then add $28-$68 billion more in damages each year from tropical cyclones alone. The report also says that the number of people exposed to storms and earthquakes in large cities could double to 1.5 billion by 2050.

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.

Internationally renowned scientists and engineers will converge on the University of Miami campus March 22-23 for a workshop dedicated to rebuilding the city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in ways that make it less vulnerable to damage from future earthquakes and other hazards. View full story ->

This guidance note shares 'live lessons' learned - told through first-person stories - that contribute to disaster preparedness, mitigation, and a recovery that builds back better.