Myanmar

The disaster risk reduction (DRR) status report provides a snapshot of the state of DRR in Myanmar under the four priorities of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030.

During last year's monsoon season, over 40,000 Rohingya refugees were affected by landslides and floods. UN agencies, Bangladesh Red Crescent and other NGO partners are working to reduce disaster risk in the camps with a strong focus on the environment.

In Mawlamyine, annual flooding damages infrastructure and lives. Thanks to the Making Cities Sustainable and Resilient Initiative, the city is evaluating its resilience to scale up DRR interventions.

For the third year, Japan hosted a High School Students Summit to mark World Tsunami Awareness Day. UNISDR head, Mami Mizutori, urged them to become youth ambassdors for disaster risk reduction.

The anniversary of Nargis is a good moment to reflect on how far the world has come in reducing the death toll from disasters while underlining that there is still plenty of need for disaster risk preparedness in the face of climate change, sea-level rise, and growing population density in hazard-exposed areas.

In May 2008, less than four years after the Indian Ocean tsunami resulted in the loss of 230,000 lives, the world witnessed another disaster which provided a tragic illustration of the price people and nations pay in the absence of effective early warning systems being in place.

Research findings released today on International Day for Disaster Reduction forecast a continued rise in homelessness among people in the world’s most disaster prone countries unless significant progress is made in managing disaster risk.

Hundreds of high school students from around the world have pledged to step up efforts to reduce disaster risk, at a global gathering held to mark the first edition of World Tsunami Awareness Day.

Asia’s most prolific disaster risk reduction journalist has urged media colleagues from 12 other countries to move beyond simply describing events and instead help their audiences better protect themselves from various hazards.

World Tsunami Awareness Day will be marked for the first time this year, on November 5. This week 24 countries with exposed coastlines in the Indian Ocean are taking part in one of the largest tsunami drills ever staged.