Timor-Leste

Floods of 2021 in Timor-Leste presented opportunities to build back better in recovery efforts thanks to international support from countries like Australia.

Singapore and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) have renewed their partnership to strengthen the disaster risk management capacity of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and other developing countries that are vulnerable to natural disasters and are on the front line of climate change.

Pacific countries have pledged to step up efforts to deal with the challenge posed by climate change and the threat of disasters, in order to ensure that their development is sustainable.

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.

It’s 6:00 am one September day when a powerful undersea earthquake rocks the Makran Trench along the coast of Pakistan and Iran. Minutes later, the tsunami warning centres in India and Indonesia issue simultaneous alerts, followed rapidly by their counterpart in Australia, and authorities across the Indian Ocean swing into action. It's all a test, and a critical component of the region's disaster preparedness.

World Tsunami Awareness Day makes its debut on the international calendar this November, and disaster experts from around the Indian Ocean have been given an early opportunity to step up and get involved.

Tsunami experts from across the Indian Ocean have gathered in Australia this week to work on ways to improve their ability to ward off a repeat of the tragedy that struck the region in 2004.

There was a strong call for "the incorporation of disaster risk reduction in any future framework for sustainable development" during the UN General Assembly Thematic Debate on Disaster Risk Reduction yesterday which served as a major curtain raiser for Rio+20.

Following a three-day visit to Timor-Leste, the top UN disaster risk reduction official, Margareta Wahlström, said environmental degradation and disasters could threaten a visionary development strategy and budget presented by the Government to the Parliament.