UNDRR News

Members of the Scientific and Technical Committee of UNISDR prepared a statement during the Third Session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction that sets out a clear agenda to better align existing science and technical knowledge with the efforts to implement the Hyogo Framework for Action.

Sri Mulyani Indrawati, World Bank Managing Director, yesterday called for a stronger framework to coordinate disaster activities with greater transparency, at a high-level policy panel on “responding to natural disasters: a long-ignored development challenge.”

The United Nations secretariat for the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) yesterday recognized President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia as “UNISDR Global Champion for Disaster Risk Reduction,” at the opening ceremony of the 2011 Global Platform for Disaster Reduction.

The world is at defining moment in its history, where risks from climate change and growing disaster-related losses require a joint global response, said President Gjorge Ivanov of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, who addressed delegates yesterday during the opening ceremony of the Global Platform.

Representatives of the finance, insurance and construction sector at the Global Platform yesterday sounded a call for action on the five essentials for business in disaster risk reduction, in line with the main finding of the United Nations Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction that losses from disasters are rising faster than gains made through economic growth.

The international community must “risk proof” development because disasters are taking a heavy toll on rich and poor countries as well as outpacing their ability to respond, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told delegates today, at the foremost gathering of stakeholders on reducing disaster risk which opened this afternoon in Geneva and will run until Friday, 13 May.

Disaster-related economic losses are increasing across all regions, critically threatening the economies of low-income countries and even outstripping wealth creation across many of the world’s richer nations, says a United Nations report titled Revealing Risk, Redefining Development to be launched today by the United Nations' Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the Third Session of the Global Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction.

The Global Platform will be opened today by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who will also launch a report entitled 2011 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction – Revealing risks, redefining development. Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro will chair the forum in Geneva.

The final touches are being added to the Third Session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, which will take place in Geneva, Switzerland from 8-13 May. The Global Platform will be opened officially by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on May 10.

Four cities and two organizations have been shortlisted for the Sasakawa Award for Disaster Risk Reduction, worth $50,000, with winners to be announced 10 days from now at the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, on 12 May.