UNDRR News

Government officials from Armenia, Cambodia, Gambia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Mongolia and Republic of Korea arrive in Incheon today for a five-day "Leadership Forum on Mainstreaming Adaptation and Disaster Reduction into Development." Over 30 officials from a variety of backgrounds will examine entry points for introducing disaster risk reduction into economic development.

Margareta Wahlström, the UN Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, today said that the economic losses inflicted on the US and Caribbean island states by Hurricane Sandy underlined the growing threat posed by extreme natural hazards to the world economy.

UNISDR Chief Margareta Wahlstrom spoke to the opening session of this week's extraordinary session of the World Meteorological Congress which is discussing the implementation plan and governance model for the Global Framework for Climate Services.

The President of the Republic of Indonesia, Dr. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, made a keynote address to last week's 5th Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, in which he explained why his administration has made "disaster reduction our top national priority."

A courageous disabled 24-year-old woman from a flood-prone part of Bangladesh was the centre of media attention today at the first UNISDR Asia Disaster Risk Reduction Film Festival in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, as a story woven around her life took a top prize in the human interest category.

High-level delegations from 50 countries across Asia and the Pacific -- the most disaster-prone region in the world -- today united around a call for an international agreement on disaster risk reduction to follow on from the Hyogo Framework for Action* in 2015.

Governments across Asia must involve children when they plan and implement projects to help disaster-prone communities mitigate risks and the impact, youth participants at a regional ministerial meeting said.

UNISDR Chief Margareta Wahlström today met with children from four of the world's most disaster-prone countries Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines, who shared with her their views on the implementation of the five-point Children's Charter for Disaster Risk Reduction.

The President of Indonesia, Dr. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, said today that the UN High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda which met last month for the first time, shares the view that "natural disasters and other crises could push millions of people back into poverty."

A UN Report released today at the opening of the Fifth Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk reduction shows that Asia and the Pacific is paying a huge price for extreme weather events which are now impacting negatively on the continent's economic development.