Update

UNISDR chief Margareta Wahlström today congratulated Switzerland for getting ready to face the consequences of a major earthquake even if the last one happened over 1,000 years ago.

The magnitude 4.0 earthquake recorded off the coast of Antigua on 11 May is "a warning that the Caribbean should prepare for a much more severe earthquake to come," says a leading expert.

The Philippines Pampanga River Basin which floods once a year and provides 90% of the domestic water supply to the capital Manila, is the focus of a meeting convened today by UNISDR Champion, Senator Loren Legarda, to assist local government units in risk reduction.

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, Margareta Wahlström, has just visited the site of a major reconstruction programme which is about to start in the earthquake-devastated centre of Christchurch, New Zealand.

UNISDR's "Making Cities Resilient" campaign received a significant boost today with the announcement that the Ibero-American Union of Municipalities (Unión Iberoamericana de Municipalistas (UIM) is now an official campaign partner.

Earthquake and flood-prone Arborg, Iceland, a member of the 'Making Cities Resilient' campaign, is boosting the preparedness of its new twin -- the Palestinian city of Jericho -- starting with a four-week crash course on disaster management that begins today.

David Dodman, Senior Researcher at the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), says the Institute will publish a report on UNISDR's "Making Cities Resilient" campaign by year's end (see video).

The International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and the UN office for disaster risk reduction are hosting a series of four webinars on building disaster resilient cities. The topics are: enabling risk reduction through urban planning; how to encourage multi-stakeholder engagement as a key factor in in the planning, design, construction and operation or maintenance of resilient cities; people’s needs and expectations in post-disaster reconstruction (in Spanish); and how local governments have used UNISDR's Ten Essentials for Making Cities Resilient and the Local Government Self-Assessment Tool to close gaps and define priorities and institutional commitments to reduce disaster risk at local level.

Peru launched a recruitment drive this week for UNISDR's Making Cities Resilient campaign and 14 municipalities signed up yesterday in Lima to deliver on the campaign's "Ten Essentials."

Early next week in Bangkok, Asian and Pacific media and 10 UN agencies will participate in a special pre-session of a media summit organized by the Asia Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (APIBD), to review regional progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).