UNDRR News

ECOWAS and UNISDR regional office for Africa, with the support of the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), organized a three-day training workshop on mitigating disaster risk to improve the resilience of West African states against disasters. The training enabled government officials and disaster risk reduction practitioners to understand the role of hazard assessment, risk analysis and vulnerability mapping in reducing the impact of natural hazards as well as how ISDR partners can support their efforts at national and sub-regional levels in West Africa.

As relief continues to be the main priority for thousands of Haitians who have been affected by the 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Port-au-Prince, the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) and its partners are working together to ensure that disaster risk reduction principles are fully integrated into the different phases of the Haitian reconstruction process. View full story ->

UNISDR is pleased to share its Management Response to the second external evaluation of the secretariat. The Management Response sets out the process and main activities to implement recommendations arising from the evaluation carried out by Dalberg Global Development Advisers. Initiated by the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction and major UNISDR donors, the evaluation’s purpose was to assess the secretariat’s performance over the last four years and to provide guidance for UNISDR's future direction. The independent report presents 42 recommendations based on 25 findings, which are summarized in five key messages included in the executive summary. > View executive summary > View full report > View management response

Heavy rains and flash floods in the Sinai (Egypt) have left at least seven people dead. The flood has damaged houses, roads, electricity lines, several harbours and the airport of Sharm-El-Sheikh. It has been the worst flash flood since 1994. A positive

In the past decade, nearly 60 per cent of the people killed by disasters died because of earthquakes, the Centre for Research on Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) revealed today in a joint press conference with the United Nations International Strategy for

Climate change was among the items discussed during the fifth Annual Inter-Secretariat Meeting on General Cooperation between the African Union (AU) and the League of Arab States, which met at the headquarters of the League of Arab States in Cairo, Egypt, on 16 January 2010

At the Montreal Ministerial Preparatory Conference on Haiti held on 25 January, Helen Clark, the Administrator of UNDP and Chair of the UN Development Group, called for the integration of disaster prevention concerns and capacity into the recovery and reconstruction process. UNISDR is actively collaborating with UNDP and all other ISDR system partners to ensure that risk reduction is made an integral component of the international recovery and reconstruction efforts. > View full statement by Helen Clark

It has now been more than a week since two catastrophic earthquakes struck Haiti, leaving much of the Capital city Port-au-Prince and surroundings totally devastated. Haiti had no chance and could not have been prepared for a disaster of this magnitude.

Margareta Wahlström, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction says there is better news to report. “The affected countries and communities have largely recovered, and warning systems are now in place, not just for tsunamis, which are relatively rare, but also linked to those for tropical cyclones, storms, and floods.” > View full story

‘Tsunami Revisited’ is a documentary on the EC funded project 'Building Resilience to Tsunamis in the Indian Ocean Region in response to the devastating tsunami in the Indian Ocean on 26 December 2004. UNISDR was appointed to manage the project by coordinating, supervising and monitoring the actions of a number of partner organisations in four target countries: India, Indonesia, the Maldives and Sri Lanka. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) will air the programme at the following times: BBC World News broadcast - Sat 26/12/09 00:30 / 03:30 / 09:30 / 22:30 GMT - Sun 27/12/09 12:30 GMT