UNDRR News

On 25 to 26 August, the UNISDR Regional Office for Africa is holding a pilot workshop on “Training of Trainers” in the Rift Valley Province to test a toolkit to “train trainers” in disaster risk reduction. “The outcome of this training will create a super highway for spreading hazard and disaster risk reduction information to local communities, thereby increasing their knowledgebase and consequently their resilience to natural disasters,” said Pedro Basabe, Head of the UNISDR Regional Office for Africa. Expected to attend are 30 Disaster Risk Reduction platform members from the provinces, and five regional participants from Burundi, Cape Verde, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal and Kenya. > View full story

Over 13,000 schools and hospitals have joined the “One Million Safe Schools and Hospitals Campaign” since its national launch in Indonesia on July 29, quadrupling in the space of one week from 3,156 schools to 13,500. The number of hospitals that joined rose from 105 to 133. With the support of the local communication and information authority in Ciwidey, West Java Province, organizers set up computers where participants made online pledges.

The United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) conducted an audit of the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction secretariat (UNISDR), releasing a report on 28 July. To conduct the audit, OIOS held a series of

Months before the damaging quake of 12 January hit Port-au-Prince and neighbouring cities, human rights lawyer William O'Neill -- one-time senior advisor on human rights in the UN Mission in Kosovo, former chief of the UN Human Rights Field Operation in Rwanda, and who once led the legal department of the UN/OAS Mission in Haiti -- had urged international donors to empower Haitians to demand that elected officials “stop squabbling and start focusing on protecting their constituents’ lives.” > View full story

The European Forum for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) organized a special event on European National Platforms in collaboration with UNISDR Europe, the Council of Europe European and Mediterranean Major Hazards Agreement (EUR-OPA), the European Commission and UNESCO. The goal was to discuss experiences from European National Platforms (NPs). These need to be built on national and local conditions, cultures, and structures, should reflect the needs of their constituencies and can serve as laboratories of ideas to promote innovation for DRR initiatives. The event introduced the newly established European Forum for Disaster Risk Reduction, which brings together National Platforms, Hyogo Framework for Action Focal Points and regional organizations to jointly reduce vulnerabilities in Europe.

UNISDR Europe is pleased to announce that the Republic of Finland has launched its National Platform (NP) for Disaster Risk Reduction under the coordination of the Department for Rescue Services of the Ministry of Interior. We would like to congratulate Finland on advancing its disaster risk reduction agenda.

“Local governments need to develop a culture of security and have access to the means to respond to a catastrophe,” stressed Haiti’s Mayor of Port-au-Prince to other mayors gathered at a forum on disaster risk reduction in Shanghai, which concluded today. His key message to other mayors, based on the experience of Port-au-Prince after January’s devastating earthquake was, “Be ready.” At the same forum, five new mayors joined the Making Cities Resilient campaign, and Governor Joey Salceda of Albay Province, Philippines, was named Champion.

On 29 July, Indonesia committed to increase the safety of 3,156 schools and 105 hospitals as part of its engagement to the One Million Safe Schools and Hospitals Campaign, launched globally in Manila last April 2010.

Three mayors from the Philippines joined 60 other mayors from around the world who have pledged to meet some or all of the "Ten Essentials" that will make their cities more resilient. A ceremony was held as part of a workshop on strengthening climate resilience, organized by Plan International, the Institute of Development Studies and Christian Aid, from 22 to 23 July 2010 in Bangkok, Thailand.

The Dominican Republic became the first country to receive a progress report from the United Nations and partners on its efforts to implement the Hyogo Framework for Action, receiving recommendations to strengthen building codes and incorporate “vulnerability reduction” targets in projects funded by both the public and private sector. Margareta Wahlström, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, presented the report at an event at the Presidential Palace in Santo Domingo.