UNDRR News

The ranks of UNISDR’s Private Sector Partnership (PSP) have swollen in Japan thanks to the admission of nine new companies and a business federation, the Keidanren, which represents more than 1,300 firms and 112 business associations. In addition, more than 10 companies are poised to join.

As the Philippines continued its recovery from Typhoon Hagupit which killed more than 27 people over the weekend, thirty representatives of journalism schools from the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Lao PDR and Myanmar met for two days in Manila to discuss how to integrate disaster risk reduction into training for journalists in ASEAN countries.

As negotiations resume this week in Geneva on a global agreement on disaster risk management, the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) said the Philippines “zero casualty” approach to managing Typhoon Hagupit was further evidence of Asia’s leadership role in reducing mortality and tackling economic losses from disasters.

Government and schools were closed today in the Philippines coastal city of Tacloban as thousands of families flocked to evacuation centres ahead of the feared arrival of another “super typhoon” at the weekend.

Global policymakers were today urged to grasp the opportunity of the upcoming Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction #wcdrr as a key moment in collective efforts to build safer and more resilient nations www.wcdrr.org.

The Hyogo Framework for Action has been an important guide to disaster risk managers working to build resilience on one of the world’s most exposed and vulnerable coasts.

The first anniversary of Typhoon Haiyan which took the lives of 6,300 people and resulted in US$ 10 billion in economic losses, was the impetus for a gathering of chief executives, middle managers and government officials to discuss building resilience.

A dream came true for more than 200 families from Bogo city in Cebu yesterday when they received the keys to their new homes, a year after the most powerful typhoon to make landfall in the Philippines destroyed their old houses last November.

Ito Yoshichika is one of many proud citizens of the City of Sendai who are looking forward to telling their remarkable story of recovery when the city plays host to an expected 8,000 participants at the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, in March 2015.

Forty city officials from China, Japan and Republic of Korea today joined in a toast “to work towards zero casualties from disasters” as the countdown continues to the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, in Sendai, Japan, next March.