UNDRR News

Experts from 27 European countries opened three days of discussions today in Croatia on a successor to the world's first global agreement on reducing disaster risk, the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities which expires in 2015.

The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) today welcomed Sweden's second largest city, Gothenburg, into the global "Making Cities Resilient" Campaign, a two-year old campaign to protect lives and reduce economic losses from disasters in urban settings.

The United Nations, European Commission and national authorities have launched a new project in the Western Balkans and Turkey that will reduce disaster risks and increase resilience to climate change.

Major roll-outs of UNISDR's Making Cities Resilient campaign in Austria and Iran were outlined yesterday at the 4th International Disaster and Risk Conference, in Davos, Switzerland, which has brought together experts from around the world.

It is truly humbling to see how easily we are fooled by nature but we can also draw hard-won insights from the defeats caused by earthquakes. We used to think that the age and speed of a subducting slab governs its maximum earthquake magnitude but the Great East Japan Earthquake forever puts to rest that view.

The head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, UNISDR, Margareta Wahlström, today praised the social cohesion and community solidarity which she observed during a two-day visit to Emilia Romagna where 13,000 people continue to live in tented camps and other emergency accommodation following two severe earthquakes in May.

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.

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.

The UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Reduction, Margareta Wahlström, and Luxembourg’s Minister for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs, Marie-Josée Jacobs, today signed a four-year Cooperation Agreement.