UNDRR News

Largely unreported disasters across the Americas over the past two decades account for the majority of economic losses and more than half of all disaster-related deaths, according to new findings from the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. A 22-year analysis of 16 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean reveals that smaller, localized and more recurrent disasters that rarely, if ever, make the news cumulatively account for 90 per cent of the total number of people affected by disaster and are also responsible for 90 per cent of destruction or damage of homes. “This is irrevocable evidence on the cumulative impact of those disasters that are small, occur locally and are often ‘invisible’,” said Ricardo Mena the Head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) for the Americas.

The UN office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) today recognized the dynamic and vibrant economic and technological centre of Campinas for its commitment to reduce its disaster risk.

A senior official from the Philippines town of San Francisco, which won the 2011 Sasakawa Award for Disaster Risk Reduction, has spent the last five days journeying across Central America to exchange information with local authorities on best practice to make urban settings safer from natural hazards.

Colombia's cutting edge reputation for disaster risk management received a boost this week as high-level experts gathered in Bogota to identify strategic actions for disaster risk reduction in advance of this year's Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction which will be a landmark event in discussions on a Post-2015 global framework for disaster risk reduction.

Following a long final session last night, participants at the Third Session of the Regional Platform for the Americas issued the Santiago Communiqué which concretely spells out actions by countries in the Americas region to speed up implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015 -- a global disaster reduction plan that was adopted by UN Member States seven years ago.

The countries and territories of Latin America and the Caribbean are meeting to review the region's implementation of the world's first international framework agreement for reducing disaster risk, the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA), designed to save lives, jobs and properties from natural hazards.

Mexico is in the grips of one of the worst droughts in 70 years - a catastrophe which has devastated agricultural production for over one year now. According to the National Water Commission the prolonged drought has affected 70 percent of the country and decimated agriculture in the states of Aguascalientes, Coahuila, Durango, San Luis Potosí, Sonora, Tamaulipas, and Zacatecas, among others.

Panama, 23 July 2012 - Concern about earthquakes and tsunamis brought together 33 Mayors in the Dominican Republic this month to express their support for the UNISDR “Making Cities Resilient” campaign and to demand budgetary support from central government for disaster risk reduction measures in their cities and towns.

The two largest and most destructive forest fires in Colorado’s history yesterday prompted U.S. President Barack Obama to issue a disaster declaration for the state.

The largest UN summit ever organized closes today with an urgent worldwide call for accelerated implementation of the international blueprint for disaster risk reduction agreed by all UN member States seven years ago.