UNDRR News

Through World Radio Day celebrations around the world tomorrow, UNESCO will promote radio in times of emergency and disaster. A key message on the day is that radio saves lives and reducing mortality is the first target of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

For decades, Mr. Joel Mayatsya has used traditional knowledge as an early warning system for landslides in the hilly area of Bududa, eastern Uganda, helping his community reduce the risk of a rain-triggered disaster.

Africa has cleared a new milestone in its drive to implement the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. The pioneer is Malawi, which has undergone a peer review of its policies and actions, almost a year after being battered by floods.

Disasters in Sub-Saharan Africa are increasing in frequency, severity and impacts, and the continent’s rapid urban growth means that risk-sensitive development is crucial, according to participants at an international conference.

Without addressing the growing levels of disaster and climate risk, the Government of Uganda fears that 43% of the population could regress into poverty.

Delegates from over 30 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa along with development partners, academics and civil society are meeting at the launch of the Understanding Risk and Finance Conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Residents of a flood-prone community in Cameroon’s capital Yaoundé are deploying local knowledge to curb the risk of disasters and epidemics by tackling the trash that blocks drainage ditches.

Farmers in northwestern Cameroon are deploying traditional knowledge to boost the survival of their crops, thereby curbing the risk of disasters posed by increasingly unpredictable weather patterns.

The Government of Uganda is training its military and police officers in disaster preparedness in anticipation of the effects of El Niño-enhanced rains over the mid-September 2015 to January 2016 period.

MAPUTO, 7 September 2015 – African leaders and experts on disaster risk are moving ahead on detailed planning of implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the new global agreement on reducing disaster losses and a key pillar of the post-2015 Development Agenda.