UNDRR News

A major global network launches today at the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul to facilitate business engagement in crisis situations through pre-positioning supplies, meeting humanitarian needs and providing resources, knowledge and expertise to disaster prevention.

Authorities in Uganda’s capital city are prioritising infrastructure development, climate-smart capital investment procedures and emissions reduction in order to strengthen the city’s resilience to natural and man-made hazards.

One of the world’s most ambitious low-cost housing reconstruction programmes ever to be undertaken in a seismic zone is due to get underway this week following the first anniversary of the April 25 Nepal earthquake.

The head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, Mr. Robert Glasser, today marked the anniversary of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake which struck Nepal last year with a call for greater investment in resilient infrastructure if the death toll from future earthquakes is to be reduced.

The hundreds of deaths in Ecuador and the dozens of victims in Japan are a stark reminder of a basic fact about earthquakes: it is buildings, and not the shake itself, that claim most lives.

Trillions of dollars of new investment are expected to pour into in hazard-prone areas by 2030, dramatically increasing the global value of assets at risk. Factoring that into capital investments, supply chains and operations will be decisive for business resilience and the success of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

An international business group working to reduce the impact of natural and man-made hazards has pledged to ensure that the private sector plays its part in implementing the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

World Tsunami Awareness Day will be commemorated this year for the first time, and every year thereafter, on 5 November. The Japanese Permanent Mission at the UN in New York marked the launch with an event which also marked the first anniversary of the adoption of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

The role of the private sector in making societies resilient to disasters and ensuring development is sustainable has been spotlighted as part of events commemorating the fifth anniversary of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami.

London is home to almost nine million people. It is a global centre for finance, insurance, education and culture. As the capital of the United Kingdom it is a critical centre for national government. These crucial roles mean that it must be resilient to disaster.