UNDRR News

Resilient Infrastructure and Disaster Risk Reduction 10 September 2019 Financial Times Summit, Maputo Remarks Ms. Mami Mizutori Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction and Head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk

UNDRR chief Mami Mizturi applauds Mozambique's commitment to reducing disaster losses, on her first visit to the country which is recovering from back-to-back cyclones earlier this year.

In the face of climate change and growing urbanization, Thailand is taking key steps to strengthen its resilience, including through a better understanding of disaster-related economic losses. The collection of statistics on losses and damages, especially on key sectors such as agriculture, housing, infrastructure, and cultural heritage, can guide risk reduction efforts to safeguard these sectors.

Representatives from some 150 UN Member States attended the opening today of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction

In partnership with Iran’s Planning and Budget Organization and the National Disaster Management Organization (NDMO), the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), the Asian and Pacific Centre for the Development of Disaster Information Management (ESCAP-APDIM), and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) organized a training meeting to boost the capacity of Iran's national agencies to reduce disaster risk. The three UN entities jointly lead the UN Regional Coordination Mechanism’s working group on disaster risk reduction and resilience.

In this op-ed, Mami Mizutori, UN Special Representative for DRR, writes that disasters in urban areas can lead to high numbers of casualties and economic losses. But ensuring risk-informed infrastructure investments can help mitigate damages. In pursuit of resilience, an upcoming workshop in India will seek to create a global coalition for resilient infrastructure.

Reflecting on Brazil's recent technical disaster, Mami Mizutori, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for DRR, writes in this op-ed that the fatalities and extreme environmental damage associated with tailings dam failures are avoidable. Inadequate risk governance is a key risk driver, and the mining industry must establish a zero casualty policy.

The head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, Mami Mizutori, calls on the mining industry to put into action a zero casualty policy following the Brumadinho dam collapse that left hundreds dead or missing.

UNISDR released a major report today on economic losses from disasters, the theme of this year's International Day for Disaster Reduction which is celebrated globally on October 13.

Damage to critical infrastructure is escalating the global cost of extreme weather events, but countries in Asia and the Pacific are suffering inordinately as the level and intensity of disaster events across the region continually raises the bar for resilience. The construction industry and those with planning oversight must therefore not ignore good practices.