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Mami Mizutori
Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, and Head of UNDDR

Mami Mizutori is the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, and head of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDDR).

On 31 January 2018, the United Nations Secretary-General announced the appointment of Mami Mizutori as Assistant Secretary-General and Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction. 

Prior to joining the UN, Ms. Mizutori was Executive Director of the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures, University of East Anglia, UK from 2011.

Ms. Mizutori served for twenty-seven years in the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in various capacities, including: Budget Director; Director of the Japan Information and Culture Center (JICC) at the Embassy of Japan in London; Director of the National Security Policy Division, Director of the United Nations Policy Division; Director of the Status of US Forces Agreement Division; and Deputy Director of the Personnel Division.

Having graduated in law from Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo and obtained a Diploma in International Studies from the Diplomatic School of Spain, she has taught courses on governance in East Asia at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University and international studies at Waseda University, Tokyo.

A Japanese national, Ms. Mizutori speaks fluent Japanese, English and Spanish. She is married to Barak Kushner and lives in Geneva, Switzerland.

SRSG Mami Mizutori

Recent statements

Mami Mizutori
Statements and messages

Statement of the SRSG: Opening Ceremony of the HLM of the UNGA on the Midterm Review of the Sendai Framework

It is a pleasure to be a part of this global gathering for the Midterm Review of the Sendai Framework, a process mandated by the General Assembly that began in October 2021.
United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction
climate protection landscape
Statements and messages

Statement on the ‘Climate Change 2023: Synthesis Report’

I welcome the Synthesis Report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, who have been a leading voice on the danger posed by the runaway climate crisis.
United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction
SRSG Mami Mizutori
Statements and messages

Statement on the 8th anniversary of the adoption of the Sendai Framework

The 8th anniversary of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 comes at a time of rapidly increasing global risks, fragility, and disaster losses.
United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction
Regional Launch of the Early Warnings for All Initiative (EW4ALL) for the Caribbean
Statements and messages

Message from Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed for the regional launch of the early warnings for all initiative for the Caribbean

While I wish I could be with you in person, I am delighted to send this message for the first regional launch of the Early Warnings for All initiative. I thank Barbados, CARICOM and the Caribbean Disaster Management Agency for hosting and organizing.
United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction

Video messages

Watch on Youtube

Articles and Op Eds

Mozambique - aftermath of Tropical Cyclone Idai, 2021
Op Eds

We can stop disaster risk spiralling out of control

Greater efforts to limit death and destruction from disasters will help us protect development progress and adapt to climate change.
Context
Siren
Op Eds

A first step to zero climate disasters is early warning

When the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, toured the damage caused by the recent floods in Pakistan, he called the devastation “climate carnage.”
United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction World Meteorological Organization
A family of street children & their mother collecting chestnuts scattered throughout the street, because the tree has fallen due to impact of cyclone Amphan, India (2020)
Op Eds

Raising climate finance alone is not enough – it must also target disaster prevention

For a growing number of populations around the world, facing a future of more frequent and extreme disasters will only be possible if more funding is channelled towards adaptation and disaster risk reduction, writes Mami Mizutori.
EurActiv Network
Group of people brainstorming on globe
Op Eds

A world in crisis needs international cooperation

The focus of this year’s IDDRR on 13 October is on a topic which has been pushed to the fore by the debates raging around the faltering response to planetary emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic an, the climate emergency.
UN Chronicle
Our work - Mami Mizutori
Q&A with Mami Mizutori
"90 percent of disaster funding is spent only after disaster strikes. It goes on relief, the response and reconstruction. Only 10 percent is spent on prevention. But the gap is widening between the need for humanitarian aid and what the international community is able to provide."
Read the interview