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Displaying 120 of about 433 resultsGeneva, 12 May – The cities of San Francisco (Philippines), Santa Fe (Argentina), and District of North Vancouver (Canada), were unveiled as winners of the United Nations-Sasakawa Award for Disaster Risk Reduction last night at a special ceremony on the second last day of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in Geneva.
San Francisco, a small…
Geneva – Strict building codes in Chile, the legacy of a devastating 9.5 magnitude earthquake in 1960, continue to play a large part in protecting people even when an 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck 50 near Concepcion on 27 February 2010, says UNISDR.
The 7.0 magnitude earthquake of 12 January, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, which struck closer to the surfa…
Mayor of Port-au-Prince urges local governments to develop “a culture of security” at disaster risk reduction forum in Shanghai
Geneva – “Local governments need to develop a culture of security and have access to the means to respond to a catastrophe,” stressed Haiti’s Mayor of Port-au-Prince to other mayors gathered at a forum on disaster risk reducti…
Once again, Cuba reacted well to the last Hurricane Charley. How do you explain the fact that people respond so well to an evacuation alert?
Hurricanes are the worst disasters faced by the Cuban people. Hurricanes are part of our culture and people know the risk they face if they do not evacuate immediately. Our system works very well because there is…
Approximately 150 national officials, members of UN agencies, and civil society representatives attended the UN system-wide side event on "Cities and Climate Change: Enhancing mitigation and adaptation action" held in Cancun, Mexico on 8 December as part of the climate change conference. UNISDR Deputy Director Helena Molin Valdes discussed the "Making…
Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard – who is poised to sign a historic emissions reduction agreement with over 70 other mayors days before the UN climate summit in Cancún – will be named champion of the Making Cities Resilient campaign by the UN’s top disaster risk reduction official, Margareta Wahlström, at a ceremony during the World Mayors Summit on Cli…
A new joint report from the World Bank and the United Nations says that annual global losses from natural disasters could triple to $185 billion by the end of this century, even without calculating the impact of climate change. Climate change could then add $28-$68 billion more in damages each year from tropical cyclones alone. The report also says th…
As Ivan stormed across the Caribbean, the United Nations stated that Cuba was a model in hurricane risk management in developing countries. “The Cuban way could easily be applied to other countries with similar economic conditions and even in countries with greater resources that do not manage to protect their population as well as Cuba does” explained…
The torrential rains that caused flooding and huge mudslides, resulting in over a hundred deaths in Central America and southern Mexico prove again that we need to be better prepared against what is the most destructive type of natural hazard in the world.
GENEVA, 2 April 2014 – The Head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, Margareta Wahlström, today praised the prompt action of the Chilean government in issuing a timely tsunami warning in response to last night’s earthquake and the orderly evacuation of thousands of people out of harm’s way.
Ms Wahlström said: “The effective disaster response a…
NEW YORK, 6 February 2014 – The vital role of cities as engines of climate resilience has been recognised with the appointment of the former mayor of New York City, Michael R. Bloomberg, as Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change, by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
The head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, Margareta Wahls…
NEW YORK, 15 January 2014 – “Disaster risk reduction should not be seen only as an imperative to protecting investments in development, but also as an opportunity for a transformative shift towards resilient development.”
This rousing statement from disaster-prone Bangladesh was one of several calls from governments for disaster and climate risk consid…
NEW YORK, 10 June 2014 – Eighteen students at Saint Peter’s University in Jersey City, New Jersey, United States, have just completed the university’s first-ever course on disaster risk reduction, in part as a result of Hurricane Sandy which killed at least 117 people and caused $65 billion worth of damage in the US alone.
The pilot course titled “Disa…
GUAYAQUIL, 29 May 2014 - The biggest challenge facing next year’s UN World Conference to agree on a new global DRR framework, is how to integrate disaster risk reduction (DRR) into national development plans, Margareta Wahlström, Head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), said on Wednesday.
Addressing a high-level panel at the 4th Sess…
GUAYAQUIL, 30 July 2014 - Next year’s World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Japan coincides with the lead-up to the 30th anniversary of the devastating 1985 Mexican earthquake, whose tragic consequences pushed the country into developing one of the world’s most effective disaster prevention and response systems.
“We learned from the 1985 earth…