National conference and exhibition on disaster risk management

The Government of Ethiopia, together with a series of partners, is celebrating the International Day for Disaster Reduction for the second year in a row. As part of this celebration, stretched over a week (10-13 October) several events are being organized. These include site visit to successful projects on DRR and Climate Change for journalists, advocacy events in TV, radio and print media and installing poster messages at strategic locations in the city of Addis Ababa.

All these events will culminate in a National Conference and Exhibition on Disaster Risk Management. The theme of this year's conference is 'Building Disaster and Climate Change Resilient Communities'. A set of technical papers from national and international organisations, including the government, is being presented during the conference. The conference will be inaugurated by the Minister of Agriculture with key note addresses from Director, Early Warning and Response Directorate and the UN Resident Coordinator.

Keeping in tune with the theme of IDDR-2011, there will be performances by schoolchildren to show how disasters affect them and what can they do to mitigate them. There will also be exhibitions by several organisations to showcase their work on DRR.