National disaster awareness day and national launch of 'Making Cities Resilient' world disaster reduction campaign - Malaysia

At the initiative of its National Security Division (NSD), Malaysia will celebrate National Disaster Awareness Day 2011 by launching the UNISDR World Disaster Reduction Campaign 2010-2011, Making Cities Resilient: "My city is getting ready"; and pledging for the “One Million Safe Schools and Hospitals” initiative along with the hosting of ASEAN workshop on mainstreaming DRR in education.

The event will be on two full days on 18-19 February 2011 with the following:

- Short opening in the morning of 18th Feb, followed by a panel discussion on broad issues in DRR in Malaysia and South East Asia,
- Three 1.5 day parallel sessions, one of which is the 'ASEAN knowledge sharing workshop on mainstreaming disaster risk reduction in education', and
- The official launch of the campaign and closing ceremony in the afternoon of 19th February.

Participating organizations will set up exhibition booths in the MITC complex which will be opened for meeting’s participants and the public from 17 to 20th February.

The event expects more than 100 participants from local governments, cities, federal government agencies in Malaysia and 20 participants from ASEAN countries. Honorable Prime Minister of Malaysia will attend the launch in the morning of 19th and visit the exhibition. Ministers of Health and Education will also attend the launch to pledge for the “One Million Safe Schools and Hospitals” initiative.

Malaysia is proposing three Role Model Cities (Kualumpur, Melaka and Putrajaya) and one Champion – the Chief Minister of Melaka for the Campaign. The Ministers of Health and Education would be pledging as Champions for safety of schools and hospitals and would be handed the plaques.