2009 Global assessment report on disaster risk reduction launch event: UNESCO, Paris

The 2009 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction (GAR) was launched initially in Bahrain on May 17, 2009. The Report provides hard-hitting evidence to demonstrate how, where and why disaster risk is increasing globally and presents key findings from a global analysis of disaster risk patterns and trends, including where high mortality and economic loss is concentrated.

UNESCO is launching the first global report uncovering how disaster risk is intensively concentrated in a very small portion of the earth’s surface and unevenly distributed.

Based on more than 30 years of disaster data, the report highlights three main risk drivers that will be magnified by climate change and proposes 20 recommendations to help make the world safer.

The launch will aim to focus global media and political attention on the problem of disaster risk and to strengthen countries' commitment to reduce the loss of life, livelihoods and economic assets through natural disasters.