News and announcements

Building resilience means doing things differently from how they have been done in the past with an increased focus on the prevention side. Democracy is fundamental to development because a strong legitimate government helps a country to withstand the shocks brought on by natural disasters and other crises...

The Korean extend aid for weather forecasting in Sri Lanka. The value of the Korean donation is two million dollars. The objective is to minimize the natural disasters caused and to upgrade Sri Lanka’s weather forecasting mechanism facilitating weather monitoring...

'In 2004, deaths and destruction were immense because we (Sri Lanka) as a country were not prepared at all. When a 2004-like tsunami happens again, we must do better,' said Janaka Wijetunga, senior lecturer at the University of Peradeniya...

As part of a project meant to build a database and mapping scheme that would facilitate actions to minimise damages which could occur from related natural disasters, six provinces will set up pilot landslide warning systems in several mountainous regions...

'The scars of 2011 are forcing the government panel to rewrite disaster prevention plans from scratch. Part of that first step is to introduce a new way of assessing potential risks,' writes Yoree Koh for the Wall Street Journal...

'We need to give higher priority to prevention — preventing conflicts, human rights abuses and man-made and natural disasters. We need to invest in early warning; we must strengthen capacity-building on human rights, humanitarian law and democratic values and practices; and we need to build resilience, ranging from social safety nets and legal protection to national disaster risk-reduction plans'...

Il rapporto della Asian development bank avverte: 'I cambiamenti del clima renderanno zone sempre più ampie inospitali e insicure per gli insediamenti umani'. E per arginare i problemi delle zone colpite, 'saranno necessari investimenti per 40 miliardi di dollari l'anno'...

A visit to a disaster-resilient habitat in Bangladesh has prompted UNISDR Chief Margareta Wahlström to acknowledge the south Asian country as leading developing nations in the global fight against climate change impacts.