News and announcements

'We must realize the fact that disasters threaten sustained economic growth' said Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani....

'Pakistan is a very earthquake-prone country and as such it is important to make critical infrastructure such as schools, hospitals and houses earthquake-resilient' said Salvano Briceño, director of the UNISDR Secretariat....

The UN Secretary-General reflects on the lessons learned and calls for doing 'more to turn commitments on paper into deeds that can keep the next major disaster from taking so many lives'...

'The biggest problem is poor human settlement in hilly regions. Up to 5,000 homes in western Rwanda need to be resettled to avoid such disasters' stated officials, in response to heavy rain, flooding and landslides....

The report 'Impacts of Europe’s changing climate', based on 40 key indicators, stresses the consequences of both observed and projected changes, including an increased risk of floods and droughts....

The drill was organised by the School Disaster Management Committee in order to prepare students and teachers as part of the earthquake risk reduction programme....

The French Red Cross has released a virtual catalogue indexing all the natural disaster prevention tools developed by the different Caribbean structures over the last ten years.

The ‘Tashkent Disaster Risk Reduction Project’ will train 70,000 people from 11 different urban neighbourhoods in disaster awareness, support preparedness and mitigation activities by the end of the project....