book review

Theme

Insight

duryog nivaran

AUDMP - making cities safer

From the grassroots

Upcoming ADPC training programs

IDNDR news

Bookmarks

WWW Sites

The IDNDR-organized 1998 World Disaster Reduction Campaign on "Natural Disaster Prevention and the Media" culminates on the UN World Disaster Reduction Day, to be celebrated on 14 October 1998. The campaign aims at raising awareness and building a culture of natural disaster prevention through various activities and events at the local, national, regional and international level. The campaign also aims to enlist the media as working partners in promoting natural disaster prevention measures.

IDNDR Asia Regional Meeting

The IDNDR Secretariat, in collaboration with ESCAP and other regional partners including ADPC, is organizing a regional meeting for Asia entitled "Risk Reduction in the 21st Century." The four-day meeting, to be held in Bangkok 23-26 February 1999, will bring together national IDNDR committees and other national and regional collaborators.

IDNDR Involvements in South-East Asia

The IDNDR Secretariat and ESCAP met in March in Bangkok to discuss the terms of their collaboration for the organization of a regional IDNDR conference on disaster reduction in South East Asia. The regional conference will be part of the wider programme being launched by the IDNDR in each region to assess the achievements of disaster reduction over the past 10 years and the needs of disaster reduction in each region after the IDNDR. It would also gather regional and national constituencies involved in the implementation of the Decade or active in disaster reduction.

IDNDR and ECHO

The IDNDR Secretariat participated in the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) regional workshop on Disaster Preparedness in South East Asia and Bangladesh, held in Bangkok in March. The meeting was held to launch the DIPECHO disaster preparedness framework programme for the region. DIPECHO builds on the philosophy of the IDNDR, and aims at developing specific country projects to enhance preparedness and emergency management. In March, the Director of the IDNDR Secretariat met in Brussels with the Director of ECHO to discuss the general orientations of the two programmes and the future aspects of disaster reduction and emergency management in a changing world.

IDNDR and Sustainable Development

The IDNDR Secretariat participated in the International Conference on Water and Sustainable Development, organized by the French authorities in March, in Paris. The issue of natural disasters, in particular hydro-meteorological extremes such as floods and droughts, were mentioned as issues essential to address in striving for sustainable development. The final programme for priority action calls for the development of actions for the prevention of natural catastrophes, initiated during the IDNDR decade, and enhanced international cooperation on disaster reduction activities after IDNDR.

IDNDR and the UN system

The UN Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC) adopted, at its first regular session of 1998 in March, a statement on IDNDR and natural disaster reduction recognizing the importance of concerted international approaches towards disaster reduction in the 21st century. The statement makes explicit reference to the Programme Forum 1999 for the closure of IDNDR.