Natural Disaster Reduction - News & Events

UNDP, working in collaboration with UNOPS, is making efforts to clear and recycle the rubble on public land in urban and village centres devastated by the earthquake.

“Rebuilding schools, hospitals, public buildings and other community infrastructure is of primary importance. If delayed, the whole process of livelihood recovery will be affected adversely,” explained UNDP Pakistan Country Director Haoliang Xu. “Removing rubble is the first step towards the early recovery process and UNDP is working with redoubled efforts in this regard.”

Full Story // UNDP Pakistan Country Office // UNDP Projects and other information // UN Emergency Response: Pakistan Earthquake 2005 // UN South Asia Earthquake Flash Appeal (updated) // DRU and Pakistan

More frequent floods and drought, blamed by some scientists on global warming, brought a near 20 percent rise in natural disasters in 2005, researchers said on Monday.

But the death toll fell to 91,963 from 244,577 in 2004 when the figures were swollen by the impact of the Asian tsunami, the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) and Belgium's Louvain research centre said in a report.

Full Story

After talking with earthquake survivors and aid workers dealing with the aftermath of last October’s earthquake in northern Pakistan, which killed more than 70,000 people, the top United Nations official coordinating the relief operations today expressed optimism that the massive humanitarian effort was clearly moving forward.

In a statement from Islamabad, Jan Vandemoortele said that while there was certainly no room for complacency he saw evidence during a recent two-day field trip to Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province of fresh hope and the beginning of a new stage in the aid operation.

Full Story // UNDP Pakistan Country Office // UNDP Projects and other information // UN Emergency Response: Pakistan Earthquake 2005 // UN South Asia Earthquake Flash Appeal (updated) // DRU and Pakistan

With temperatures in mountain villages plunging to sub-zero levels at night, it is a race against time to deliver shelter and essential supplies to communities struggling to rebuild their homes and lives in the wake of Pakistan’s devastating earthquake, which left up to 4 million people homeless.

UNDP, along with partnering NGOs, is redoubling its efforts to ensure that the people, especially those in high-altitude regions, get transitional shelters, quilts, heating and cooking facilities.

Full Story // UNDP Pakistan Country Office // UNDP Projects and other information // UN Emergency Response: Pakistan Earthquake 2005 // UN South Asia Earthquake Flash Appeal (updated) // DRU and Pakistan

As part of efforts to better understand the long-term disaster vulnerability patterns of tsunami-affected countries and to help in prevention and recovery efforts, UNDP is organizing a four-day seminar in Bangkok to facilitate the introduction of DesInventar, a user-friendly metholodolgy which collates and analyzes local damage-loss data.

Participants will learn how DesInventar software collects information about damage loss and then graphically represents it. Discussions will also focus on practical applications of the data generated. The workshop is being organized by UNDP’s Regional Programme on Capacity Building for Sustainable Recovery and Risk Reduction in Tsunami-Affected Countries.

Concept note // DesInventar factsheet // UNDP Regional Centre in Bangkok // UNDP Tsunami Recovery Website // UNDP-DRU Tsunami website

In its role as a global UN system platform for disaster related learning, the UN Disaster Management Training Programme (DMTP) has launched the Building Disaster Risk Reduction Capacity initiative. Within this initiative, UNDP’s Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery (BCPR), with the UN Disaster Management Training Programme and the UN International Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction (ISDR) is hosting a global meeting DMTP - Future Search meeting “Rethinking Capacity Development for Disaster Risk Reduction: Action 2005-2015” which will take place from 13-15 February 2006 nearby Geneva (Switzerland). The meeting was preceded by three UN-agency stakeholder advanced planning meetings (June and October 2005, January 2006) that served to frame the design concept.

Full Story // Meeting Concept Paper // DRU and DMTP

A regional course in Disasters Control in the Middle East will be held from 21-25 Jan in Sana’a, Yemen organised by the Islamic Relief office in Yemen. The course, run in cooperation with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), is the first of its kind in the Middle East region, and 55 participants from local and international organizations in Yemen, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Qatar, Palestine, Jordan and Egypt will take part.

The five-day course, held at the Sheraton Hotel, aims at reinforcing participants’ skills to deal with natural disasters in a scientific and organized manner. The course hopes to provide participants with the necessary knowledge to deal with disasters effectively, evaluating needs and sources according to recognized principles of humanitarian and international standards. The course is being organized by Islamic Relief’s headquarters in Britain from their disaster readiness and response unit, which specializes in tackling the after effects natural disasters.

UNDP Yemen Country Office // DRU and Yemen

Thousands of lives and billions of dollars lost in the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 could have been saved if disaster reduction strategies had been in place, United Nations tsunami envoy former United States President Bill Clinton said today, highlighting the urgent need to implement these measures.

In a statement marking the one-year anniversary of an international agreement aimed at reducing the impact of natural disasters – known as the Hyogo Framework for Action – Mr. Clinton urged all governments and international institutions to act on its recommendations immediately.

Full Story // UNDP Tsunami Recovery Website // UNDP-DRU Tsunami website

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme have launched a national United Nations Volunteers scheme to engage Pakistanis in earthquake recovery and rehabilitation efforts led by national and international organizations.

Through this scheme, UN Volunteers with specialized skills and expertise as well as the desire to promote volunteerism will join activities in earthquake-affected areas and assist in other development initiatives throughout Pakistan.

Full Story // UNDP Pakistan Country Office // UNDP Projects and other information // UN Emergency Response: Pakistan Earthquake 2005 // UN South Asia Earthquake Flash Appeal (updated) // DRU and Pakistan

Marking the one year anniversary of an international agreement aimed at reducing the impact of natural disasters, a senior United Nations official today called on countries to speed up their efforts to make risk reduction a national priority.

Salvano Briceno, Director of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR), said that since the signing of the Hyogo Framework in January 2005, some 40 countries had put disaster risk reduction at the top of their political agendas. While this progress is essential, he called for further actions to strengthen prevention systems.

Full Story // ISDR

The Gambia, with the support of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), has established a disaster management programme.

The overall strategic objective of this programme is to support the full integration of disaster preparedness, mitigation and response into the country’s longer-term development process. This in turn should promote a more effective use of Gambia’s available resources, minimise the suffering caused by disasters and ultimately ensure an uninterrupted pace of sustainable development. This fundamental objective is closely related to the country’s broad development policy objectives.

Full Story // UNDP Gambia Country Office // DRU and Gambia

Former United States President George Herbert Walker Bush, who is also Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Special Envoy for the South Asian Earthquake Disaster, arrived in Pakistan today to spotlight the plight of victims.

Although harsh winter weather kept him from visiting areas devastated by October’s earthquake, former President Bush met with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and made plans to visit affected areas as soon as possible, a UN spokesman said today.

Full Story // UNDP Pakistan Country Office // UNDP Projects and other information // UN Emergency Response: Pakistan Earthquake 2005 // UN South Asia Earthquake Flash Appeal (updated) // DRU and Pakistan

The Pakistan government, in collaboration with its international partners, will provide heated communal tents to high-risk groups in the earthquake-affected areas.

The decision to this effect was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Health Minister, Muhammad Naseer Khan. Health Secretary Syed Anwar Mehmood and representatives from UNHCR, ICRC, IOM, UNDP, UNICEF and WHO attended the meeting.

Full Story // UNDP Pakistan Country Office // UNDP Projects and other information // UN Emergency Response: Pakistan Earthquake 2005 // UN South Asia Earthquake Flash Appeal (updated) // DRU and Pakistan
(Photo IRIN)