Press release

The City of Nis, Serbia, became the one-hundredth city to join the 2010-11 World Disaster Reduction Campaign “Making Cities Resilient – My City is Getting Ready!” at the city’s “Strategy for Safety Promotion” event on 30 September, a highly publicized event attended by over 40 Serbian cities. Nis joined the campaign along with 17 others.

Tackling urban risk is everybody's business -- from national to local governments, community groups, professional associations and the international community -- and will help reduce poverty, said an UNISDR official today at the global launch of the World Disasters Report 2010 in Nairobi, published by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). The report’s focus on urban risk coincides with the theme of the World Disaster Reduction Campaign "Making cities resilient- My city is getting ready!", which was launched by UNISDR and partners last May in Bonn, Germany.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the ISDR secretariat at the United Nations (ISDR secretariat), and the United Nations System Staff College (UNSSC) convened a joint a workshop in Dakar, Senegal, where over 40 participants from 16 countries in West and North Africa discussed how disaster risk reduction could be integrated into the joint UN development programming framework of their respective countries.

Over 13,000 schools and hospitals have joined the “One Million Safe Schools and Hospitals Campaign” since its national launch in Indonesia on July 29, quadrupling in the space of one week from 3,156 schools to 13,500. The number of hospitals that joined rose from 105 to 133. With the support of the local communication and information authority in Ciwidey, West Java Province, organizers set up computers where participants made online pledges.

“Local governments need to develop a culture of security and have access to the means to respond to a catastrophe,” stressed Haiti’s Mayor of Port-au-Prince to other mayors gathered at a forum on disaster risk reduction in Shanghai, which concluded today. His key message to other mayors, based on the experience of Port-au-Prince after January’s devastating earthquake was, “Be ready.” At the same forum, five new mayors joined the Making Cities Resilient campaign, and Governor Joey Salceda of Albay Province, Philippines, was named Champion.

On 29 July, Indonesia committed to increase the safety of 3,156 schools and 105 hospitals as part of its engagement to the One Million Safe Schools and Hospitals Campaign, launched globally in Manila last April 2010.

Three mayors from the Philippines joined 60 other mayors from around the world who have pledged to meet some or all of the "Ten Essentials" that will make their cities more resilient. A ceremony was held as part of a workshop on strengthening climate resilience, organized by Plan International, the Institute of Development Studies and Christian Aid, from 22 to 23 July 2010 in Bangkok, Thailand.

The Dominican Republic became the first country to receive a progress report from the United Nations and partners on its efforts to implement the Hyogo Framework for Action, receiving recommendations to strengthen building codes and incorporate “vulnerability reduction” targets in projects funded by both the public and private sector. Margareta Wahlström, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, presented the report at an event at the Presidential Palace in Santo Domingo.

It has been six months since a 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti, causing major damage to the capital, Port-au-Prince, and surrounding areas. “Reconstruction will take years but Haiti must emerge safer,” says Margareta Wahlström, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction. “After the tsunami six years ago, people have not yet fully recovered. Rebuilding involving all key national actors takes time and is a necessary step to make Haiti truly sustainable.”

Mayors and local government leaders from more than 100 South Asian cities are invited at a regional launch event in New Delhi on 8 June 2010 to sign up to the ‘Making Cities Resilient: My City is Getting Ready’ campaign . The event is being hosted by the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM), SAARC Disaster Management Centre and the Indian Ministry of Urban Development. Among the cities expected to join the campaign are New Delhi and Mumbai (India), Dhaka (Bangladesh), Karachi (Pakistan), Kathmandu (Nepal), Kabul (Afghanistan), Colombo (Sri Lanka), Thimphu (Bhutan) and Male (Maldives).