In her interview with the Nepali Times, Helen Clark, the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Chair of the UN Development Group, talks about the lessons learnt by the UN about disaster preparedness and response from the Haiti earthquake last year and the effect this has had in helping Nepal prepare for a disaster that one day is sure to come. "Haiti was a tragic reminder of the importance of building resilience to disaster. Disaster risk reduction measures, ensuring that humanitarian response systems are ready, and imagining the unimaginable all need to be undertaken," Helen Clark says.
"Given the high earthquake risk and other hazards in Nepal, UNDP has been working with the government on disaster risk reduction for many years," she continues, taking about the Nepal Risk Reduction Consortium that has already raised more than sixty million dollars for school and hospital retrofitting, emergency preparedness, building code enforcement, community preparedness, and many other measures urgently needed in Nepal.