Tunisia: Launch of platform to reduce disaster risk

Tunis - A National Co-ordinating Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in Tunisia was launched Thursday in Tunis. It is a sustainable national system fo recollecting and processing data on real losses related to natural disasters in Tunisia.

The launch of the platform was announced at a workshop held by the Ministry of Environment, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR).

The workshop also helped discuss the national report being prepared as part of the "Hyogo Framework of Action." The latter is the main instrument adopted by UN member countries in 2005 in Japan to reduce disaster risk. Its main purpose is to build resilience of nations and communities to disasters by 2015.

The UN General Assembly has called for the implementation of this framework for action and encouraged member states to launch national multi-sectoral platforms to co-ordinate disaster risk reduction at the national level.