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San Francisco welcomed as role model and first major US city to join UN campaign The UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, Margareta Wahlström, today welcomed the US City of San Francisco as both a role model and the first major US city to join the Making Cities Resilient Campaign which seeks to saves lives and reduce economic losses in member cities.	20 Jun 2012	Press release
Christchurch on the road to resilience The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, Margareta Wahlström, has just visited the site of a major reconstruction programme which is about to start in the earthquake-devastated centre of Christchurch, New Zealand.	6 Jun 2012	News briefs
Cities Campaign gets major new partner UNISDR's "Making Cities Resilient" campaign received a significant boost today with the announcement that the Ibero-American Union of Municipalities (Unión Iberoamericana de Municipalistas (UIM) is now an official campaign partner.	1 Jun 2012	News briefs
Webinars on Resilient Cities starts 29 May The International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and the UN office for disaster risk reduction are hosting a series of four webinars on building disaster resilient cities. The topics are: enabling risk reduction through urban planning; how to encourage multi-stakeholder engagement as a key factor in in the planning, design, construction and operation or maintenance of resilient cities; people’s needs and expectations in post-disaster reconstruction (in Spanish); and how local governments have used UNISDR's Ten Essentials for Making Cities Resilient and the Local Government Self-Assessment Tool to close gaps and define priorities and institutional commitments to reduce disaster risk at local level.	29 May 2012	News briefs
IIED to review Cities' Campaign David Dodman, Senior Researcher at the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), says the Institute will publish a report on UNISDR's "Making Cities Resilient" campaign by year's end (see video).	29 May 2012	News briefs
Peru launches cities campaign Peru launched a recruitment drive this week for UNISDR's Making Cities Resilient campaign and 14 municipalities signed up yesterday in Lima to deliver on the campaign's "Ten Essentials."	25 May 2012	News briefs
City leaders discuss Tohoku's future after tsunami GIVING BACK TO JAPAN 2: Community Leaders Report is now available for viewing! Mayors from five cities in Japan discuss community rebuilding in the tsunami and earthquake-hit Tohoku region in Japan. Listen to their suggestions on how individuals and organizations can help their communities, on the TPF2 website at http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/22746125.	24 May 2012	News briefs
Copenhagen joins UNISDR campaign after '1,000-year' flood The Danish capital, Copenhagen, is the latest city to join the United Nation's Making Cities Resilient Campaign: “My city is getting ready!” which has enlisted over 1,100 member towns and cities since its launch in 2010.	24 May 2012	Press release
Italy quake highlights need to educate the public, says expert Following a 6.0-magnitude earthquake that rocked north-east Italy on Sunday morning, around 3,000 residents of San Felipe and surrounding areas are living “like refugees” advised not to re-enter their homes by the Italian civil protection service because of ongoing aftershocks.	21 May 2012	News briefs
Cities connect climate change with rise in disasters Over the last five years economic losses due to disasters reached over $800 billion worldwide and a new report, published this week, found that 81% of surveyed cities experienced an increase in natural hazards over the same period.	16 May 2012	News briefs
Cities to help create Post-HFA framework The Mayor of Bonn, Jürgen Nimptsch, who helped launch the "Making Cities Resilient" campaign two years ago is now urging mayors around the world to get involved in the UNISDR-led consultations taking place on a post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction.	15 May 2012	News briefs
Cities push for resilience as global disaster losses hit $500 billion Addressing city leaders at the 2012 Resilient Cities Congress, the UN's top disaster risk reduction official Margareta Wahlström today launched a new phase of the Making Cities Resilient campaign which now includes 1,020 cities around the globe.	14 May 2012	Press release
Cities 'going it alone' on climate change adaptation A new survey by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability, shows that 68% of cities are pursuing adaption planning for climate change but "only 7 per cent of cities surveyed believe that their national governments fully understand the realities of adaptation planning at the local level."	14 May 2012	News briefs
'Central America cannot continue to rebuild disaster risk' Weak disaster preparedness and recovery planning in two of the world's most disaster-prone countries were discussed over four days this week by government officials, mayors, local government representatives and international risk management experts in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, as they seek to develop national disaster recovery plans for Honduras and neighboring El Salvador.	11 May 2012	News briefs
Mindanao mayors seek action on risk reduction Mayors from across the disaster-affected island of Mindanao are to petition the President of the Philippines, Benigno C. Aquino Jr., to allow the use of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund for prevention and mitigation activities at local level as part of a nine-point plan of action agreed at the weekend.	7 May 2012	Press release
Business continuity planning vital for disaster-prone Manila UNISDR joined forces with a leading university yesterday to urge Manila’s business community to reduce its disaster risk and to develop business continuity plans which take account of the capital city’s extreme exposure to earthquakes and typhoons. Disasters cost the country a record $615 million last year.	4 May 2012	News briefs
Expert talks about new flood risk guide "Cities and Flooding: A Guide to Integrated Urban Flood Risk Management for the 21st Century" has just been published by the World Bank and the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery.	1 May 2012	News briefs
UNISDR chief arrives in Philippines for five-day visit Top UN disaster risk reduction official, Margareta Wahlström arrives in Manila Philippines tomorrow for five-day visit during which she will meet with donors, the private sector, mayors and government officials to further push for more concrete disaster reduction actions to protect more communities and assets from future disasters.	30 Apr 2012	News briefs
Floods becoming more dangerous, more costly, says World Bank A new guide launched at the WMO HQ this week warns that urban flooding is "becoming more dangerous and more costly to manage because of the sheer size of the population exposed within urban settlements."	27 Apr 2012	News briefs
UN launches new initiative to assess urban risk The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) today launched a new initiative to support cities around the world to manage risk following the worst year on record for economic losses from disasters. It also announced today that over 1,000 cities have now joined its "Making Cities Resilient" Campaign.	18 Apr 2012	Press release
Twinning for disaster risk reduction Threatened by increasing and lethal seasonal floods, the 500-year old Malaysian port city of Melaka is making considerable efforts to reduce the disaster risks that it currently faces from such climate related catastrophic events.	10 Apr 2012	News briefs
Chile’s local leaders empowered to act on risk Recently empowered by the Chilean Congress, local government bodies in Chile are using their increased autonomy to boost community resilience and address risk reduction.	4 Apr 2012	News briefs
Mayor says Venice will be an icon of resilience The Mayor of the fabled city of Venice, Giorgio Orsoni, has been chosen by UNISDR as Europe's first Champion of Urban Resilience in recognition of his efforts to build resilience to disasters and protect cultural heritage.	28 Mar 2012	News briefs
Private sector's key emergency role in Japan Kokusai Kogyo is one of several Japanese companies bound to the government by a bond called saigai kyotei, a service agreement activated by the occurrence of an emergency.	27 Mar 2012	News briefs
EU creates academic network for disaster resilience Inspired by UNISDR’s flagship 'Making Cities Resilient' campaign, the European Commission’s Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency is to boost disaster preparedness in European cities by turning higher education institutes into 'reliable partners to reduce society’s vulnerability to hazards.'	14 Mar 2012	News briefs
UN kicks off discussions on new international blueprint for disaster risk reduction The UN Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, Margareta Wahlström, and HE Yoichi Otabe, the Japanese Ambassador to the International Organizations in Geneva, announced today the start of consultations on a new international blueprint for reducing disaster losses in advance of the World Conference on Disaster Reduction which the Japanese government is proposing to host in 2015.	5 Mar 2012	Press release
Urban planning fails children says UNICEF UNICEF'S flagship report, The State of the World's Children 2012: Children In An Urban World, urges governments to put children at the heart of urban planning and finds that for millions of children urban poverty is intensified by exposure to cyclones, floods, mudslides, earthquakes and other disasters.	2 Mar 2012	News briefs
UNISDR urges Mexican Mayors to join Cities Campaign Disaster risk reduction was at the top of the agenda today for over 2,000 mayors and municipal leaders in Vera Cruz, Mexico, attending the Conferencia Anual de Municipios 2012 at which the keynote address was delivered by UNISDR Chief, Margareta Wahlström.	1 Mar 2012	News briefs
UNISDR welcomes mass earthquake drill in Delhi More than 40,000 people took part in a mass earthquake drill in Delhi yesterday to check the alertness and preparedness of the 16.7 million people living in the Indian capital in the event of a high intensity earthquake of 7.2 on the Richter scale.	16 Feb 2012	News briefs
Are we capable of learning the lessons of Haiti? An insightful new report on the 2010 Haiti earthquake offers a scathing critique of an international community which "has much to learn from the response in Haiti where it has shown an ability to repeat its errors and shortcomings from past disasters."	1 Feb 2012	News briefs