Mission

UNISDR Mission Catalyze, facilitate and mobilize the commitment and resources of national, regional and international stakeholders of the ISDR system to build the resilience of nations and communities to disasters through the implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action

Functions and responsibilities

The International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) was adopted by United Nations Member States in 2000 and is owned by local, national, regional and international organizations (A/RES/54/597, A/RES/56/195). The secretariat to ISDR is UNISDR, an entity within the United Nations Secretariat. UNISDR is led by an Assistant Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction and overseen by the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, who also serves as the Chair for the wider ISDR system of partnerships. The mandate of UNISDR is to act as the focal point in the United Nations system for the coordination of disaster reduction and to ensure that disaster risk reduction becomes integral to sound and equitable development, environmental protection and humanitarian action.

The mission of UNISDR is to be an effective coordinator and guide for all the ISDR partners, globally and regionally, and to:

• Mobilize political and financial commitments to disaster risk reduction and Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters (HFA);
• Develop and sustain a robust, multistakeholder system;
• Provide relevant knowledge and guidance.

Core functions of UNISDR include:

• Inter-agency and stakeholder coordination for disaster risk reduction policy development, reporting, information sharing and support to national efforts, at regional and global level;
• Monitoring the implementation of HFA and reporting on progress (core indicators), including publishing the biennial Global Assessment Report, organizing regional platforms and managing the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction;
• Coordinating preparation of policy guidelines for the HFA priority areas, in particular linking disaster risk reduction to the climate change adaptation and mitigation;
• Conducting advocacy, awareness campaigns and media outreach;
• roviding information services and practical tools, such as virtual libraries, and assembling databases of good practices, country profiles, events calendar, electronic workspaces;
• Promoting national multi-sector coordination mechanisms for disaster risk reduction (national platforms) and advising UN Resident Coordinators and ISDR system partners.

UNISDR administrates the UN Trust Fund for Disaster Reduction and is partner to the World Bank in the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery. UNISDR headquarters is based in Geneva, Switzerland, with a liaison office in New York. It works through regional and sub-regional offices in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, the Americas and Europe and supports the thematic platforms on recovery (in Kobe) and early warning (in Bonn).

ISDR system

The International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) is a system of partnerships with the overall objective to generate and support a global disaster risk reduction movement to implement HFA, which was endorsed by the World Conference on Disaster Reduction in 2004 and by UN General Assembly (A/RES/60/195) and serves as the overall framework for implementing disaster risk reduction. These partnerships comprise a broad range of actors, all of which have essential roles in supporting nations and communities to reduce risk. ISDR partners include Governments, inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations, international financial institutions, scientific and technical bodies and specialized networks as well as civil society and the private sector
In addition to the secretariat outlined above, ISDR mechanisms include:

• The biennial Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction as the main global forum for continued and concerted emphasis on disaster reduction. Open to all States and the complement of ISDR stakeholders, it serves primarily to assess progress made in the implementation of the HFA, enhance awareness of disaster risk reduction, share experiences and learn from good practice, also identifying remaining gaps and necessary actions to accelerate national and local implementation.
• Regional platforms for disaster risk reduction, including ministerial meetings, led by regional inter-governmental organizations.
• An Inter-Agency Group that acts as a venue for ISDR system joint work programming among the participating organizations (currently FAO, IFRC, ILO, OCHA, UNDP, UNEP, UNESCO, UNICEF, WFP, WHO, WMO and the World Bank) and to improve coherence thus better supporting countries in their implementation of the HFA. Thematic platforms led by UN specialized agencies or technical institutions, provide knowledge products, and help to report on developments (for instance early warning, recovery, education, risk identification). The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs also convenes a Management Oversight Board with his peers (from OCHA; UNDP representing UNDG; the World Bank; WMO; UNEP; and IFRC). This Board supports the Chair in providing UN system-wide leadership and high-level advocacy for disaster risk reduction.
• Several stakeholder groups and networks associated to ISDR – among them a Scientific Technical Committee, Global NGO Network for DRR, Gender-and-Disasters and Media groupings and an emerging Parliamentarian Network.
• Member States, which participate actively in ISDR, are called upon in GA and HFA resolutions to establish multistakeholder national platforms for disaster risk reduction to facilitate coordination across sectors. A self-organized ISDR Support Group is an informal body open to all States that convenes in Geneva. Frequent briefings in New York and initiatives linked to the General Assembly (GA) and ECOSOC keep Member States abreast of developments. The Secretary-General reports every year to GA on the implementation of ISDR in the Second Committee.