Education

Education and DRR

Disaster risk reduction and education is an interactive process of mutual learning between people and institutions.

Reducing risk and vulnerability to disasters requires people understanding how they can best protect themselves, their property and their livelihoods.

The key to education and disaster risk reduction is sharing and using information and knowledge in a productive way through awareness-raising and educational initiatives so that people make informed decisions and take action to ensure their resilience to disasters.

Education and DRR is about formal and informal ways of exchanging knowledge.

It encompasses both formal education at schools and universities and informal education such as the recognition and use of traditional wisdom and local knowledge for protection from natural hazards. Education is conveyed through experience, established learning arrangements, information technology, staff training, electronic and print media and other means that facilitate the sharing of information and knowledge to citizens, professionals, organizations and policymakers, among a range of other community stakeholders.

Education is a crucial means within local communities around the world to communicate, to motivate, and to engage, as much as it is to teach. Awareness and learning about risks and dangers needs to start in early education, continuing through generations.

Tilly Smith, an eleven-year-old schoolgirl was on holiday in Thailand with her family when the tsunami hit in December 2004. Tilly's story highlights the critical importance of basic education in preventing the tragic impacts of disasters.

Education & School Safety News
It’s Zombie Preparedness Week in British Columbia 18 May 2012
Mindanao mayors seek action on risk reduction 7 May 2012
Connect the dots for climate change this Saturday 2 May 2012

View more UNISDR Education & School Safety news

Education & School Safety Documents
How to make cities more resilient: a handbook for local government leaders SOURCE: UNISDR 2012
Safari's encounter with coastal and marine hazards SOURCE: UNISDR AF; ICPAC, IGAD 2012
Disaster reduction in Africa: ISDR Informs, special issue on drought risk reduction, 2012 SOURCE: UNISDR AF 2012