February 2004

World Conference on Disaster Reduction – first announcement
The first announcement for the World Conference on Disaster Reduction is now available on-line. The Conference will be organized by UN/ISDR and hosted by the Government of Japan at Kobe, Hyogo from 18 to 22 January 2005.

The two Preparatory Committees for the Conference will take place on 6-7 May 2004 and 11-12 October respectively, immediately following the ninth and tenth meetings of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Disaster Reduction.


Launch of UNDP Report Reducing Disaster Risk: A challenge for development
On 2 February UNDP’s Bureau of Crisis Prevention and Recovery launched the report Reducing Disaster Risk: A challenge for development. The report demonstrates that development processes intervene in the translation of physical exposure into natural disaster events, making recommendations for good practices in disaster risk reduction that can be built into ongoing development planning policy.

In addition, the report introduces the Disaster Risk Index, a tool that analyses which countries are more vulnerable than others and identifies a number of correlations between development and the configuration of disaster risk.

To access the report on-line, please refer to http://www.undp.org/bcpr/disred/rdr.htm
To access the DRI analysis tool and country profiles, please refer to http://gridca.grid.unep.ch/undp/

2004 UN Sasakawa Award for Disaster Reduction
Nominations are still being accepted until 18 August 2004 for the 2004 UN Sasakawa Award for Disaster Reduction. Join us in rewarding individuals and institutions from around the world who contributed, through innovative practices and outstanding initiatives, to reducing the risk and vulnerabilities of communities to natural hazards!

To download the nomination form available in English/French/Russian/Spanish

For further information on the UN Sasakawa Award for Disaster Reduction, please refer to http://www.unisdr.org/eng/sasakawa/sk-about-eng.htm

Asian contribution to the WCDR
The Asian Conference on Disaster Reduction 2004 (4-6 February, Siem Reap, Cambodia) proved to be a valuable opportunity for international and regional organizations as well as government representatives, including Cambodian Prime Minister HunSen, to identify challenges and concrete future action in disaster reduction in Asia. The conference is part of a series of regional events supporting the preparatory process for the World Conference on Disaster Reduction (18-22 January 2005, Kobe-Hyogo, Japan).


World Water Day – 22 March 2004
In 2004 World Water Day is focused on the theme of water and disasters. WMO and UN/ISDR are the two leading agencies for the Day’s celebrations, with an information kit available on-line (as well as in hard copy).

For more information about World Water Day 2004, please refer to www.waterday2004.org
To receive a copy of the information kit, please contact isdr@un.org
For articles, stories and statistics on water and disasters, please refer to the ISDR World Disaster Reduction Campaign


Gender and disasters
On 10-12 August an action-oriented meeting for women and men working toward gender equality in disaster risk management and response will be held in Honolulu, Hawaii. Practitioners, policy makers, planners, academics, activists and community members will focus on practical and feasible strategies for engendering the risk reduction agenda.

For further information, please contact genderdisaster@yahoo.com or refer to http://www.ssri.hawaii.edu/research/GDWwebsite/index.html

ITDG South Asia has just published a book by Madhavi Malalgoda Ariyabandu and Maithree Wickramasinghe entitled Gender dimensions in disaster management. The book places the issue of gender in the context of development, and extends the discussion to show how gender and development concerns are reflected in the context of disasters.

To order a copy of the publication (US$ 12 – proceedings of the book to be-reinvested in ITDG community disaster risk reduction projects), please contact ITDG South Asia at general@itdg.slt.lk

ISDR Highlights is a monthly email update on current news in disaster reduction published by the Inter-Agency Secretariat of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN/ISDR). Please direct all enquiries (including subscription requests) to: isdr@un.org