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THE
SECRETARY-GENERAL
MESSAGE ON THE INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR DISASTER REDUCTION
11 October 2006 |
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English - French |
The
theme of this year's observance of the International Day
for Disaster Reduction, “Disaster Risk Reduction
Begins at School”, highlights the need to keep our
children safe and to involve them directly in our work
to strengthen disaster preparedness.
Children
are especially vulnerable to the threats posed by natural
hazards. At the same time, they can be powerful agents
of change, provided they are well armed with knowledge
about how to prepare in advance, how to act on warnings
and how to reduce risk at home and in their communities.
It is essential, therefore, to make disaster risk education
a component of national school curricula, and to ensure
that children understand how natural hazards interact with
the environment. Young people should also be included in
community risk-mapping exercises, and have opportunities
to share experiences and best practices with others, including
their peers. School buildings themselves should be fortified,
so that they can better withstand the forces of nature.
Over
the last decade, disasters triggered by natural hazards
have claimed more than 600,000 lives and affected more
than 2.4 billion people, the majority of them in developing
countries. Years of development gains have been lost, deepening
poverty for millions and leaving them even more exposed
to future natural hazards. Now more than ever, we must
accelerate our efforts to reduce vulnerability.
Toward
that end, the international community has committed itself
to the priorities set out in the Hyogo
Framework for Action 2005-2015: Building the resilience
of the nations and communities. The International
Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) -- a global system
encompassing a broad range of actors -- strives to improve
coordination and mobilize resources. On this International
Day for Disaster Reduction, I call on Governments and all
relevant actors – from teachers to businesses to
civil society -- to respond to the needs of children and
all other vulnerable populations in hazard-prone areas.
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What
is the International Day for Disaster Reduction?
In 1989,
the United Nations General Assembly designated the second
Wednesday of October International Day for Natural Disaster
Reduction (resolution 44/236,
22 December 1989). The International
Day was observed annually during the International Decade
for Natural Disaster Reduction, 1990-1999.
In 2001, the General Assembly decided to maintain the observance of the
International Day for Natural Disaster Reduction (resolution
56/195, 21 December 2001), as a vehicle to promote a global culture
of natural disaster reduction, including disaster prevention, mitigation
and preparedness.
The theme of the International Day for Disaster Reduction
and campaign for 2006 “Disaster risk reduction begins at school” aims
at promoting disaster risk education and school safety.
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To promote your International Day activities on our website
please send an e-mail to
ngo-fontaine@un.org |
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Events |
Africa - Americas -Asia
& the Pacific - Europe |
United
States of America |
Activities: |
Advocacy event: ISDR update |
Date: |
Tuesday
10 October 2006, ECOSOC Chamber,
United Nations Headquarters,
New York |
Contact: |
Laura
Ngo-Fontaine, Public Information Officer, UN/ISDR, Tel:
+41 22 917 8896, ngo-fontaine@un.org |
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Africa |
Algeria |
Activities: |
Three
Conferences on Algeria’s experience with
natural hazards and a one-day open laboratory
with posters, books and internet surfing to raise
disaster risk awareness amongst students, university
staff and the public. These activities are co-organized
by the Algerian Government, Algerian Red Crescent
and the Algerian Civil Protection. |
Date: |
Wednesday
11 October 2006, Algiers, Algeria |
Contact: |
Prof.
Djillali Benouar, Director, Built Environment
Res. Lab, dbenouar@yahoo.com |
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Burundi |
Activities: |
Workshop
on disaster risk reduction in with representatives
from the
National Disaster Management Unit, the UNDP, Red Cross, Ministry
of Health, Ministry of Education and several NGOs. |
Date: |
Thursday
12 October 2006 |
Contact: |
Ms.
Noroarisoa Rakotondrandria, Tel: +254 20 762
4568, noroarisoa.rakotondrandria@unep.org |
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Gabon |
Activities: |
A
conference on policy implementation on DRR in
the country. A Red Cross presentation on school
education and emergencies, and an exhibition
organized by Gabon’s National Platform
members on their disaster risk reduction activities. |
Date: |
Wednesday
11 October 2006 |
Contact: |
Mr.
Jean Pierre Mi Ndong Minsta, Permanent Secretary,
Ministère de la Prévention et de
la Gestion des Calamités Naturelles, mintsa_jeanpierre@yahoo.fr |
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Gambia |
Activities: |
Radio
and television talk shows with the participation
of Government and UNDP representatives about
disaster risk reduction issues. Gambia’s
Vice-President will issue a televised address
on the International Day. |
Date: |
Saturday
07 – Wednesday 11 October 2006 |
Contact: |
Ms.
Noroarisoa Rakotondrandria, Tel: +254 20 762
4568, noroarisoa.rakotondrandria@unep.org |
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Ghana |
Activities: |
Round
Table Conference on integrating disaster risk
reduction into Ghana’s national school
curricula and a press conference to commemorate
the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction. |
Date: |
Wednesday
11 October 2006 |
Contact: |
Ms.
Noroarisoa Rakotondrandria, Tel: +254 20 762
4568, noroarisoa.rakotondrandria@unep.org |
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Madagascar |
Activities: |
Presentation
of school manuals and guides on developed corresponding
to the theme " Disaster Risk Reduction begins
at School" with the participation of representatives
from the media, the Ministry of Education, Ministry
of Interior and the Administrative Reform and
members of the National Platform for Disaster
Reduction. |
Date: |
Wednesday
11 October, Conseil National de Secour, Antanimora
Antananarivo, Madagascar |
Contact: |
Mr.
Jacky Roland Randimbiarison, Conseil National
de Secours, cnsmira@netclub.mg |
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Nigeria |
Activities: |
Public
Lecture to mark this year’s International
Day for Natural Disaster Reduction in Nigeria |
Date: |
Wednesday 11 October 2006, The Assembly Hall,
South Campus,The Polytechnic of Ibadan, Nigeria |
Contact: |
Tel: +234-2-200-5940, dcminigeria@yahoo.co.uk |
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South
Africa |
Activities: |
Launch
and official opening of the Chris Hani District
Municipality’s disaster management centre. |
Date: |
Thursday
12 October 2006, Queenstown Eastern Cape, South
Africa |
Contact: |
Ms.
Noroarisoa Rakotondrandria, Tel: +254 20 762
4568, noroarisoa.rakotondrandria@unep.org |
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Americas |
Canada |
Activities: |
Third
Canadian Risk and Hazards Network Symposium |
Date: |
11-13
October 2006, Montréal, Canada |
Contact: |
Mr.
Michel Dufault, Tel :+1 514 987-3000 ext. 4887, crhnet2006@uqam.ca
http://www.geo.uqam.ca/crhnet2006/contact.htm |
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Ecuador |
Activities: |
CARE,
Federación Internacional por el Desarrollo
de los Pueblos, OPS, PREDECAN.
Financiado por DIPECHO con la participación de Defensa Civil de Ecuador,
Colegio de
Periodistas, Federación Nacional de Periodistas, y todos los participantes
del Proyecto DIPECHO: CAFOD (Catholic Agency for Overseas Development) |
Date: |
28
de Setiembre, CIESPAL, Quito, Ecuador |
Contact: |
Ms.
Margarita Villalobos, UN/ISDR Panama, Tel: +507
317 1124, margarita.villalobos@eird.org |
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Panama |
Activities: |
Seminario
Internacional sobre Manejo Integrado de Riesgo
y Vulnerabilidad en Municipios de América
Latina y el Caribe |
Date: |
30
October – 02 November 2006, Panama City,
Panama |
Contact: |
Ms. Ruth
Custode rcustode@eird.org, municipalidades@crid.or.cr |
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Asia & the
Pacific |
China |
Activities: |
Symposium
for improving integrated disaster reduction capacity
organized by the State Commission of Disaster
Reduction of China and an inaugural ceremony for
the opening of the the Academy of Disaster Reduction
and Emergency Management in China's Ministry of
Civil Affairs& Ministry of Education. |
Date: |
Monday 09 -Wednesday 11 October 2006, Beijing,
China |
Contact: |
Mr. Hu Junfeng, hujunfeng@ndrcc.gov.cn |
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Bangladesh |
Activities: |
National
level Seminar on "Disaster Risk Reduction
Begins at School" organized by Bangladesh’s
Disaster Management Bureau. In addition, Bangladesh’s
Disaster Preparedness Centre and Handicap International
will issue two
posters to observe the International Day. |
Date: |
Wednesday
11 October 2006, Dhaka, Bangladesh |
Contact: |
Ms.
Maliha Ferdous, Bangladesh Disaster Preparedness
Centre,
Tel: +88 02 8815074, maliha@bdpc.org.bd |
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Fiji |
Activities: |
Launch
of the National Disaster plan and Award Ceremony |
Date: |
Wednesday
11- Friday 13 October, 2006, Suva, Fiji |
Contact: |
Ms.
Ruth Lane, UN-OCHA, ruth_ocha@undp.org |
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Japan |
Activities: |
Public
forum "Winning Against Disasters - Roles
of Education, Development and Community Action
for Sustainable Development”. |
Date: |
Thursday
19 October 2006, United Nations University, Tokyo,
Japan |
Contact: |
octoberforum@adrc.or.jp |
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India |
Activities: |
Launch
of a short-term, distance learning "Certificate
Course on Disaster Management for School Teachers" and
of “Safe Schools Update” a newsletter
aimed at school students in India sharing the
science of recent disasters and related knowledge.
The newsletter would be produced monthly and
initially reach out to over 200 schools in 5
regions of India. |
Date: |
Wednesday
11 October 2006 |
Contact: |
Mr.
Manu Gupta, Manu Gupta, SEEDS India, Tel: + 91
11
26498371,
manu@seedsindia.org |
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Activities: |
One-day
workshop on the theme "Disaster
risk reduction begins at school’ organized
by the Science Advisors of District Institute of
Educational & Training (DIETs), working with
the Gujarat Council on Educational Research & Training
(GCERT) and the primary school teachers, science
communicators. The workshop address various activities
on disaster risk reduction and safety aspects in
school curriculum. |
Date: |
Wednesday
11 October 2006, Gujarat, India |
Contact: |
Mr. Manoj R. Kothari, Gujarat Council of Science
City, narottam@scity.org |
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Indonesia |
Activities: |
Jakarta
Disaster Awareness Week |
Date: |
18-23
September 2006, Jakarta, Indonesia |
Contact: |
Mr.
Achmad Harjadi, aharjadi@cbn.net.id or
Mr. Akhmad Hidayatno, akhmad@cbn.net.id,
http://wwww.crisiscenter.jakarta.go.id |
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Nepal |
Activities: |
School
debate, youth rally, gallery show on rescue and
preparedness materials for community and schools,
street dram on school and community preparedness
against hazards, FM radio programmes organized
by ActionAid Nepal. |
Date: |
Wednesday
11 October 2006, Sarlahi, Rupendehi and Makwanpur
Districts, Nepal |
Contact: |
Mr.
Shashanka Saadi Project Manager, ActionAid Nepal,
Tel: +977 1 4436477
shashanka.saadi@actionaid.org |
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Tajikistan |
Activities: |
A
local Tajik station “Safina” will
host a televised discussion organized by the
UN/ISDR and Tajikistan’s Ministry of Emergency
Situations and Civil Defense of Tajikistan. Disaster
reduction specialists a number of Tajik agencies
and ISDR representatives will be present to
answer questions from students aged 16-17 years. |
Date: |
Broadcast
on Wednesday 11 October 2006 at 18:00 hours local
time |
Contact: |
Ms.
Takhmina Touraeva, takhmina.touraeva@undp.org |
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Thailand |
Activities: |
Local
celebrations of the International Day for Disaster
Reduction with
the participation of the Ministry of
Education, the Department for Disaster Prevention
and Mitigation (DDPM) of the Ministry of Interior
of the Royal Government of Thailand as well as
the Asian Disaster Reduction Centre (ADRC) from
Kobe, Japan. See
speech |
Date: |
Wednesday
11 October 2006, Tab Lamu School in Pang Nga,
Thailand |
Contact: |
Ms.Christel Rose, UN/ISDR Bangkok, Tel +66 2
288 2766, rosec@un.org |
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Activities: |
ASEAN
Day for Disaster Management and the International
Day for Disaster Reduction celebrations. |
Date: |
Wednesday
11 October 2006, United Nations Conference Centre
in Bangkok, Thailand |
Contact: |
Ms.
Adelina Kamal, ASEAN Secretariat,
Tel + 622 1 7262991 ext. 316, lina@aseansec.org |
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Europe |
Germany |
Activities: |
Disaster Reduction: Knowledge, Transfer, Practices,
7th Forum and Disaster Reduction Day |
Date: |
19-20
October 2006, GTZ, Eschborn, Germany |
Contact: |
info@dkkv.org; www.dkkv.org |
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France |
Activities: |
The
Ministry of Ecology and Sustainable Development
will distribute educational cd-roms about disaster
risk reduction to 7000 high schools across
the country. The cd-roms
were developed with information based on Former
US Vice-President Al Gore's
film: An Inconvenient Truth. |
Date: |
Wednesday
11 October 2006 |
Contact: |
Mr.
Jacques Faye, Ministère de l'écologie
et du développement durable,
Tel: +33 1
42 19 15 60, Jacques.FAYE@ecologie.gouv.fr |
Moldova |
Activities: |
Role
of the National Hydrological and Meteorological
Services in prevention and mitigation of natural
hazards |
Date: |
Wednesday
11 October 2006, Chisinau, Moldova |
Contact: |
Ms.
Berghi Natalia, Tel: +373 22 77 35 29, intern@meteo.md,
www.meteo.md |
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United
Kingdom |
Activities: |
International
Day for Disaster Reduction: The Role of Japanese
NGOs in Disaster Relief and Development |
Date: |
Friday
13 October 2006, Northumbria University, United
Kingdom |
Contact: |
Mr.
Komal Aryal, komal.aryal@unn.ac.uk |
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Activities: |
Launch of ActionAid's report: "Lessons for
life, Building a Culture of Safety and Resilience
to Disaster through Schools". The report gives
practical recommendations to governments to integrate
disaster preparedness into curriculum and to improve
the physical safety and resilience of school buildings. |
Date: |
Wednesday 11 October 2006 |
Contact: |
Ms. Yasmin McDonnell, yasmin.mcdonnell@actionaid.org,
or Mr. Jack Campbell, jack.campbell@actionaid.org |
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Video |
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UN/ISDR Video News Report
for the International
Day for Disaster Reduction |
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A
video b-roll is also available and is distributed through UNIFEED,
EBU AND ABU.
For
more information contact:
Brigitte Leoni
UN/ISDR,
Media Relations Officer
Tel: +41 22 917 8897
leonib@un.org
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Salvano
Briceño
Director of the UN/ISDR secretariat
"As disaster risk reduction is everybody’s business and in everybody’s
interest, we invite you to join the UN/ISDR secretariat and its partners in this
world campaign. Together, we can help children build - with us and for all of
us - a safer world. Schools make the difference between despair and hope. They
can also make the difference between life and death"
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Let
Our Children Teach Us!
The ISDR System Thematic Cluster/Platform on Knowledge
and Education and its
partners are pleased to present "Let Our Children Teach Us! - A review of
the Role of Education and Knowledge in Disaster Risk Reduction. This review,
prepared by Professor Ben Wisner, examines good practices to reduce disaster
risk through education, knowledge and innovation. It looks critically and strategically
at current activities in order to identify gaps, opportunities in the form of
synergism and partnerships.
more
information
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In
Memoriam
Gilbert White
Founder of Natural Hazards Research
Just shy of his 95th birthday, Gilbert White, the founder of natural hazards
research among geographers in the US and a towering figure worldwide, passed
away at his home in Boulder, Colorado on 05 October 2006. Gilbert was a
conscientious objector during the Second World War, driving an ambulance
in France. He worked during the Cold War to bring scientists together
from "east" and "west." He was active thoughout his
long life, and he leaves not only a huge void but a web of love and sanity
he wove over these years that is a strong as steel, as beautiful in fractal
complexity as a spider's handy work in the fall sunshine. He follows Kenneth
Boulding and A.J. Muste into the corner of the galactic core reserved for
the birthing of young stars and old Quakers.
Submitted
by Professor Ben Wisner
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