French public learns life-saving skills

THOIRY, France, 2 March 2016 – Launched by France in the wake of the November 2015 Paris attacks, a nationwide programme has helped the public learn critical medical skills that can save lives in an emergency or a disaster.

UN Secretary-General's message on the fifth anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami

UN Secretary-General's message on the fifth anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami

It's time to switch from managing disasters to reducing risk

I am proud to celebrate the first anniversary of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction which was adopted on March 18, 2015 at a major U.N. conference in Japan.

New recommeneded practice on drought monitoring published

UN-SPIDER published a new recommended practice in its Knowledge Portal outlining detailed step-by-step procedures to support drought monitoring.

Successful launch of the Sentinel-3A satellite for Europe’s Copernicus Environment Programme

On 16 February 2016, the Sentinel-3A satellite was successfully launched from Plesetsk, Russia.

Typhoons in the Philippines: A journey to disaster resilience

“All of the houses in my village were destroyed in a snap,” says Analita Garcela, the captain of the upland village of Cambucao in Tabon Tabon, Leyte – one of the communities hardest hit by Typhoon Haiyan in 2013.

New recommeneded practice on drought monitoring published

Disaster lessons from the hottest year on record

Disasters don’t recognise borders or calendar years. Nonetheless one would expect to learn something of value to disaster risk reduction from newly available data on disasters in 2015 which was the hottest year on record since pre-industrial times.

Building back better with Sendai

KOBE, February 3, 2015 - The ten-year old International Recovery Platform is getting a new lease of life thanks to the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

ASEAN moves to strengthen disaster cooperation

SIEM REAP, Cambodia, 1 February 2016 – Greater disaster resilience at community and national level is an important element of a new era of closer integration and cooperation in Southeast Asia, a high-level ASEAN-China cooperation forum was told today.