Risk Reduction discussions at Interaction

Last Wednesday, the InterAction DRR working group met, with IWG representatives from World Vision, Save the Children, Mercy Corps and Oxfam. Also represented were Church World Service, International Medical Corps and American Red Cross.

Elina Palm provided a presentation on the efforts of UNISDR. Much of her presentation was similar to her presentation last April to the ECB3 group in Washington, DC regarding the background of DRR and the formation of ISDR. She had a few updates, including a recent publication "Words Into Action: Implementing the Hyogo Framework for Action"(Nov 06); the UN Sasakawa Award for Disaster Reduction; and an announcement that UNISDR is going to undertake a best practices initiative, to help map out best practices in DRR, building upon the publication which will be shared at the first Global Platform for DRR, 5-7 June in Geneva. In addition, UNISDR will launch at the Global Platform meeting an effort to perform a cost-benefit analysis on the cost of implementing DRR activities vs. the cost of not having implemented those preparedness activities. It is hoped that the results of this analysis will increase funds for and support further work in DRR programming.

Heidi Chase
Program Manager, Emergencies & Protection
Save the Children, US