The International Day for Disaster Reduction in 2001

The International Day for Disaster Reduction is celebrated every year on the second Wednesday of October. This year, it was celebrated on 10th October 2001. Several United Nations entities, countries, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), regional organizations, local communities and individuals hold activities on this day to raise awareness on the solutions which already exist to make people less vulnerable to natural hazards.

The celebration of the Day is the culmination of the information campaigns the ISDR Secretariat organizes on a different theme every year. In the framework of the 2001 campaign on “Counterning Disasters, Targeting Vulnerability”, with its three sub-themes on “The Role of Science and Technology in Disaster Reduction”, “Building Disaster Resistant Infrastructures”, and “Mobilizing Local Communities in Reducing Disasters”, countries worldwide have organized and are still holding a wide range of activities. These range from press conferences to the projection of videos, seminars related to the sub-themes of the campaign, radio programmes, simulation exercises, or even week-long activities in countries such as India, Thailand, France, Germany, Peru, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Tonga, Australia… etc… (the list is not exhaustive). Active partners this year were also the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women, the World Meteorological Organization and the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center, among others. Events which took place worldwide on the Day will be reported on in a special publication from the ISDR Secretariat which will come out early next year. A special activity this year is a risk mapping contest for local communities and for children. Entries have been received from all regions of the world. The deadline has been extended to 31 December 2001 to allow for more participants to send their maps to the ISDR Secretariat.

A documentary film of 24 minutes was made by a local TV station on the activities of the Day in Geneva.

For copies of the film and in order to receive the publication on the activities organized on the occasion of the International Day for Disaster Reduction worldwide, please contact the ISDR Secretariat in Geneva, Ms. Nicole Appel, Public Awareness Officer, email appeln@un.org tel 41 22 917 97 06 fax 41 22 917 90 98/9.

For information on the United Nations Sasakawa Award for Disaster Reduction, please contact
Ms. Christel Rose, Special Assistant to the Director and Coordinator of Special Projects, email rosec@un.org
tel 41 22 917 97 17
fax 41 22 917 90 98/9

In order to obtain the 2001 ISDR Information Campaign kit or information on the UN Sasakawa Award for Disaster Reduction, please check: www.unisdr.org or www.eird.org