International Day for Disaster Reduction 13 October

A boy sits Local authorities and community members collaborate to provide relief in Salybia, Dominica after back-to-back, category 5 hurricanes struck the region. UN Photo/Rick Bajornas

2018 theme — Reducing Disaster Economic Losses

The 2018 theme continues as part of the “Sendai Seven” campaign, centred on the seven targets of the Sendai Framework. This year focuses on Target C of the Sendai Framework, reducing disaster economic losses in relation to global GDP by 2030.

 

The International Day for Disaster Reduction was started in 1989, after a call by the United Nations General Assembly for a day to promote a global culture of risk-awareness and disaster reduction. Held every 13 October, the day celebrates how people and communities around the world are reducing their exposure to disasters and raising awareness about the importance of reining in the risks that they face.

 

Background

By resolution 44/236 (22 December 1989), the General Assembly designated the second Wednesday of October International Day for Natural Disaster Reduction. The International Day was to be observed annually during the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction, 1990-1999.

By resolution 64/200 of 21 December 2009 the General Assembly decided to designate 13 October as the date to commemorate the Day and to change the Day’s name to International Day for Disaster Reduction. The objective of the observance is to raise awareness of how people are taking action to reduce their risk to disasters.

The Sendai Framework and the Sustainable Development Goals

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, adopted in March 2015, was the first of four agreements approved by the international community in 2015 with the overall aim of making development more sustainable in the face of a raft of challenges faced by the world.

RESOURCES

UNITED NATIONS