By UN 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 how people are taking action to reduce their risk to disasters.
International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction
13 October 2011
Related News & Events
24 August 2026
The Beijing Science Dialogue will take place from 19 to 21 October 2026, under the theme “Science in a Complex World – Science for a Better Future”. IRDR will host a satellite symposium on 20 October under the theme "Science, Data and Partnerships for Disaster Risk Reduction”.
14 August 2026
IRDR and the Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre (ADPC), based in Bangkok, Thailand, signed a Memorandum of Understanding on 14 August 2026, formalising a five-year strategic partnership to bridge the gap between disaster risk science and policy implementation.
12 August 2026
The AMS recently announced the recipients of its 2027 awards and honors on its official website. Professor Zhang Renhe, Director of the IRDR International Centre of Excellence (ICoE) at Fudan, has been honored with the Sverdrup Gold Medal for his fundamental contributions to understanding Asian monsoon variability in connection with ocean-atmosphere interactions in the Northwest Pacific and coupled modes such as ENSO.
