Preparations for the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction gathered momentum as more than 600 government representatives and experts from around the world convened in Geneva for the First Session of an Intergovernmental Preparatory Committee.

Experts representing a broad coalition of relevant stakeholders from around the world are attending the two-day preparatory meeting to provide input for an initial draft of a Post-2015 Framework that will seek to reduce disaster losses and put the tenets of disaster risk reduction at the heart of sustainable development. This is the culmination of a process started two years ago and which has involved over 150 consultations worldwide.

Margareta Wahlström, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, recalled today that in December 2013, the United Nations General Assembly decided that the Third World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction will be held in Sendai, Japan, from 14 to 18 March 2015 and at the highest possible level.

The Conference has the following key objectives: review of the implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action which was adopted by all UN Member States following the 2005 Indian Ocean tsunami; to adopt a concise, focused, forward-looking and action-oriented post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction; and to identify modalities of cooperation based on commitments to implement a post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction. (Source: UNISDR)

More details: http://www.unisdr.org/archive/38434