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
28 September 2026
A delegation from the IRDR IPO, led by Executive Director, Prof. Saini Yang, met with key representatives from the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), including the Executive Vice President, Mr. Jason Bell, to discuss discuss possible areas of collaboration at the intersection of disaster risk science, animal welfare, and sustainable development.
23 September 2026
Join the IRDR-ICoE-SEADPRI UKM webinar on 29 September 2026 (10:00 am–12:00 pm Malaysia Time) with IRDR Fellow Prof. Rajib Shaw as he explores how the Sendai Framework's lessons can shape the next generation of DRR and embed "Resilience by Design" into sustainable development beyond 2030.
21 September 2026
The IRDR Special Session at the recently held 16th IDRiM Conference 2026, “Advancing International Collaboration to Foster Integrated Research on Catastrophe Resilience in Megacities”, brought together leading researchers and institutions to address the growing disaster risk in the world's most populous urban centres.
