International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction
Today is the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction, (IDDR) a tradition that began in 1989 when the United Nations General Assembly designated an annual date to promote a global culture of disaster risk reduction including disaster prevention, mitigation and preparedness. The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) is responsible for promoting the events around October 13th. In 2011, UNISDR launched a Step Up Initiative to focus on different partnerships each year, beginning with “Children and Young People” (in 2011), emphasizing, for example, safe schools. In 2012, the focus was on “Women and Girls”, particularly important as they often live in more hazard-prone areas. I was stunned to read that in certain communities devastated by the Asian tsunami, all of the casualties were female as they were working in the low-lying areas while the men moved to higher elevations for work. Another issue relevant to women and girls that we tried to develop in our UNISDR reporting is the need for safe evacuation facilities for women and girls. In 2013, the Step Up partnership was people living with disabilities and in 2014, it was older people. This year’s theme is “Knowledge for Life”, with an emphasis on local knowledge, or indigenous traditions, that help to manage disaster risk in the community. I was trying to come up with an example from my own experience and what immediately came to mind was the advice of my grandfather (who was a fireman) to protect glass windows with masking tape during a hurricane. Should the force of the wind shatter the glass, the masking tape makes the fragments less likely to disperse and cause injury.