INTERGOVERNMENTAL SCIENTIFIC PROGRAMMES

UNESCO possesses the necessary competence to achieve the above objectives.
The Organization can capitalize on its experience and past efforts to generate an overarching multidisciplinary initiative to address the developmental aspects of natural disasters through activities encompassing all the disciplines needed.

UNESCO mandate covers a broad spectrum of disciplines and concerns involved in disaster prevention, making the Organization a crossroads of disciplines involved in disaster reduction. As such, UNESCO provides a unique intellectual setting linking, within a single organization, the natural sciences with education, culture, communication and the social sciences, thereby integrating many of the ingredients for disaster studies.

UNESCO has in place many programmes that have proven experience in the scientific studies and mitigation of natural hazards, in the safeguard and rehabilitation of educational and cultural institutions in disaster-prone countries. The Organization is engaged, since 1960, in the assessment and mitigation of risks arising from natural hazards of geological origin (earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and landslides), and contributes to the study of hazards of hydro meteorological origin (storms, floods, prolonged droughts, desertification and avalanches).

The scientific and technical work of UNESCO in disaster reduction is essentially promoted by its natural hazards programme in the Earth Sciences, by its intergovernmental scientific programmes such as:

The International Geoscience Programme (IGCP),
http://www.unesco.org/science/earthsciences/igcp/

The International Hydrological Programme (IHP),
http://www.unesco.org/water/ihp/index.shtml

The Man and Biosphere (MAB) Programme,
http://www.unesco.org/mab/

The programmes of UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) and the activities on the applications of remote sensing.
http://www.ioc.unesco.org/iocweb/

The World Water Assessment Programme for development, capacity building and the environment, World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP)
http://www.unesco.org/water/wwap/index.shtml

Through these undertakings, UNESCO also contributes to the three global observing systems:

The Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS),
http://ioc.unesco.org/goos/

The Global Climate Observing System (GCOS),
http://ioc.unesco.org/goos/docs/GOOS_066_act_pl.htm

The Global Terrestrial Observing System (GTOS),
http://ioc.unesco.org/goos/docs/GOOS_066_act_pl.htm

An international initiative on Education and Scientific and Cultural Support Systems for Disaster Reduction.
UNESCO and the Global Alliance for Disaster Reduction (GADR) are currently exploring institutional mechanisms and global alliances with a view to launching an international initiative on Education and Scientific and Cultural Support Systems for Disaster Reduction. This initiative will be undertaken under the aegis of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR).