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International Day for Disaster Reduction 2020

The International Day for Disaster Reduction, held each year on 13 October, celebrates how people and communities around the world are reducing their exposure to disasters.

According to the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), in the period 2000 to 2019, there were 7,348 major recorded disaster events claiming 1.23 million lives, affecting 4.2 billion people (many on more than one occasion) resulting in approximately US$2.97 trillion in global economic losses.

This year was marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, which significantly changed the work of most organizations and the way people live. As of early October 2020, the World Health Organization reported more than 34.8 million COVID-19 cases, including one million deaths. Many countries were able to respond quickly to the pandemic, but not all countries were able to adequately mainstream biological risks into their national and local disaster risk reduction strategies.

The International Day for Disaster Reduction 2020 continues to focus on the "Sendai Seven" campaign, centred on the seven targets of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030. This year will focus on Target (e) of the Sendai Framework – substantially increase the number of countries with national and local disaster risk reduction strategies by 2020.

The concept of celebrating the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction 2020 in Central Asia is aimed at raising awareness, developing the potential of youth and involving them in science and policies for disaster risk reduction (DRR).

On 16 October 2020, the UNESCO Almaty Office in cooperation with the UNDRR, the Center for Emergency Situations and Disaster Risk Reduction in Almaty (CESDRR) and the Disaster and Climate Resilience Youth Network in Central Asia (DACRYN) is organizing an online event on this Day.

The event will focus on the implementation of the Sendai Framework with a special focus on raising awareness of young people on disaster risk reduction and youth engagement in DRR practices. This event will also cover best practices of youth engagement in DRR at a local level.

You can register for the event at the following link: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=Uq5PHbM5-kuwswIpVrERlL8z1aRHzk5MlR9TJtj2851URVJBTDFSOE9VUzY2M1pUNEk3MFgxQU4wUC4u

Date and time: 16 October 2020, 15:00 - 17:10 (Tashkent time).

Language: Russian and English with simultaneous translation.

Online-platform: Zoom, link will be emailed to registered members.

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