Living with Risk. A global review of disaster reduction initiatives

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Living with Risk: A global review of disaster reduction initiatives
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actions towards disaster reduction. Administered
by OCHA, ReliefWeb (www.reliefweb.int)
is an online source of information on humanitarian
emergencies, including useful tools and
documentation for disaster prevention such as
time-critical situation reports, maps and financial
contribution tracking, searchable archives
of over 150,000 emergency response documents
and 15,000 links to country-specific
background information. The Inter-Agency
Standing Committee (IASC), chaired by the
Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian
Affairs/Emergency Relief Coordinator, brings
together a wide range of United Nations and
non-United Nations humanitarian partners,
including agencies, NGOs, and international
organizations such the Red Cross and Red
Crescent Movement, to facilitate inter-agency
decision-making on the response to complex
emergencies and natural disasters.
Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs
United Nations
Secretariat Building
New York, NY 10017
United States
Tel: (+1-212) 963 8528
Fax: (+1-212) 963 9489
Palais des Nations,
CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Tel: (+41-22) 917 2160
Fax: (+41-22) 917 0020
E-mail: ochagva@un.org
Web site: www.reliefweb.int
Department of Economic and Social Affairs
(UN/DESA)
This department is led by the Under-Secretary-General
for Economic and Social Affairs
and is located in New York. The predecessor
to DESA, the Department of Policy Coordination
and Sustainable Development, was created
as a result of the Earth Summit, held in Rio in
1992. The DESA multidimensional programme
promotes broad-based and sustainable
development through an integrated approach
to economic, social, environmental, population
and gender-related aspects of development.
The Department serves as the secretariat for
the Commission on Sustainable Development
and is currently organizing the World Summit
on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg,
26 August-4 September 2002). The functions
of DESA include normative work, coordination
and policy advisory services supplemented
by research and training. DESA activities are
guided by the programmes and platforms of
action adopted by major United Nations
conferences and summits, as well as the
Economic and Social Council machinery.
Several divisions of the Department are
concerned with disaster reduction, particularly
the Division for Sustainable Development (DSD)
with its Water, Natural Resources and Small
Islands Branch and the Division for the
Advancement of Women (DAW).
Division for Sustainable Development: The
mission of DSD is to facilitate the implementation
of Agenda 21, the Rio Declaration on
Environment and Development, the Nonlegally
Binding Authoritative Statement of
Principles for a Global Consensus on the
Management, Conservation and Sustainable
Development of All Types of Forests (also
known as the Forest Principles), and the Global
Programme of Action for Sustainable
Development of Small Island Developing
States (SIDS). The Division carries out multiyear
work programmes on sustainable development
indicators, with interest in expanding
the work on disaster reduction indicators.
DSD provides substantive services to the
Economic and Social Council functional
commission CSD. As such, it serves as the
secretariat for the World Summit on Sustainable
Development. CSD was created in
December 1992 and has 53 members for
terms of office of three years. Its function is to
follow up on the Earth Summits.
United Nations
Department of Economic and Social Affairs
Division for Sustainable Development
United Nations Plaza, Room DC2-2220
New York, NY 10017, United States
Tel: (+1-212) 963 3170
Fax: (+1-212) 963 4260
E-mail: dsd@un.org
Web sites: www.un.org/esa/sustdev/dsd.htm
www.johannesburgsummit.org
www.sidsnet.org