Feature

Young students from the island nation of Tuvalu are now able to go to school without the constant fear that the next tropical cyclone would destroy their classrooms – all thanks to a partnership between their government and Australia.

In Bangladesh, Rohingya refugees are playing an important role in reforestation efforts to protect the campsites from the risk of landslides, flash floods, and higher temperatures, which can worsen humanitarian crises.

More than 200 Filipino professionals have attended disaster management trainings in Japan, providing an opportunity to the Philippines’ Office of Civil Defense to learn from Japan’s experiences, technology and innovation.

Campinas, Medellin, and Mexico City became the first three cities in the Americas and the Caribbean region to be recognized as "Resilience Hubs" of the Making Cities Resilient 2030 (MCR2030) initiative. The announcement was made on December 21, 2021, closing the first year of the MCR2030 initiative's activities.  These cities became Resilience Hubs for their commitment as well as progressive policy and advocacy work to address disaster and climate risks. They will serve as Resilience Hubs for the next three years continue developing their disaster resilience while inspiring other cities to do the same.

While COVID-19 keeps challenging all five countries of Central Asia at an unprecedented scale, through existing programs, the EU supports both resilient and sustainable political and economic frameworks that can prepare governments for future emergencies.

For the urban coastal city of Hong Kong, typhoons are a regular occurrence from May to October. Consequently, Hong Kong’s infrastructure is designed to cope with the strong winds, floods, and storm surges they bring. Recently, however, the territory experienced two powerful storms in consecutive years. In 2017, Super Typhoon Hato struck the region, and in the following year, the city witnessed Super Typhoon Mangkhut, the strongest typhoon since 1983. But Hong Kong suffered lower economic losses from both storms when compared with the neighboring Guangdong region and the city of Macau, thanks partly to its well-coordinated response and resilient infrastructure.

While tsunamis are not common in the Caribbean – the last major one hit 75 years ago – people are well aware of the impact of storm surges and quick to get on board with the “Tsunami Ready” program.

The 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami spurred a movement to develop female community leaders in Japan.

Despite the deep scars left by the crisis, countries now have a fresh focus on health, resilience and regionalism plus a chance to fully incorporate disaster risk reduction into their recovery.

In the wake of the 2004 tsunami, coastal forests helped dampen damage from the tsunami. Building on this, an Indonesian NGO called 'Yagasu' are using mangroves to bolster ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction, improve local livelihood, and aid in climate change mitigation and adaptation.