Ban Ki-moon Message on the International Day for Natural Disater Reduction 2012

Secretary-General's Message for 2012

 This year’s observance of the International Day for Disaster Reduction seeks to highlight the need for women and girls to be at the forefront of reducing risk and managing the world’s response to natural hazards. Across the world, women and girls are using their roles within families and communities to strengthen risk reduction. In Bangladesh, women organized themselves to prepare for and respond to floods by teaching other women how to build portable clay ovens and elevate houses.

 In South Africa, marginalized adolescent girls have been empowered to help design plans to reduce the impact of drought and severe wind storms.


 In the Bolivian altiplano, indigenous women have consolidated traditional agricultural and climatic knowledge, which resulted in significant reduction of crop losses from hail, frost and flooding.

 In Viet Nam, villagers have been introduced to disaster reduction issues through customized radio soap operas that incorporate real-life examples and stories from local women.

And following the tsunami and earthquake in Fukushima, Japan, women played a central role in re-establishing income opportunities, with a special focus on single mothers. Such efforts advance understanding of how communities can benefit from encouraging women to take leadership roles in disaster risk reduction, and will only become more valuable as climate change intensifies and as the world struggles to cope with extreme weather and disasters that affect an average of more than 200 million people annually

. On this International Day for Disaster Reduction, let us recognize that, as the theme of this year’s observance declares, women and girls are the “[in]Visible Force of Resilience”.

 Ban Ki-moon

International Day for Natural Disaster Reduction 2012: Women and Girls - the [in]Visible Force of Resilience

Theme for 2012: Women and Girls - the [in]Visible Force of Resilience

 

By resolution 44/236 (22 December 1989), the General Assembly designated the second Wednesday of October International Day for Natural Disaster Reduction. The International Day was to be observed annually during the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction, 1990-1999.
By resolution 64/200 of 21 December 2009 the General Assembly decided to designate 13 October as the date to commemorate the Day and to change the Day's name to International Day for Disaster Reduction. The objective of the observance is to raise awareness of how people are taking action to reduce their risk to disasters.
The theme of the 2012 International Day for Disaster Reduction (IDDR) is "Women and Girls - the [in]Visible Force of Resilience".
Women and girls are empowered to fully contribute to sustainable development through disaster risk reduction, particularly in the areas of environmental and natural resource management; governance; and urban and land use planning and social and economic planning - the key drivers of disaster risk.
Resolution 64/200. - International Strategy for Disaster Reduction International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction