UN International Day for Disaster Reduction

The Step Up initiative started in 2011 and will be focusing on a different group of partners every year leading up to the World Conference for Disaster Reduction in 2015 - Children and Young People (2011), Women and Girls (2012), people living with disabilities (2013), and the ageing population (2014).

The International Day for Disaster Reduction started in 1989 with the approval by the United Nations General Assembly. The UN General Assembly sees the IDDR as a way to promote a global culture of disaster reduction, including disaster prevention, mitigation and preparedness. Originally celebrated on the second Wednesday of October (resolution 44/236, 22 December 1989), the UN General Assembly decided to designate October 13th as the date to celebrate the IDDR (resolution 64/200, 21 December 2009).

See full Press Release: http://www.unisdr.org/we/campaign/iddr