UNISDR

Office for Disaster Risk Reduction is part of the United Nations Secretariat. The UN General Assembly adopted the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction in December 1999 and established UNISDR, the secretariat to ensure its implementation. Its mandate was expanded in 2001 to serve as the focal point in the United Nations system to ensure coordination and synergies among disaster risk reduction activities of the United Nations system and regional organizations and activities in socio-economic and humanitarian fields (UN General Assembly resolution 56/195).
Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) aims to reduce the damage caused by natural hazards like earthquakes, floods, droughts and cyclones, through an ethic of prevention. Disasters often follow natural hazards. A disaster's severity depends on how much impact a hazard has on society and the environment. The scale of the impact in turn depends on the choices we make for our lives and for our environment. Each decision and action makes us more vulnerable to disasters - or more resilient to them. The International Strategy for Disaster Reduction reflects a major shift from the traditional emphasis on disaster response to disaster reduction, and in effect seeks to promote a "culture of prevention".