Towards a Safer World

The conference  “Global Health: how to develop a healthier world” will take place on June 7th at 18.30  at the University of Geneva, Salle U300 – Uni Dufour, Rue du Général-Dufour 24, Geneva.

As part of its commitment to ensuring extensive and inclusive multi-stakeholder consultations in the preparations of the 2017 Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (22-26 May 2017, Cancún, México),  the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction is pleased to invite interested stakeholders to join an Online Dialogue on “Substantive Issues for the 2017 Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction – Fifth Session” that will be running from 16 May to 5 June 2016. The registration process for the dialogue will start 9 May 2016.

The Fifth Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction will be held in Cancun, Mexico on 22-26 May, 2017. The Global Platform is the most important international forum dedicated to the disaster risk reduction agenda, and this will be the first time it has been staged outside Geneva.

Despite there being a significant increase in morbidity and mortality in those with chronic conditions, the main focus in disaster response and recovery has been on acute medical conditions and first aid.

Over recent years, there has been a shift to considering the effects of natural disasters on people with chronic conditions when planning for emergencies and natural disasters.

The U.S. Department of State invites submission of comments from the public and relevant industries on influenza surveillance and response, related to the implementation of the World Health Organization (WHO) Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework (PIP-FW) (http://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHA64/A64_8-en.pdf).

THE INCLUSIVE COST OF PANDEMIC INFLUENZA RISK  by Victoria Y. Fan, Dean T. Jamison, and Lawrence H. Summers.  NBER Working Paper 22137, March 2016.

Nominations are open for the 2016 Roux Prize, a $100,000 award launched in 2013 to recognize individuals or groups who have used disease burden evidence to take action and make people healthier. Nominees are welcomed from around the world and may be working on any health issue. The only requirement is that they have used disease burden evidence to improve health at the local, national, or global level. The submission deadline is March 31, 2016.

UNISDR awareness-raising campaign for the first anniversary of the Sendai Framework has gained massive support. This morning, we're on course to reach 19 million people, nearly doubling the record for a UNISDR social media campaign. The #switch2sendai hashtag has been trending on Twitter this week.

The International Conference on the Implementation of the Health Aspect of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, held on 10-11 March 2016, in Bangkok, Thailand, recommended the following measures that could assist countries in implementing the health aspects of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction:

1. Promote systematic integration of health into national and sub-national disaster risk reduction policies and plans and the inclusion of emergency and disaster risk management programmes in national and sub-national health strategies.

BANGKOK, 11 March 2016 – Government officials and hazard risk management experts from various sectors today called on countries to put health resilience at the heart of disaster risk management in the face of crises such as the Zika virus outbreak.

They agreed seven recommendations to help countries face up to the fact that biological hazards “are part of the new normal and are here to stay”, in the words of Dr Bruce Aylward, the World Health Organization’s Executive Director a.i. Outbreaks and Health Emergencies.