The Government of Mexico and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction will host the 2017 Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, from 22-26 May 2017 in Cancun, Mexico, with 22-23 May as informal preparatory days and 24-26 May as the Global Platform’s official programme.

The Towards a Safer World (TASW) initiative was launched after the last ISDR Global Platform in 2011.

The first phase of the initiative was to review the impact of 'whole-of-society' pandemic preparedness efforts since 2005. 11 parameters were used in the analysis and key achievements and lessons were identified.