On 11 October 2012, in the run up to the International Day for Disaster Reduction (13 October), the United Nations University and its partners launched the WorldRiskReport 2012.
The report finds that environmental degradation is a significant factor that reduces the adaptive capacity of societies to deal with disaster risk in many countries around the globe. The centrepiece of the report, the WorldRiskIndex, determines the risk of becoming the victim of a disaster as a result of natural hazards for 173 countries throughout the world.
At the launch in Brussels, we interviewed PD Dr.-Ing. Jörn Birkmann, Scientific Head of the WorldRiskIndex project at the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS). In the short video below, he talks about the report and its key findings.
Dr. Jörn Birkmann: “In Europe we find countries which are highly exposed to hazards, for example the Netherlands and Greece, but due to their level of preparedness the actual risk is quite low.”
For more information about the report, please click here. The press release about its launch is available here.
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The theme of this year’s International Day for Disaster Reduction (13 October) is “Women and Girls: the [in]Visible Force of Resilience”. If you have an inspirational story about a woman or a girl who has been a leader in disaster-proofing and/or building a resilient community, you are welcome to share it on this interactive Crowdmap. For more ideas on what you can do to raise awareness on the day, 
download this flyer.
