Early Days of DRR (1970-2000)

This presentation details the UNDRR's initiative to document and more widely make available, in-depth information on early experiences and engagements with DRR.

There are many historical examples of societies successfully dealing with natural hazards in a pro-active manner, often going back several centuries. But it took until 1970 for the United Nations General Assembly to invite the Secretary-General to submit recommendations for the first time on:

• “Pre-disaster planning at the national and international levels”
• “The application of technology to, and scientific research for, the prevention and control of natural disasters, or the mitigation of the effects of such disasters”.

As a result, DRR at the global level in its contemporary form celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 2020. While the recent history of DRR (from 2000) is overall well documented since the establishment of the United Nations International Strategy of Disaster Reduction (UNISDR), there are serious gaps in the knowledge on the different actors and initiatives during the three early DRR decades.

In this Ignite Stage session you will be introduced to three elements of "The Early Days of DRR (1970 - 2000)" initiative.