The International Day for Disaster Reduction (IDDR) encourages every citizen and government to take part in building more disaster resilient communities and nations.
The United Nations General Assembly designated the second Wednesday of October as the International Day for Natural Disaster Reduction as part of its proclamation of the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction.
In 2002, by a further resolution, the General Assembly decided to maintain the annual observance as a vehicle to promote a global culture of natural disaster reduction, including prevention, mitigation and preparedness.
In 2009, the UN General Assembly decided to designate October 13 as the official date and also changed the name to International Day for Disaster Reduction.
Famous quotes containing the words day, natural, disaster and/or reduction:
“O he did whistle and she did sing,
And all the bells on earth did ring
For joy our Saviour Christ was born
On Christmas Day in the morning.”
—Unknown. As I Sat on a Sunny Bank. . .
Oxford Book of Light Verse, The. W. H. Auden, ed. (1938)
“Every natural fact is a symbol of some spiritual fact. Every appearance in nature corresponds to some state of the mind, and that state of the mind can only be described by presenting that natural appearance as its picture.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The appropriation of radical thinking by lazy, self-obsessed hippies is a public relations disaster that could cost the earth.”
—Ben Elton (b. 1959)
“The reduction of nuclear arsenals and the removal of the threat of worldwide nuclear destruction is a measure, in my judgment, of the power and strength of a great nation.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)