Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction

The Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction is a biennial forum for information exchange, discussion of latest developments, knowledge and partnership-building across sectors, with the goal of improving implementation of disaster risk reduction through better communication and coordination amongst stakeholders.

Its core function is to enable governments, NGOs, scientists, practitioners, and UN organizations to share experience and formulate strategic guidance for the implementation of global disaster risk reduction agreements: the 2005 Hyogo Framework for Action and its post-2015 successor the Sendai Framework.

Before the establishment of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, an Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Disaster Reduction, led by UNISDR, met regularly between 2000-2005. The purpose of the Task Force was to serve as the main forum within the United Nations to discuss the issue of disaster reduction and in particular for defining strategies for international cooperation at all levels in this field.

The United Nations General Assembly convened a World Conference on Disaster Reduction in Kobe, Japan in January 2005 with the aim of taking stock of progress in disaster risk reduction accomplished since the Yokohama Conference of 1994 and to make plans for the next ten years. This resulted in the Hyogo Framework for Action.

The subsequent Global Platforms, in 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2013, played a key role in the Hyogo Framework’s implementation, and paved the way for its successor agreement, the Sendai Framework, adopted at the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in March 2015.