Mitigating disasters - A promising start

摘要

For gourmets, Hyogo is a Japanese prefecture known for its marbled beef. But for the world's disaster community, it is where, in 2005, the heads of state of 168 countries agreed on a UN plan to make the world a safer place for humanity. The Hyogo Framework for Action spelled out what all countries in the world had to do over the following 10 years to make disasters less disastrous. The need for action was not in doubt. In the 1980s, about 400-500 disasters were occurring every year, on average. By 2004, just before the Hyogo conference, the number had doubled.