United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR)

Created in December 1999, UNISDR is the United Nation's office for disaster risk reduction and is the secretariat of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. The mandate of UNISDR expanded in 2001 to serve as the focal point in the United Nations system for the coordination of disaster reduction and to ensure synergies among the disaster reduction activities of the United Nations system and regional organizations and activities in socio-economic and humanitarian fields (GA resolution 56/195). This was in response to a need for mainstreaming disaster risk reduction within the development and other areas of work of the UN. The "Hyogo Declaration" and the "Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters" was adopted by the World Conference on Disaster Reduction, held in Kobe, Hyogo, Japan, in January 2005. The Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) tasked UNISDR with supporting the implementation of the HFA.