President of UN General Assembly convenes first ever Thematic Debate on Disaster Risk Reduction - coming up!

World Vision, UNDP, Save the Children and youth from Canada and the Philippines are preparing a dynamic side event at the upcoming Thematic Debate on DRR at the UN headquarters in New York. The event is entitled: Taking Collective Action in DRR for Good Governance – Investing in Our Children’s Future: A multi-stakeholder dialogue between youth, NGOs, UN agencies, Government and partners on working together to integrate DRR and development, addressing risks which undermine sustainable development.

This special side event will occur from 1:15 - 2:45 p.m. on 9 February, 2011 at UN Headquarters in New York at the informal Thematic Debate on Disaster Risk Reduction hosted by H.E. President Joseph Deiss of Switzerland, the current President of the UN General Assembly. For more information on this debate, and other initiatives of the President, see http://www.un.org/en/ga/president/65/initiatives/drr.shtml

Background to the meeting: The High-level Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly on the Millennium Development Goals, held from 20 to 22 September 2010, acknowledged that disaster risk reduction and increasing resilience to natural hazard can have multiplier effects and accelerate achievement of the MDGs.

The event is sponsored by World Vision, UNDP, Save the Children and partners. For more information, please contact @melisamar on Twitter or palm@un.org