Every 13 October the world celebrates International Day for Disaster Reduction.
It is a day to reflect on how people and communities are raising awareness about the importance of disaster risk reduction (DRR), and addressing their exposure to disasters.
The focus of this year's International Day for Disaster Reduction is on the traditional, indigenous and local knowledge which complements modern science and contributes to individual and community resilience.
To mark this day, DFAT and Geoscience Australia hosted a seminar to explore how we can better link traditional and scientific knowledge in the Australian aid program.
Building resilience is one of the six pillars of Australia's aid policy framework and is critical to sustaining economic growth and development in the Indo-Pacific, the world's most disaster-prone region.
Australia is a strong advocate for global disaster risk reduction action, and recently endorsed the Sendai Framework [external PDF] for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, which issues a global commitment to addressing disaster resilience, risk reduction and response.
DRR is everybody's business. We should all seek to make aid activities more disaster-resilient, and ensure that development programs do not exacerbate or create new disaster risks. A good example is the Safer School Global Program supported by DFAT, which was tested during the 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Nepal in April 2015. Thanks to well-integrated DRR programing, 160 public school buildings survived the earthquake.
DFAT is working to build resilience in the Indo-Pacific region with a number of partners, including non-government organisations, the World Bank, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, as well as other Australian Government agencies, including the Attorney-General's Department and Geoscience Australia.
You can follow the twitter campaign on #IDDR2015. For more information about Disaster Risk Reduction and DFAT's role in the region please contact: DRR@dfat.gov.au
