International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction 2020: Everything you need to know

World Calamity Control Day also known as the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction is observed on October 13 every year, with the aim to promote ‘a global culture of risk-awareness and disaster reduction’.

According to UN, The International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction was started in 1989, after a call by the United Nations General Assembly for a day to promote a global culture of risk-awareness and disaster reduction.

Held every 13 October, the day celebrates how people and communities around the world are reducing their exposure to disasters and raising awareness about the importance of reining in the risks that they face.

Landmark steps were taken at the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction at Sendai in Japan in 2015. Sendai had suffered a devastating earthquake and tsunami in 2011 in which 20,000 people lost their lives.

This year, amid the crisis unleashed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction focuses attention on the need to have ‘good governance’ for saving lives and reducing the number of people affected by disasters.

The United Nations claims, “COVID-19 and the climate emergency are telling us that we need clear vision, plans and competent, empowered institutions acting on scientific evidence for the public good.”