The International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction was started in 1989, after the United Nations General Assembly called for a day to promote a global culture of risk-awareness and disaster reduction. Held annually on October 13, 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. The theme for this year’s IDDR is Reducing the impacts from disasters to critical infrastructure and basic services.
The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres’s IDDR message for 2019 follows: