Investing in Disaster Risk Reduction in Education

Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) - what is it?

According to the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction,  DRR 'aims to reduce the damage caused by natural hazards like earthquakes, floods, droughts and cyclones, through an ethic of prevention'.

How is this linked to education I hear you ask. Check out this poster from UNICEF and UNESCO which tells you how education is linked to DRR, and why we need it. 

This child-friendly publication from Plan International is also helpful to get young people thinking about how they can get involved with responding to disasters, and possibly preventing them in the future.

What are your thoughts on DRR? Have you been involved in DRR initiatives? Do you think they could be used for preventing crises such as conflict? It would be great to hear your experiences (both good and bad) - feel free to share them below. 

Joining the Rio +20 Conversation - including education in the agenda

The Rio +20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development is taking place between 20 and 22 June 2012.

'The objective of the Conference is to secure renewed political commitment for sustainable development, assess the progress to date and the remaining gaps in the implementation of the outcomes of the major summits on sustainable development, and address new and emerging challenges.'

Perhaps important to note that the international community is unlikely to meet any of the Millennium Development Goals or Education For All goals by the target of 2015.
 
The Rio +20 Conference is going to focus on the following themes:

1. a green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication;
2. the institutional framework for sustainable development.

The following seven areas have been noted as needing priority attention: 

1. Jobs
2. Energy
3. Sustainable Cities
4. Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture
5. Water
6. Oceans
7. Disaster Readiness

Of particular note in the area of Disaster Readiness is the fact that education has on the whole been overlooked as the mechanism through which any of the sustainable development goals may be internalised and acted upon. Take a look at the related Issue Brief for more on this. In light of this, the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) is calling for education - in particular crisis-sensitive education - to be brought to the forefront of the conference agenda.

What do you think?
Should the conference be paying greater attention to the links between education and sustainable development? Is excluding education as an explicit area of focus in the Rio +20 Conference simply setting up for failure?
Visit the Conference Website. 
See INEE's call to include education in the conference agenda here.