An international conference on disaster prevention kicks off March 14 in the disaster-hit Tohoku region and it is aiming to adopt a new global framework to mitigate effects from natural disasters for the coming decade or so.
The Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction through March 18 is expected to draw about 40,000 people from Japan and abroad, including top government officials, heads of international bodies and nongovernmental organizations, to Sendai and other locations in the region, which is recovering from the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami.
The main objective of the conference at the Sendai International Center is to draw up a new guideline for disaster risk reduction to replace the 10-year Hyogo Framework of Action (HFA) adopted at the previous 2005 Kobe conference, Margareta Wahlstrom, special representative of the secretary-general for disaster risk reduction, told reporters in January at the Japan National Press Club.