Report of the Regional Meeting: Education for Risk and Disaster Reduction in Latin America

The Latin American Meeting on Education for Risk and Disaster Reduction was held on September 7-9, 2004, in El Salvador. This was an initiative of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN-ISDR), UNESCO and the OAS, jointly with the Salvadoran Foundation for Integral Support (FUSAI), UNICEF, the National Service for Territorial Studies (SNET), the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

On this occasion, experts in education, physical education infrastructure, and risk management, as well as public officials; subregional, regional and international organizations, NGOs and community leaders gathered to analyze the progress made in recent years and identify existing needs and opportunities, gaps in the field of education for risk and disaster reduction, and best practices. In addition, participants made recommendations in order to improve and strengthen the future work to be done in the region regarding this issue. Finally, the meeting contributed to the preparatory process of the World Conference for Disaster Reduction (WCDR), held in Kobe, Hyogo, Japan, on January 18-22, 2005.