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UCL Department of Risk and Disaster Reduction

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IRDR Special Seminar: Changing Risk in a Changing World

14 January 2020, 5:00 pm–6:00 pm

Ofunato after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, 2011

The UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, Ms Mami Mizutori, will explore the fast-changing landscape of disaster risk, the challenges, and how we can risk-proof our future.

This event is free.

Event Information

Open to

All

Availability

Yes

Cost

Free

Organiser

Rosanna Smith – UCL Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction

Location

Christopher Ingold Building XLG1 Chemistry Lecture Theatre
20 Gordon Street
London
WC1H 9JG
United Kingdom

The world is changing: rapidly, and in ways that we cannot predict. Change doesn’t happen in silos or straight lines. The interactions between climate change, ecosystem fragility, disease outbreaks, rapid urbanisation, mass displacement, geo political instability, fuelled by the interconnectivity of communications, trade, financial systems and politics mean risk is growing and risk is changing. Every day. The choices we make today – as people, communities and countries – are creating new, emerging and larger risks, setting up feedback loops with cascading consequences.

The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) works on the interface of disaster risk, guided by the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030, working to reduce disaster risk and losses to ensure a safer, sustainable future. The UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, Ms Mami Mizutori, will explore the fast-changing landscape of disaster risk, the challenges this throws up, and what we should be doing now to risk-proof our future.

The seminar will be followed by a reception in the North Cloisters.

IRDR students do not need to book tickets for this event.

Please note: this event will be filmed. If you do not wish to be filmed, please let a member of IRDR staff know on the night.

 

About the Speaker

Ms Mami Mizutori

UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction at UNDRR (UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction)

Portrait of Mami Mizutori
Mami Mizutori is the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, and head of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, based in Geneva. She assumed her role on 1 March 2018. The role of the UNDRR is to support countries and stakeholders in the implementation of the Sendai Framework. The Special Representative ensures the strategic and operational coherence between disaster risk reduction, climate change and sustainable development agendas as well as the linkage with the UN Secretary-General’s prevention agenda and with humanitarian action. Ms. Mizutori served for twenty-seven years in various capacities in the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Prior to joining the UN, Ms. Mizutori was Executive Director of the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures, University of East Anglia. Ms. Mizutori graduated in law from Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo and obtained a Diploma in International Studies from the Diplomatic School of Spain.

www.unisdr.org