The ISDR aims at building disaster resilient communities by promoting increased awareness of the importance of disaster reduction as an integral component of sustainable development, with the goal of reducing human, social, economic and environmental losses due to natural hazards and related technological and environmental disasters.
The ISDR builds on partnerships and takes a global approach to disaster reduction, seeking to involve every individual and every community towards the goals of reducing the loss of lives, the socio-economic setbacks and the environmental damages caused by natural hazards. In order to achieve these goals, the ISDR promotes four objectives as tools towards reaching disaster reduction for all:
- increase public awareness to understand risk, vulnerability and disaster reduction globally
- obtain commitment from public authorities to implement disaster reduction policies and actions
- stimulate interdisciplinary and intersectoral partnerships, including the expansion of risk reduction networks
- improve scientific knowledge about disaster reduction
The ISDR combines the strengths of many key players through the Inter-Agency Task Force on Disaster Reduction (IATF/DR) and the Inter-Agency Secretariat of the ISDR (UN/ISDR).