The Indonesian government has announced plans for the Fifth Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction to be held in Yogyakarta, Indonesia in October of 2012. The UNISDR website reports that during 2011, “137 out of the 302 major disasters reported worldwide occurred in Asia causing the majority of disaster deaths and more than US$247 billion in economic losses which represented more than 75% of the global figure of US$365 billion.”

Margareta Wahlström, Head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, (UNISDR) said: “The Conference will take stock of the achievements in reducing the impact of disasters and demonstrate through strong active participation of local governments and civil society organizations, the importance of their action to strengthen resilience, and it will discuss opportunities for partnerships for action.” She went on: “I also consider this an important opportunity to debate and plan for a successor agreement to the international framework for disaster risk reduction, the Hyogo Framework for Action which will expire in 2015. Asia will have a significant influence on what kind of post-2015 framework we put in place to protect economies and development gains.”

The conference, to be held on October 22-25, is expected to draw more than 1,000 representatives from 60 countries, to discuss how local policies and practices can make their communities safer against disasters.