Call for event submissions: International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction 2025

Background

Disasters are becoming more frequent, more costly, and far more devastating. While direct disaster losses have been estimated at around US$202 billion per year, the Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction 2025 indicates that the true cost is nearly US$2.3 trillion annually.

Yet investing in disaster risk reduction (DRR) remains under-prioritised in national budgets and international assistance. This year, IDDRR 2025 calls for a decisive shift: to fund resilience now to prevent paying more later when disasters strike.

Key messages

• Disasters are a growing threat to economic prosperity and sustainable development, with costs underestimated and unsustainable.
• Disaster costs are pushing countries into spirals of increased debt, lower incomes, increased insurability, and repeated humanitarian crises.
• Declining international assistance makes it even more critical to reduce disaster losses through disaster risk reduction investments.
• Cutting funding for disaster risk reduction leads to more expensive disasters in the future, along with more humanitarian needs.
• To reduce disaster costs, countries must increase funding for disaster risk reduction and ensure all development investments are risk-informed.

How to participate

Organisers are invited to share details of publicly available events, campaigns, workshops, or other activities that raise awareness of the theme “Fund Resilience, Not Disasters“.

Submit your event details to our email address by October 10, 2025.

Submissions should include basic information:

how the event links to the overall theme and key messages.

date;

time;

description;

organizing entity;

format (online, hybrid or in-person);

location;

target audience;

expected outcomes, and

The events will appear on both the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction campaign website and PreventionWeb.

How to participate

Editors’ recommendations

Concept Note: International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction 2025

International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction 2025: Fund Resilience, Not Disasters

Explore further

he theme for the 2025 International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction (IDDRR), which is commemorated on 13 October, is “Fund Resilience, Not Disasters”. This theme highlights the urgent need to address the escalating costs of disasters by shifting focus from reactive response to proactive investments in disaster risk reduction..

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