The Avoidable Deaths Network (ADN) has launched a global campaign declaring 12 March as the International Awareness Day for Avoidable Deaths (IAD4AD).
Purpose: To raise the visibility of disaster deaths and missing persons while both capturing their impact on people’s lives and by providing a platform wherein policy makers, practitioners and researchers have the ability to make more informed decisions that lead to lives saved.
Goal: To capture the causes and circumstances that lead to disaster deaths so that national and local responders can put context-specific interventions in place to save lives.
Impact: Through our work, we strive to reduce the actual number of deaths from disasters and give light to the value of the lives that have been saved through effective disaster risk governance, preventable and timely interventions.
International Awareness Day for Avoidable Deaths will be celebrated annually. We invite and encourage individuals, communities, and organisations worldwide to celebrate this day and raise awareness of avoidable disaster deaths that are taking place in their respective cities, towns, and villages.
We will conduct a mid-term evaluation in 2028 to take stock of this campaign. After 2033, we will drop the word ‘Awareness’ and then continue to celebrate 12 March as International Day for Avoidable Deaths (ID4AD).
We will provide the updates of this global campaign through the ADN’s Voluntary Committments Platform for the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030.
Launch of IAD4AD
13 March 2023 | Izumiotsu, Japan
Launch of a Global Campaign:
International Awareness Day for Avoidable Deaths (IAD4AD)
On 13 March 2023, international partners and participants joined us for a day of presentations, panels, and showcasing of initiatives. The launch was headlined by a message from the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, Ms. Mami Mizutori.