The eighth session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (GP2025), convened by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) and hosted by the Government of Switzerland, was held in Geneva, Switzerland from June 2nd to 6th, 2025. With the theme of "Every Day Counts, Act for Resilience Today", more than 5,000 experts and representatives from over 180 countries and 100 international organizations attended the session to discuss how to advance the implementation of disaster risk reduction.
Professor Baofeng Di – the Dean of the Institute for Disaster Management and Reconstruction (IDMR) of Sichuan University- The Hong Kong Polytechnic University was invited to attend this session as a member of the Sichuan delegation. This is the first time a Sichuan provincial government organized a delegation to attend a High-Level meeting since the United Nations General Assembly authorized UNDRR to convene and organize global platform meetings in 2007.
During the conference, Professor Di, along with representatives from the International Exchange Service Center for Civil Organizations of Sichuan Province, the Sichuan Foundation for Post-Disaster Reconstruction, and the Sichuan Earthquake Emergency Research Society, participated in several sessions including high-level dialogues, thematic meetings, and ministerial roundtables. He also engaged in extensive and in-depth exchanges with organizations such as the UNDRR, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the United Nations Platform for Post-Disaster Reconstruction to promote cooperation in international disaster reduction, resilient reconstruction, disaster risk management, and the enhancement of community disaster reduction resilience between IDMR and them.
Professor Di did hold fruitful discussions with Kamal Kishore - the UN Secretary General's Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, Cyrille Honoré - the Director of the Department of Disaster Risk Reduction and Public Services at WMO, and Ron Jackson - the Head of Disaster Risk Mitigation and Post-disaster Reconstruction at UNDP and many other eminent participants. This provided him with the opportunity to share with them about IDMR’s undertakings, in particular, community disaster reduction in Sichuan Province, multi-hazard risk assessment, emergency response to disasters, as well as the research and practical experience of IDMR in integrated disaster risk reduction and post-disaster reconstruction.
Prof. Di and other delegates from Sichuan Province not only had the opportunity to present their valuable experience in disaster prevention, mitigation, relief and post-disaster reconstruction from the perspective of "Sichuanese wisdom and solutions" for promoting community building resilience for enhanced future for mankind but also how to deepen international exchanges and cooperation between IDMR of Sichuan University and relevant UN agencies, stakeholders and other countries towards enhancing global disaster risk governance capabilities.
