The Crisis Management Center, and the Rapid Response Service 911 of Armenia are on the first long list of 33 nominations for the United Nations (UN) 2015 Sasakawa Award for disaster risk reduction.     

The 2015 Sasakawa Award has generated a huge response with 88 nominations of individuals and organizations received from a 44 countries, including Armenia, the respective UN department website reported.

And the four judges – from Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania – have announced their first long list of 33 nominations that remain in contention for the prestigious award.

The Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction will be convened in Sendai, Japan, in March 2015, at which the winner of the Sasakawa Award will be announced. It is expected that the jury’s final deliberations will go down to the last hours ahead of the Award Ceremony, to be held in Sendai, on March 17.

The Head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), Ms Margareta Wahlström, welcomed the tremendous interest in the 2015 Sasakawa Award.

“The number of nominations received is testimony to the Award’s prestige and continued relevance in today’s world of often more unpredictable, intense and frequent hazards,” Wahlström said.