About Us

The United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD) was founded in 1971 in Nagoya, under an agreement between the United Nations and the Government of Japan. UNCRD has been striving to achieve the following objectives:

• Serve as a training and research center
• Provide advisory services
• Promote global knowledge-sharing
• Encourage international cooperation among nations, regions, and organizations

In 1999, the UNCRD Disaster Management Planning Hyogo Office was established in Kobe, where the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake had claimed the lives of more than 6,000 people in 1995. The Hyogo Office focuses on various disaster management initiatives through multi-lateral collaboration at an international level while utilizing the momentum created during the UNIDNDR 1990-99 (United Nations International Decade for Nature Disaster Reduction). We promote effective disaster mitigation, focusing on key elements of self-help, cooperation, and education through activities such as

1. research projects;
2. training and capacity-building;
3. a series of international workshops; and
4. advisory services.

Organizational Structure