UN General Assembly
2010

Others have not been so lucky. The earthquakes in Haiti and Chile and the recent flooding in Pakistan are reminders of the devastating scale of such disasters. The Pacific has been hit hard, too. This month will mark the first anniversary of the Pacific tsunami that took the lives of 184 people in Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga. These events and others demonstrate the importance of disaster preparedness, management and recovery. New Zealand’s experience with major earthquakes has taught us how to mitigate risks, enforce strong building codes, and implement effective recovery plans. But there will be lessons we should learn from this recent experience. We will work with the United Nations system, non-governmental organizations and other international agencies to ensure that those lessons are shared and help others to prepare. While development and disaster management are crucial to our quest for a safer world, underpinning both is security. Peacekeeping is a key responsibility of the Organization. Indeed, it is its peacekeeping operations that shape perceptions of the United Nations for many people around the world.