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The World Conference on Disaster Reduction, held in January 2005 in Kobe, Japan, adopted the Framework for Action 2005-2015: Building Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters and provided and promoted a strategic and systematic approach to reducing vulnerabilities and risks to hazards. WHO will partner the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) and other UN and non-UN agencies in the 2008-2009 Safe Hospitals Initiative, which aims at building the resilience of hospitals and other health facilities to disasters, both structural and functional, so that they would still be functional under emergency situations. Under the aegis of international policies, including WHO resolutions, and as part of its mandate as the international health lead agency and the IASC global health cluster leader, WHO intensified its work during 2006 in the field of emergency preparedness and response. Beginning with the definition of its global strategy and moving gradually into the implementation of the main directions highlighted in the strategy. This strategy is based on the recommendations of a global consultation held by WHO in February 2006 that brought together experts in emergency preparedness and response from around the world. The consultation was followed by several important activities to discuss the various components of the strategy and to reach consensus on the objectives and key strategic directions.