Turkey and Syria recently experienced two devastating earthquakes of magnitude 7.8 and closely followed by a magnitude 7.5, resulting in extensive damage and destruction. The International Charter 'Space and Major Disasters' was activated by Turkish authorities, the United Nations, and the International Federation Red Cross & Red Crescent Societies in response to the earthquakes. The Charter provided more than 350 crisis images from 17 space agencies worldwide, which were used to create damage and situation maps to estimate the hazard impact and support relief actions.

UNDRR published a report detailing the main findings and recommendations of the midterm review of the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030. The report provides valuable insights into the progress made towards achieving the Sendai Framework's goals and identifies key areas for action moving forward. The findings and recommendations are likely to be of interest to policymakers, disaster risk management practitioners, and others working in the field of disaster risk reduction.

UN Mappers calls all mappers to support the Turkish Open Street Map community following the earthquake that hit southern Turkey and northern Syria on Monday 6 February.

A major earthquake of magnitude 7.8 struck Turkey with epicentre on 23 kilometres east of Nurdagi (Gaziantep Province) on February 6, 2023. By the activity spreading to adjacent faults, the region was hit by a 6.7- magnitude and a 7.5- magnitude aftershocks respectively. The earthquake also affected neighbouring Syria.

On January 24, 2023, the U.S. Ambassador to Thailand, together with the Executive Director of the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC), and the NASA Earth Science Division Director, launched SERVIR-Southeast Asia (SERVIR-SEA). The project is an $11.2 million ADPC-USAID-NASA initiative to help communities across Southeast Asia adapt to regional and transboundary climate issues and mitigate the impacts of climate change and disasters.