Former Prime Minister Helen Clark will discuss disaster resilience at a lecture in Christchurch this month.

Clark, the administrator of the United Nations development programme, will deliver the annual Hopkins Lecture on the topic of 'Building resilience: The importance of prioritising disaster risk reduction - a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) perspective'.

The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will be held at the Aurora Centre at Burnside High School on August 15.

It will be jointly hosted by the University of Canterbury and the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand (IPENZ) Canterbury branch.

Clark's lecture will highlight the importance of prioritising resilience in both developed and underdeveloped countries, and the role of the UNDP and relief agencies.

Drawing on recent disasters, such as the Haiti earthquake and Japanese tsunami, Clark will talk about the UNDP's role in disaster response in the context of its broader development and humanitarian work.

She will also discuss the Canterbury earthquakes and give her perspective on the challenges of recovery.

Clark will also give a talk about the State of the Nation's Environment: 'What does the outcome of Rio+20 mean for sustainable development?' at Lincoln University on August 20.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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