The first session of the Preparatory Committee meeting for the World Conference on Disaster Reduction (WCDR) met at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, from 6-7 May 2004. The preparatory process of the WCDR is supported by the Inter-Agency Secretariat of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, which has been designated as the Conference Secretariat. Approximately 200 participants attended the meeting, including representatives of permanent missions to the UN in Geneva, UN agencies, intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

The meeting represents the first of two meetings of the Preparatory Committee, whose role is to review the organizational and substantive preparations, approve the WCDR programme of work and propose rules of procedure for the Conference. In addition, two outcome documents are to be negotiated by the Preparatory Committee for adoption at the WCDR: a political declaration with a strategic vision to reduce risk and vulnerability to natural and technological hazards in the period 2005-2015, and a programme document containing elements for policy measures to implement the strategic vision set out in the declaration. An on-going review of the implementation of the 1994 Yokohama Strategy for a Safer World and its Plan of Action is intended to provide background to these documents.
 
The first meeting of the Preparatory Committee addressed procedural issues, including the adoption of the provisional rules of procedure of the WCDR, organization of work and suggested arrangements for accreditation and participation in the preparatory process and the WCDR. Delegates also heard a progress report on the preparatory process of the WCDR, and discussed the draft annotated outline of the review of the Yokohama Strategy and Plan of Action and the proposed elements for the programme outcome of the WCDR. Negotiations of the outcome documents are expected to continue at the second Preparatory Committee meeting, scheduled to convene in October 2004.