Despite the recognition of the critical need for cooperative actions in Wind-Related Disaster Risk Reduction (WR DRR) activities among various professional organizations, there have been no notable collaborative efforts among the various groups. While wind-related organizations like the International Association for Wind Engineering (IAWE) have been effectively working to develop technologies, codes and standards for wind hazard mitigation, there have been a dearth of coordinated activities with other international groups like the UN and NGOs to bring these technologies to work for less fortunate communities in low lying areas, which are often struck by devastating wind storms like hurricanes/typhoons with attendant escalating loss of life and associated perils they bring to the region.

During CADRR (Cooperative Actions for Disaster Risk Reduction) held in Tokyo in March 2009, the participations of the representatives from IAWE, IAEE, UN-ISDR, ADRC, WMO, NOAA and others reached a consensus that there is a critical need to establish an International Group (IG) to work on Wind-Related DRR. The main task of this group would be to establish linkages and to coordinate various communities, e.g., IAWE, to serve as inter-agency coordinators with a charter to work with international organizations involving agencies of the UN and involved NGOs, and to empower them with the responsibility to serve as a bridge between policy makers and agencies responsible for actually carrying out the DRR at the local community level.