Earthquakes threaten local, national, and regional stability and impede momentum toward sustainability. In the developing world's rapidly growing cities, factors that increase vulnerability are frequently present: burgeoning populations, uncontrolled development spreading into marginal and hazardous areas, and faulty construction practices. Poverty, social and economic marginalization, and inadequate access to education and employment limit the choices of increasing numbers of urban residents. Local and national governments are faced with everyday disasters in the forms of pollution of the air and water, inadequate sanitation, and health care crises, which demand more immediate attention than the more remote possibility of a devastating earthquake striking their city. Seismic risk can expand unchecked in the absence of adequate awareness, commitment, and capacity to address it. Focused efforts initiated during the latter half of the 1990s, the decade designated the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR), are generating a shift from reliance on response and relief to proactive risk management and mitigation programs in some of the cities most at risk from earthquakes. Scientists, engineers, public officials, journalists, community leaders, and the public have been drawn into a team effort. Various international organizations have partnered with these local coalitions in efforts to foster a more comprehensive, holistic approach to risk management and to protect urban residents, infrastructure, and the environment from earthquakes' effects.