About CAPRA
The CAPRA (Probabilistic Risk Assessment) Platform is an initiative that aims to strengthen the institutional capacity for assessing, understanding and communicating disaster risk, with the ultimate goal of integrating disaster risk information into development policies and programs. Under the CAPRA Program, government, institutions, private companies and other agencies address specific development challenges and meet disaster risk information needs through specialized software applications, extensive documentation, consultancy and advisory services, hands-on practical training and other complementary services.
The CAPRA initiative started in January 2008, as a partnership between the Center for Coordination of Natural Disaster Prevention in Central America (CEPREDENAC), the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN ISDR), the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and The World Bank as a means to raise awareness among client countries in Central America by providing them with a set of tools that would let them better understand the risk of adverse natural events.
The CAPRA Program was supported by the Spanish Fund for Latin America and the Caribbean (SFLAC), the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Australian Government, and the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR).
In July 2016 The World Bank Latin-American and Caribbean Region (LCR) launched an open call for managing and owning the CAPRA website. Uniandes was selected after a panel evaluated the proposal taking into account criteria such as technical quality of the proposal, international support of the proposal and knowledge and experience with CAPRA, achieving the highest evaluation score. Since January of 2017, Uniandes is managing and owning the CAPRA platform.
Universidad de los Andes
Uniandes is a nonprofit organization founded in 1948. It was the first private higher education institution in Colombia with independence from traditional political parties, as well as from social or economic power groups. It is a highly internationally recognized higher education and research institution and has been officially accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET). Uniandes has been classified for several years among the top 10 Latin American Universities and is ranked among the first 300 Universities worldwide according to QS World University Rankings.
Within Uniandes, CAPRA (Probabilistic Risk Assessment) platform will be led and supported by the following research centers of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: the Research Center on Materials and Civil Infrastructure - CIMOC, and the Center of Studies on Disaster and Risk – CEDERI, which develops multidisciplinary research and consulting work related to disaster risk management and disaster risk reduction.
The main objective is to maintain, update, improve and disseminate the capabilities, information, software, methodologies and knowledge that have been integrated through several years in the CAPRA platform. Uniandes attempts to keep the website and all the current content open and available to any person or organization interested in accessing this valuable information. In addition, Uniandes will offer technical support and orientation for development of new methodologies and software in disaster risk assessment projects.
