Capacity Building Natural disaster Reduction in Central America

Project number: 10102216c

Project summary

The UNESCO program Capacity Building for Natural disaster Reduction (CBNDR) was established in 1998 upon the initiative of UNESCO, the International Institute for Aerospace Survey and Earth Sciences (ITC), Delft University of Technology (TUD) and the University of Utrecht (UU). Its objective is to strengthen the capability of institutions in developing countries to participate in national, regional and local programs for the reduction of vulnerability for natural hazards.

The UNESCO CBNDR, for the achievement of these objectives, initiates and supports in various regions in the world Regional Action Programs with the following activities:
*The Integration of the existing local knowledge on the occurrence of geohazards and the available methods and techniques for geo-information handling into practical methodologies to produce natural hazard, vulnerability, and the risk information at various scales.
*Development, together with the user community in the region, of appropriate visualization techniques and decision support systems to ensure a proper contribution of geohazard information in the development planning process.
*In-service training.

UNESCO and CEPREDENAC ("Centro de Coordinacion para la Prevencion de los Desastres Naturale en Americ Central") have since then reached agreement to embark on a Regional Action Program Central America (RAP-CA), with a duration of four years, to achieve the objectives of the UNESCO CBNDR in the Central American Region.

Individual candidates from the institutions in the 8 member countries of CEPREDENAC have applied to participate in he PAP-CA introductory training program. After completion of this tailor-made training they returned in August 2000 to their respective institutions, where they will work on the implementation in their daily work of the methodologies and techniques acquired in the introductory training program. During a period of at last three years they will receive technical support from experts in the Netherlands, France and Germany who were involved as staff in the introductory training program. Regularly, workshops will be held in the region to exchange experiences and to conduct short refresher courses. At the end of the three-year project CEPREDENAC will present the output of the CBNDR program in a final workshop and disseminate the results to the relevant institutions in its member countries.