Mozambique Protection Flash Info: Joint INGD and Protection Cluster 2022/23 Rainy Season Lessons Learnt Workshop

Mozambique is one of the countries most impacted by climate change. Ever since Cyclone Idai in 2019, the country has been affected by cyclones on a yearly basis, the most recent being Cyclone Freddy in 2023. Tropical storm Freddy made landfall on 24 February 2023 in Inhambane and a second time as a Tropical Cyclone on 11 March in Zambezia Province. According to the National Institute for Risk Reduction and Disaster Management (INGD), over 1.1 Million people were affected across eight provinces of Gaza, Inhambane, Manica, Maputo, Sofala, Tete and Zambezia, which were already bearing the brunt of cholera and floods. Cyclone Freddy displaced over 184,000 people who have sought shelter in accommodation centers across the impacted area. The impact of multiple crises, on top of the conflict in northern Mozambique, means that every province of Mozambique had been affected. To respond to its impacts, protection partners have mobilized their few resources to respond through the coordination of the Protection Cluster in Gaza Inhambane, Sofala and Zambézia Provinces.

With the rainy/cyclone season of 2022/23 coming to an end, it is time for protection actors to reflect on what has worked and what could be improved for the next season – especially in terms of how to best mainstream and integrate protection in the coordinated response. This workshop is part of an ongoing partnership between the Protection Cluster and the INGD Safeguarding Division. The partnership’s objective is to strengthen protection mainstreaming and integration within the response to disasters, ensuring protection mainstreaming in early warning messages, protection standards in evacuation and evacuation center management.

The event was led by INGD and co-lead by the Protection Cluster; gathered six UN Agencies (including the GBV AoR lead UNFPA and the Child Protection AoR lead UNICEF) and nine NGO partners as well as the Ministry for Gender and Social Affairs to strengthen coordination among partners and various Governmental partners. The Mozambique National Human Rights Commission was also present to strengthen the human rights-based approach within the response.

This workshop was made possible thanks to the donors of UNHCR in Mozambique including Austria, Germany, Japan and the United States of America (PRM).