mozambique floods and cyclone rte 4-oct-151 mozambique floods and cyclone real time evaluation...

Apr 19, 2023 1

Mozambique Floods and Cyclone RTE

Mozambique Floods and Cyclone Real Time Evaluation

Cosgrave J, Gonçalves, G, Martyris D, Polastro R, and M Sikumba-Dils

Apr 19, 2023 2


The Context: Mozambique

– On of the poorest counties in the world (ranked only 168th out of 177 in the Human Development Index.)

– Attracts a lot of donor support (20% of GDP)

– Disproportionate government spending – five times higher per capita for the capital than for rural areas in the centre of the country

– HIV/Aids a growing problem– Prone to flooding and to

Indian Ocean cyclones

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The context: Previous natural disasters

In 2000 Cyclone Eline caused 700 deaths and extensive flooding in the southern half of Mozambique and Baby Rosita was born in a tree.This was followed by flooding in the Zambezi valley in 2001, the worst since 1978. Floods in the lower Zambezi cause displacement every 5 to 10 years.

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The context: The floods and cycloneThe lower Zambezi flooded early this year, with flood levels peaking on the 12th of the month. 285,000 were affected and about half of these were displaced.Cyclone Favio gained made landfall at Vilanculos on February 22nd. Winds of over 200km/hr ripped off roofs, destroyed infrastructure, and the accompanying rain destroyed house contents and caused flooding.

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The context: Clusters

The country team decided to form a HCT, form clusters and make a CERF application on Feb 8th. Installing the cluster approach was complicated as it was done in the middle of the emergency response.There had been only limited discussion on the cluster approach prior to its implementation.There was a great deal of confusion about the cluster approach especially, but not exclusively among NGOs.

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The clusters: objectives ranked by fulfilment

1. Coordination with national/local authorities etc 2. Improve field level coordination and

prioritisation3. Well identified and predictable leadership4. Strengthen the accountability of cluster leads

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The cluster: national coordination

The national disaster management institute (INGC) performed very well both in preparedness and in the coordination of the response.Pre-flood work by INGC helped reduce the scale of the emergency.The INGC’s coordination added value to the cluster coordination and vice versa.

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The cluster: field level coordination

Only two clusters effectively had a field-level coordination structure. Some cluster lead had no representation at the field level.The IASC should consider changing cluster ToRs so that field presence is a requirement for all cluster leads, or alternatively of introducing an ‘omnibus’ cluster for coordination of several smaller sectors together.

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The clusters: strong leadership

Some cluster leads offered strong inclusive leadership of their clusters. Others did not. Cluster leadership is quite demanding on agencies, no only in terms of the demands on funding, but also on resources, and the willingness to priorities short-term humanitarian goals over longer term ones.The two strongest clusters were seen as being:•The WASH cluster under a Unicef lead•The Logistics cluster under a WFP leadBetween them WFP and Unicef led or co-led 7 clusters

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Factors contributing to strong leadership

WFP was cash-strapped but was still able to play an effective role due to its large investment in preparedness – this was seen by WFP’s large surge capacity. Unicef was able to base its cluster leadership not only on surge capacity but also on its very extensive programme base in Mozambique.Both agencies had invested in their own disaster preparedness and had supported the development of local DRR capacity.

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The clusters: weak leadership

Clusters leads were perceived as weaker where:–The cluster leads had no presence in the field.–The lead role was delegated to staff without significant budget authority

–Cluster leads were unwilling to discuss difficult issues.

–Cluster leads had no funds to begin operations, much less become the provider of last resort

The IASC needs to establish a set of minimum criteria for agencies to act as cluster leads. These should including funding, and the willingness to commit resources to the cluster lead role.

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The clusters: accountability

The clusters were not seen as increasing accountability as there seems to be no mechanism for taking effective sanctions against either:

–cluster leads that don’t live up to their responsibilities

–cluster members that do not honour commitments they have made

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The clusters: Lead responsibilities ranked

1. Establishment and maintenance of coordination2. Inclusion of key humanitarian partners3. Coordination with national/local authorities etc4. Provision of assistance or services as a last resort5. Planning and strategy development6. Advocacy and resource mobilization7. Monitoring and reporting8. Training and capacity building9. Needs assessment and analysis10. Application of standards11. Emergency preparedness12. Participatory and community-based approaches 13. Attention to priority cross-cutting issues

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The clusters: inter-cluster coordination

Clusters were somewhat isolated at national level. Coordination was better between clusters at field levelCommon working space in Caia encouraged inter-cluster coordination of those present.OCHA should consider mounting or reinforcing cluster secretariats at national level during emergency responses.

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The clusters: leadership

The Resident Coordinator played a key role in the response.He served as a liaison with government and helped to resolved disputes within clusters.OCHA should develop a more formal dispute resolution mechanism for intra-cluster disputes.

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The clusters: OCHA’s surge capacity

OCHA responded very quickly with someone on the ground on Saturday after a request on Thursday.However OCHA had three team leaders here in two months. Some OCHA staff lacked Portuguese language skills, limiting their ability to coordinate.OCHA should broaden its roster to include people who can stay in place for at least six weeks who have appropriate language skills.

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The clusters: OCHA’s role

The cluster structure takes over some of OCHA’s role. However there are still three key tasks where OCHA has a coordination role.

- Common information services- Inter-cluster coordination.- Leading ‘omnibus’ clusters that cover a range of sectors.

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The clusters: Partnership

NGOs welcomed the advent of the cluster structure but complained that:

- Early press releases from OCHA and the cluster leads ignored or minimised their role.

- Some cluster leads behaved as if NGOs were implementing partners rather than full partners.

- Cluster leads were unwilling to take on difficult issues, but left the NGOs on their own.

NGO participation in clusters is conditional on full partnership, and their participation is essential for the success of the cluster approach.

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The clusters: co-leads

The presence of co-lead raised questions about ultimate responsibility. NGO co-leads made some clusters more accessible to other NGOs, and similarly for UN co-leads in NGO led clusters.The IASC should consider introducing a requirement for all clusters to have a deputy lead, to improve access by agencies from their sector.

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The clusters: Inclusion

National NGOs and civil society got left out. For many of these participation is dependant on funding.The one exception was the Mozambique Red Cross which play a key role in the response. The Red Cross demonstrate how effective local organisations can be when they have resources.The IASC should consider establishing, in each CERF funded response the possibility of having an umbrella fund for NGO response to be managed by the HCT.

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The clusters: information management

Information management worked well – information sharing was one of the biggest gains from the cluster approach.The logistics cluster web site was a good initiative.OCHA should establish a web framework that can be used for cluster coordination in future emergencies.

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Clusters: involvement of the population

Beneficiary participation quite low – although local government structures were involved.Aid was supply driven to some extent – communities are still receiving goods that are not needed while critical needs are not being addressed.Donated aid was not managed by the community.Community did play a large role in managing the assistance that they provided themselves, such as temporary sites.

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The clusters: quality of needs assessments

Assessment of needs was questionable – it was often based on interviews with community leaders.Assessments were rudimentary, but the needs of the population are fairly obvious. However many needs here flowed from poverty rather than from disaster.

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The clusters: monitoring and quality control

Monitoring was a quite a basic level – dealt with coverage and inputs rather than with quality.Agencies focused on delivery (often as provider of first and not last resort) rather than on monitoring.There are no agreed standards for clusters.The IASC needs to agree benchmarks for each cluster.The IASC should consider formalising responsibility for quality control, with an appropriate budget, within each cluster rather than allocating it to the lead as a default.

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The clusters: cross-cutting themes

Cross cutting themes were poorly served at the beginning.This is particularly the case for HIV/Aids, which is more prevalent in the central region than in the northern or southern region.Clusters encourage a focus on the cluster topic.Cross cutting issues may be better served by integration than by a separate clusterThe IASC should consider having a thematic structure for cross cutting issues across clusters

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The clusters: costs and benefits

The cluster approach has an overhead cost that is not present when agencies plug into existing government coordination structures, or where coordination is multi-sectoral.The floods in Mozambique are at the bottom end of the scale of disasters at which using a cluster approach is justified in a country with a functioning government.Even is small emergencies, use of the cluster approach may be justified in terms of preparing humanitarian actors to response to large-scale emergencies.

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The clusters in summaryWhile clusters have had some initial “teething” problems, many of these were global cluster issues rather than Mozambique specific ones.The use of the cluster approach was a success in Mozambique. It:

- improved the coordination of the international response

- encouraged a cooperative ethos between agencies

- added to the government’s response by “clustering” the operational assistance offered by international agencies

This success was due to the hard work of all of those associated with the cluster initiative in Mozambique.

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Financing: Without a CERF

The government never declared an emergency, nor appealed for funds, but merely stated its needsThis lack of an appeal was a problem for some agencies and donors.The IFRC appeal was the largest other appeal – this has been poorly supported (appeal for $6.0mn on 16 Feb – upped to $16.9mn on 14 Mar – 12% funded by mid April.

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Financing: The CERF permitted the response

With out the CERF, UN agencies would have had great difficulty in responding, and the response would have been smaller.The CERF facilitated a faster response.

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Financing: the CERF

The CERF first draft was prepared relatively rapidlyIt took five days to go from draft to finalSome organisations were not clear about the CERFThe CERF secretariat turned around the appeal very quickly.NGO’s indirect access to CERF funds was problematicThe IASC should develop clearer guidelines for NGO access to CERF funds.

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Financing: the CERF supported by self-financing

Agencies drew on their own emergency financing mechanisms (reprogramming, emergency response funds, contingency funds) prior to the CERF).WFP made clever use of unspent logistics funds to start air ops.Unicef made good use of emergency fundsAgencies without reserves found it difficult to lead clusters while waiting for CERF

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Financing: the flash appeal

The Flash Appeal was issued more than a month after the decision to make a CERF request. This was too slow.The Flash Appeal has not been a success as a resource mobilisation tool. Of the $21.5mn funded or pledged by April 22nd, at most $1.5mn can be directly related to the flash appeal.OCHA should consider introducing recovery appeals as an alternative to flash appeals.

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Financing: CERF quality control

The speed required for CERF funding means that projects cannot be thoroughly vetted before funding is granted. The CERF needs a mechanism for ensuring that these high quality unearmarked funds are used in the best way possible.The IASC should introduce the requirement for automatic independent external published accountability evaluation of each use of CERF funds to encourage their careful use.

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Conclusion

The response to the 2007 floods in Mozambique was more coordinated than previous similar emergency responses.Humanitarian reforms including both the cluster approach and the CERF contributed to the quality of the response.However further work is needed at global level to improve both of these.The strong performance of the INGC was also a critical factor.The HCT did a good job.

mozambique floods and cyclone rte 4-oct-151 mozambique floods and cyclone real time evaluation...

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