The international community is seeking some $30.5 million to assist at least 150,000 people who are said to have been displaced by severe flooding over the last few weeks.
Food accounts for a bulk of the appeal: $10 million. Other top needs include funding for water, sanitation and hygiene supplies, as well as shelter and education. A total of $5 million is allotted for early recovery interventions, which include fixing damaged homes and restoring livelihoods lost to the floods.
Mozambique’s government has been ”stretched to capacity” in its response to the flooding, as Devex reported earlier this year.
A local disaster risk reduction strategy, which is very much needed in a country like Mozambique that is prone to annual flooding, is among the expected outcomes under the early recovery phase.
The appeal, however, only addresses the needs of people in the province of Gaza, which is located in the country’s south. It was developed before floods also started to ravage central and northern Mozambique.
U.N. agencies and nongovernmental organizations aim to revise the proposal “within 30 days to more accurately reflect humanitarian needs as the situation evolves.”
As of Monday, Feb. 11, the appeal has received approximately $5 million in pledges, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’ regional office for Southern Africa.
The Central Emergency Response Fund, meanwhile, has approved the allocation of $5.13 million to U.N. agencies providing life-saving assistance to flood-affected people in Mozambique. These agencies include the World Food Program, UNICEF, the International Organization for Migration.
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