Bupusa Inception meeting held in Maputo

The UNESCO Regional Office for Southern Africa (ROSA) and the UNESCO Maputo National Office jointly held an Inception meeting for the project, "A community focused flood Early Warning System for the Buzi-Pungwe and Save (BuPuSa) Transboundary River Basins", on 18 May 2022 at Hotel Avenida in Maputo, Mozambique. The 3-year project is being implemented in Mozambique and Zimbabwe through a partnership between UNESCO and SARDC and funded by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) with funds of the Austrian Development Cooperation.

The inception meeting was the second such meeting, with the first having been held in Harare, Zimbabwe on 8 March 2022. The meeting was attended physically by 44 participants while about 12 joined virtually. Participants were drawn from different sectors which included government departments such as the National Institute for Disaster Management (INGD), Mozambique National Institute of Meteorology, Ministry of Public Works, Housing and Water Resources, National Directorate for Water Resource Management (DNGRH)-Mozambique, ARA Sul and Centro, Water Authorities (Direcção Nacional de Águas-DNA). Experts from local and international universities, development partners, civil society and private sector representatives also attended the inception meeting.

The main objective of the inception meeting was to present the project to the stakeholders and create a platform to discuss the proposed activities.

The National Director for Water Resources, Mr Messias Macie; Deputy Director for the National Institute of Meteorology (INAM), Mr Mussa Mustafa; Austrian Development Agency Programme Manager, Ms Weyss Birgit; UNESCO Maputo Office Head, Mr. Paul Gomis; and the Secretary General of the Mozambique National Commission for UNESCO, Ms Elia dos Anjos Vaz Bila spoke during the opening ceremony.

Mr Gomis said the BuPuSa project is timely and very relevant, as it will ensure saving of lives and a reduction of losses from disaster events such as floods through the provision of early warnings that enhance disaster preparedness.

The Programme Manager at ADA, Ms Weyss Birgit emphasised the importance of gender consideration as well as the needs of people with disabilities in programming.

Other presenters included Dr Koen Verbist, UNESCO Programme Specialist who outlined the project UNESCO implemented in Chimanimani and Chipinge Districts of Manicaland Province (Zimbabwe) as part of the World Bank funded Zimbabwe Idai Recovery Project (ZIRP) and its achievements. He also presented on the piloting of IoT based weather stations and Water Level sensors in Chimanimani and Chipinge districts, outlining their advantages. He highlighted that the lessons learnt in the ZIRP will have some relevance to the BuPuSa project. He also presented the proposed work plans for each of the components of the BuPuSa project.

Mr Ferdinand Diermanse of Deltares gave a presentation on Flood Risk Assessment: Framework and Application in Chipinge and Chimanimani Districts, which highlighted the work they did in the two districts. Prof. Justin Sheffield of the University of Southampton presented on "Flood and Drought Monitoring Early warning for Mozambique." The presentation concentrated on the 5km resolution Mozambique Flood and Drought Monitor and the Save-Busi Flood and Drought Monitor. The Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC), who are the implementing partner of UNESCO in the BuPuSa project gave a presentation which highlighted a history of their organization, what they do and their role within the BuPuSa project.

Mr. Elisha Madamombe, the Regional Coordinator for Global Water Partnership gave a presentation on the 4-year Global Environment Facility (GEF) funded project which is also being implemented in the BuPuSa basins. The project is entitled, "Management of competing water uses and associated ecosystems in the Buzi-Pungwe and Save Basins". He noted some linkages particularly of their Component 1, "Flood and Drought Warning and Mitigation" with UNESCO's ADA funded project and emphasised the need for collaboration on such overlapping components.

Ms Elia dos Anjos Vaz Bila gave the closing remarks. She highlighted that the meeting was very productive and the questions asked by the stakeholders were an indication that they were excited about the project. She summarised the key highlights from the meeting which included the need to build more capacity especially on remote sensing and programming and clearly defining roles and responsibilities of the key stakeholders/partners. Ms Bila also highlighted that the project should take into account existing models/approaches before introducing any new model/approach. Inclusion of key institutions in project implementation was emphasized as well as mapping of similar initiatives in order to avoid duplication of efforts.