Project News

The first round of Seminar was held on February 6th, 2020 in Beira City, Sofala Province, Mozambique, and the first round of Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) was held on February 11th, 2020 in Maputo City. The attendees confirmed the outline and progress of the project with national authorities and collaborators in each meeting. Also, Japan's recovery and reconstruction experience from the Great East Japan Earthquake (Higashi-Matsushima City, Miyagi Prefecture) was introduced, and the attendees recognized the importance of recovery and reconstruction efforts with the recognition of future disaster risks as their own risks.

This news article is published in a series; Part 1 covers the story of Seminar, and Part 2 presents the event of Joint Coordination Committee (JCC).

First round of Seminar in Beira City

The first round of seminar was held in Beira City, which was one of the areas severely damaged by Cyclone Idai. More than 100 people attended from the Mozambican side, and they were from Beira Municipality, Post Cyclone Idai Reconstruction Cabinet, National Institute for Disaster Management, Sofala Province Office of related government agencies, and schools involved in pilot projects (aims to promote recovery and resilience of target public facilities and support the disaster response plan production in the surrounding areas), local communities, NGOs and related donors. The attendees from the Japanese side were officials from Higashi-Matsushima City Office in Miyagi Prefecture, the JICA Headquarters, the JICA Mozambique Office, and the Project Team.

In this seminar, the attendees from Beira Municipality explained the entire project overview and its progress, stating that "We hope to work out an action plan on the basis of reconstruction and resilience plan for Beira Municipality and aim to achieve Build Back Better (BBB)." After this presentation, the Project Team explained the inundation hazard analysis results caused by storm surge and rainfall due to the cyclone in Beira City. After this, an officer from Higashi-Matsushima City Office, Mr. Kawaguchi presented the tsunami damage, the recovery and reconstruction experience, and lessons learned from the Great East Japan Earthquake. He said, "It is important to prepare for the next disaster at the reconstruction stage together with residents."

The seminar was a very exciting opportunity for attendees to raise many comments and questions. They asked, "What kind of countermeasures can be considered in preparation for future disaster risks?" and "How were discussions with residents and stakeholders proceeded in consideration of disaster countermeasures in Japan?", and so on. Through the seminar, the attendees deeply understood the importance of perceiving disaster risks as their own ones as well as planning and promoting disaster prevention and mitigation activities in preparation for large-scale future disasters in the recovery and reconstruction process.

The first round of Seminar in Beira City

School teachers and officials asking questions at the Seminar