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. 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 Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) in Maputo City

Mr. Francisco Pereira, Executive Director of the Post Cyclone Idai Reconstruction Cabinet, chaired the first round of Joint Coordination Committee. Representatives of the following Mozambican cooperative agencies participated in the committee: the Ministry of State Administration and Public Services, the Ministry of Public Works, Housing and Water Resources, the Ministry of Education and Human Development, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Land and Environment, the National Institute for Disaster Management, Beira Municipality, and the ANAMM (Associação Nacional dos Municípios de Moçambique, Maputo).

International cooperation organizations having been planning recovery and reconstruction support, such as the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the WHO (World Health Organization) and the EU (European Commission), also attended the committee. The attendees from the Japanese side were officials from Higashi-Matsushima City Office in Miyagi Prefecture, the Japanese Embassy in Mozambique, the JICA Headquarters, the JICA Mozambique Office, and the Project Team.

In the committee, the outline and progress of the entire project, the simulation analysis results of inundation which can be caused by future cyclone disasters (storm surge and rainfall), and a case study on recovery and reconstruction from the Great East Japan Earthquake (Higashi Matsushima City, Miyagi Prefecture) were presented and discussed.

At the opening remarks in the committee, Mr. Pereira, Executive Director of the Post Cyclone Idai Reconstruction Cabinet, declared that this project is called "ARPOC" (Aumento da Resiliência Pós-Ciclones, meaning promotion of post-cyclone resilience). Throughout this committee, the importance of comprehensively promoting both structural and non-structural development and measures based on the hazard map created in this project has been emphasized for better recovery and reconstruction (BBB: Build Back Better). Participants also actively exchanged their opinions. Some of the opinions were, "Strategic human resource development and strengthened capability are needed to disseminate hazard map production efforts further" and "It is important to collaborate effectively with reconstruction support projects implemented by other stakeholders and donors." In the committee, it was confirmed that it is crucial for stakeholders to apply Japan's recovery and reconstruction efforts into the Mozambican case and facilitate rehabilitation/reconstruction and disaster prevention/mitigation efforts in strong collaboration with related actors.

Based on the investigation and approval process for the hazard map, as confirmed in the Joint Coordination Committee, the ARPOC project aims to proceed with technical consideration and consultations with related organizations and gain the approval of the hazard map from the Government of Mozambique at an earlier stage. The project will also proceed to work on evacuation and reconstruction plans, which include land use planning reflecting the findings of the hazard analysis.

First round of Joint Coordination Committee in Maputo City.

Briefing on results of cyclone-driven inundation simulation, presented by Dr. Tsujio from the Project Team.

Sharing recovery and reconstruction experience on the Great East Japan Earthquake, presented by Mr. Kawaguchi from Higashi-Matsushima City Office (left).

Group Photo with Mr. Pereira (Executive Director of Post Cyclone Idai Reconstruction Cabinet, third from the left), and Mr. Kawaguchi (Higashi-Matsushima City Office, second from the right).