UNESCO to hold inception workshop for the BuPuSa Project

The UNESCO Regional Office for Southern Africa will hold an inception workshop for the newly launched project, “A community focused flood Early Warning System for the Buzi-Pungwe and Save (BuPuSa) Transboundary River Basins” in Maputo, Mozambique on 18 May 2022. The 3-year project is being implemented in Mozambique and Zimbabwe by UNESCO and funded by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) with funds of the Austrian Development Cooperation.

The project was conceptualised in response to the observed increased frequency, duration and intensity of natural disasters and extreme weather conditions in recent years, such as landslides, floods, tropical cyclones, droughts and prolonged dry spells that negatively impact the livelihoods of the people in the two countries.

The project therefore seeks to reduce the vulnerability of communities in the BuPuSa transboundary river basins to floods, by providing an effective flood risk assessment, monitoring and early warning system, increased capacity and knowledge base, and inclusive communication strategy and action plans. The project activities are designed along five work packages that contribute to five different outputs. The Work Packages are:

1. Flood Risk Assessment Mapping
2. Flood monitoring and early warning system development
3. Early warning communication and dissemination
4. Public awareness raising on flood risk management and documentation of lessons learnt
5. Strengthening local capacities on flood risk assessment, monitoring and early warning

Specifically, the inception meeting will seek to:

• Present the lessons learnt and approaches developed in the project ‘Comprehensive Resilience Building in Chipinge and Chimanimani districts’ which was implemented in Zimbabwe from March 2021 to March 2022, under the Zimbabwe Idai Recovery Project (ZIRP) and funded by the World Bank, and discuss possibilities of scaling up;
• Officially inform representatives of government agencies and/or departments in charge of water resources, disaster risk reduction and climate of the upcoming project ‘A Community-focused Flood Early Warning System for the BuPuSa Transboundary River Basins’ and its activities;
• Discuss and finalise priority activities and agree on the project work plan; and
• Discuss and agree on implementation mechanisms, including coordination and roles and responsibilities of the relevant stakeholders.

It is expected that representatives from government, the private sector, disaster management institutes, water management institutes, academia, climate and meteorology, development partners, NGOs and community representatives will take part in this workshop.
The workshop will adopt a hybrid format where some participants will attend physically while others will participate virtually.