A Flood Mural (HKV & IHE Delft) and cleaning drainage ditches (Associação Face) are the two ideas to be piloted with NLRC in Mozambique from March 2021 onwards. In October 2020 The Netherlands Red Cross and DCHI launched a call to help vulnerable people create a safer community for themselves by their ability to anticipate and act to minimise the impact of floods.
Fighting floods – still recovering from cyclones Idai and Kenneth as Eloise hits the Beira area
In January 2021 Beira was, again, hit by a cyclone. Cyclone Eloise came with high winds, heavy rains and severe flooding. Being the fourth cyclone in two years, Eloise, Idai and Kenneth are causing floods with hundreds of people killed, and thousands left displaced. Eloise has destroyed the recovery from previous cyclones. Mozambique’s stronger and more frequent climate related disasters shows that floods cannot be stopped, and that preparing the communities is essential in fighting floods.
In October 2020 private sector actors, large and small, knowledge institutes and (local) governmental organisations were activated to submit their ideas to accelerate the Accelerator Programme. DCHI facilitated NLRC in their callto help vulnerable people create a safer community for themselves by their ability to anticipate and act to minimize the impact of floods. In total the Living with Floods team received 14 promising ideas on fighting floods together.
“We are happy to announce that we selected the two promising ideas to further shape and pilot in the upcoming months in Mozambique. HKV & IHE Delft’s ‘Nosso Mural de Cheias’ (Our Flood Mural) will be the springboard to get informed and talk about living with floods. And for the second pilot Associação Face, a Mozambican organization, strives to mobilize and engage communities in cleaning drainage ditches to prevent floodings from happening. We congratulate HKV and Associação Face and are excited to enter the next phase of this challenge together!” Michel Becks, Development and Innovation Coordinator, Netherlands Red Cross
“Jointly we have generated many opportunities to fight floods in the future through the new connections we’ve made. Through using a local focus and applying open innovation principles, we’re proud to engage with a vibrant community of global and local actors to continue fighting floods.”
Marieke van Schaik, Director Netherlands Red Cross
Innovation x Humanitarian development
Entering the final phase of the Living With Floods accelerator NLRC and DCHI hosted a virtual marketplace with these fourteen potential partners to hear their vision and ideas for fighting floods. Based upon these final pitches & interviews the two most promising ideas are selected to be piloted in Mozambique from March 2021 onwards.
Filming a documentary
During the Marketplace the first episode of a documentary following the Living With Floods-team on prototyping the WANT, FIND, GET model to innovate humanitarian and development aid premiered! With the curiosity to listen they hope to FIND local enrichment and sustainable engagement in partnerships. Is the world searching for a new perspective on humanitarian aid and development? Can they jointly raise a new ecosystem?
About the Living with Floods Accelerator Programme
The goal of the programme is to help vulnerable people create a safer community for themselves by their ability to anticipate and act to minimise the impact of floods. Click on the button below to read the information you need!
