Mozambique is considered one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change effects and Mozambique has ranked third among African countries most exposed to risks from climate- related disasters. Moreover, it is a country particularly vulnerable to Climate Change due to its geographical location in the intertropical convergence zone and downstream of many river basins shared with neighboring countries in the Southern Africa region. As a result, drought, floods and cyclones cyclically hit the country.

Apart from that, Mozambique has a long coastline. Throughout the coastline, the regions such as the city of Beira and Quelimane are some regions located below sea level, and this poses another level of threat to the citizens.

Mozambique has a humid tropical climate with two seasons : the dry season and the rainy season (the shortest and most intense period is from October to March). The average annual temperature is around 23°C to 26°C. These annual temperatures are usually recorded in the coastal areas of Mozambique, where most of the thermometers and rain gauges are located. The average annual rainfall is estimated to be around 1200 mm.

Over the past 20 years, more than 8 million Mozambicans were affected by disasers caused by natural phenomena receding significantly the country's economic development. In the year 2000, the country was affected by major floods affecting 4.5 million and killing another 800. In the same month, cyclone Eline devastated the Mozambican coast with winds up to 260 km/h. In the following years, 2001, 2007 and 2008 torrential rains caused floods along the Zambezi River valley in central Mozambique. The 2007 floods were followed by cyclone Flávio, increasing the number of displaced people by about 100,000 people.
In terms of drought, the largest droughts to ever affecting Mozambique occurred in the years of 1980, 1983, 1985 and 1992, and as a result, more than 100,000 died and 17 million were affected. Recently, between the years of 2015 and 2017, Mozambique was affected by a new drought sequence forcing the country to seek humanitarian assistance. At the time, it was reported that more than 2.2 million Mozambicans were affected by drought during this period, especially in the Limpopo basin where the rains are often erratic and unreliable, and the rainy season often does not start on October as expected and the total seasonal rainfall often occurs in the space of a few days (January and February).

In 2019, the country witnessed two major cyclones in a single season, which are Tropical Cyclone Idai and Tropical Cyclone Kenneth.
To deal with the disasters, the Government of Mozambique has established the National Institute of Disaster Management (INGD), as the agency responsible for coordinating and directing the implementation of disaster risk management programs in the country, to improve and safeguard the quality of life of Mozambicans, especially those vulnerable to disasters. The Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Action is the central body of the State which, following the principles, objectives, policies and priorities defined by the Government, directs and coordinates the implementation of gender, child and social action policies in the country.

Main Findings

• The Mozambican Government has a clearly defined focal point for leading disaster management - the INGD (National Institute for Disaster Risk Management and Reduction). It is the institution with a legal personality and mandate to direct and coordinate everything related to disaster management. The INGD oversees DRM in Mozambique. The Technical Council for DRM oversees technical implementation, while the DRM Coordinating Council is focused on political work streams. INGD has regional representatives as well as delegations in all provinces and districts of the country.
• The INGD is headed by a Director- General assisted by a Deputy Director- General, both appointed by the Council of Ministers. The disaster risk management and reduction system comprise the Disaster Risk Management and Reduction Coordinating Council, Disaster Risk Management and Reduction Coordinating Entity and Technical Council for Disaster Risk Management and Reduction, at central, provincial and district level. At community level, there is a local disaster risk management committee, which is responsible for raising awareness in the community about early warning, and to explain what to do, and how to respond to and recover from a disaster.
• In Mozambique, there are 1,475 local disaster risk reduction and management committees made up of more than 19,948 volunteers. Each local committee is made up of 18 volunteers who work at the local level to help INGD prepare local communities and identify local risks and vulnerabilities. In the case of the city of Maputo, the local disaster management committees report directly to the district secretaries, most of whom are men.
• There is a lot of dispersed legislation on DRM, this dispersion does not facilitate its knowledge, and its application by all those involved in these operations. In addition, there are still few legal instruments specifically on gender and disaster management that need to be sharpened.
• While the DRM Act 2020 is gender- blind, as it does not integrate gender or Gender risk mitigation, prevention, or response considerations, the Annual Contingency Plan (2022) is highly gender sensitive as it reflects the inclusion of the provision of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research services. It also ensures specific care for
  pregnant women, children and the elderly.
• The INGC Gender Strategic Plan expired in 2020. Its goal was to enable the INGC to be gender-responsive and to reduce the gendered impacts of disasters while advancing gender equality between men and women including eliminating discrimination against women. INGD is still in the process of updating a new gender strategy.
• The MGCAS (and many other public institutions) is listed as an implementing partner in the DRR Plan as a key entity in gender integration throughout DRM cycle. As assigned in the annual contingency plan, the MGCAS is called upon to intervene in the event of disaster and is in this process responsible for ensuring that all gender issues are integrated and addressed.
• The baseline data and information required for gender-responsive programming are not readily available or are non-existent. It is still not the norm to collect gender and sex- disaggregated data, and, without it, it is impossible to expect that interventions will equitably benefit girls and women as well as boys and men, nor to monitor any progress throughout gendered implementation process.
• There is also a general misunderstanding around the concept of gender. Government officials and ordinary people have limited knowledge about gender and too often tend to summarize it as a women’s issue only. As a result, official documents and policies do not reflect a good understanding of the concepts. For most government stakeholders, gender is abstract and is therefore often missing from planning and policy.
• The Early Warning System is not efficient. For example, in the recent Boane floods, there was a lack of information about the floods, people did not have access to information about
  prevention and safety measures before the floods.
• The local authorities do not continue the recovery process. Long-term recovery processes are failing. When the temporarily accommodation centres are deactivated, the local communities have limited access to financial resources to rebuild their lives. Local communities, especially women still struggling with the effects of the hazards.

Recommendations

1. As Mozambique is a country highly vulnerable to natural phenomena, it is essential that the entire existing legal framework for disaster response is further improved. This includes improving mechanisms for coordination and information sharing, both internally from the bottom up, and with regional and international bodies with specific responsibilities for disaster response.
2. INGD should accelerate updating the expired INGC Gender Strategic Plan (2016–2020), ensuring that it remains gender and GBV-responsive and continues ensuring efforts are made to enhance INGD as a gender-responsive DRM institution with gender-responsive frameworks and implementation at national and subnational levels.
3. INGD and stakeholders working on gender and/or GBV risk mitigation, prevention and response can leverage provincial coordinating mechanisms and strengthen their attention to GBV and engagement with local NGOs already working in disasters to enhance subnational gender-responsive DRM.
4. All INGD technicians should receive capacity building on data collection that disaggregates data on gender, vulnerability, risk, and exposure. This will allow the end-users to pick the more appropriate data for the purpose that they have.
5. The INGD as the coordinating body for disasters in Mozambique should consider improving their disaster communication strategies. In Boane, INGD has communicated the risk of floods through radio stations, televisions, newspapers, and community meetings. Data from the local community test that this approach is not the most suitable as not everyone in the community can attend these types of meetings due to different other responsibilities.
6. Cultural barriers contribute to the vulnerability of women. When disasters strike, some women refuse to evacuate to safe areas because their husbands are away (at work or elsewhere). They prefer to remain at risk, ostensibly because they can’t go out without their husband’s permission. They also can’t attend community meetings without their husband’s permission.
7. There is a need to appoint Gender Focal Points (at national, provincial and distrital level) with a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities, or adequate qualifications or training to deliver on their mandate. When focal points are not qualified, they are typically not empowered, with limited authority, jurisdiction, budget, or resources to deliver. The lack of a clear understanding of their role and terms of reference is a critical issue undermining the functionality of Gender Focal Points, as well as high-level support for their activities from upper management.
8. There is a need to find early warning models that do not marginalize women, men, girls and boys. These measures include blowing whistles for all of them to attend the community meetings ; the meeting places might be located in women-friendly and safe environments. As well as introducing a communication mechanism, that is able to engage students during school time.
9. To improve disaster risk management and save more lives, governments and UN agencies, WB, AU, CSOs, national and local NGOs need to assess the barriers that prevent women from accessing and benefiting from prevention and emergency resources, such as early warning systems, evacuation and shelter in safe places, and access to post-disaster recovery funds.
10. There are still some challenges in implementation. There is a need to distribute the kits and ensure that women benefit from them. There are still some cultural barriers ; or instance ; some men forbid their wives from using the kits allegedly because the kits contain panties, sanitary napkins and other items given to them by men. The distribution of the kits needs to be accompanied by sensitisation to raise awareness of their importance. Moreover, if in the team women are leading sanitary napkins to other women, it can reduce the probability of the victims not using them.