Living with Floods - 2020

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. Flooding is the most common and most destructive natural hazard worldwide. Over the last twenty years flooding alone accounted for 47% of all weather-related disasters, affecting 2.3 billion people worldwide, with the financial damage costing 40 billion USD annually. Mozambique is a country prone to floods on a yearly basis. One of the more recent and devastating was caused by cyclone Idai in 2019, which led to hundreds of deaths and a total of 1.7 million people affected. The World Bank estimates that the negative impact on infrastructure and livelihoods of Idai incurred a financial loss of 2 billion USD Together with DCHI, The Netherlands Red Cross (NLRC) is calling out to the private sector actors large and small, knowledge institutes and (local) governmental organisations to join the LIVING WITH FLOODS challenge. We believe a significant impact can be created for the vulnerable communities in Mozambique, but only if we connect partners and take action together. In 2020 there was an international call for entries to help peri-urban communities in Mozambique to anticipate and act on rising flood risks. NLRC and DCHI called for businesses of all sizes, knowledge institutes and (local) government organisations to join forces on this challenge following the open innovation principles. Now that the call for participants is closed, the Living with Floods challenge has entered a new phase. By the end of 2020 DCHI and NLRC had received 14 promising ideas that NLRC. They will be further explored in 2021. After selection on feasibility and impact two pilots have been started. HKV & IHE Delft’s ‘Nosso Mural de Cheias’ (Our Flood Mural) will be the springboard to get people informed and talk about living with floods. Associação Face, a Mozambican organization, strives to mobilize and engage communities in cleaning drainage ditches to prevent floodings from happening. The programme follows the ‘want-find-get’-open innovation strategy, adopted and refined by DCHI.