Beira hosting post-cyclones donor reconstruction conference next week; government optimistic

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Beira hosting post-cyclones donor reconstruction conference next week; government optimistic

2:19 CAT | 24 May 2019

Beira after Idai. [File photo: BBC]

The head of the Post-cyclone Reconstruction Office believes that donors are “excited” about the upcoming support conference and predicts that the meeting will be a success.

“There is a certain excitement that may bring good results for the conference,” Francisco said, quoted by the Mozambican Information Agency (AIM) on Friday.

Francisco Pereira said that he heard optimistic words from ambassadors from donor countries he had met in Maputo, and that everything was ready for the donors’ conference scheduled to take place in the city of Beira, central Mozambique, on May 31 and June 1.

“Everything is organised, in principle; some things are still being finished,” he said.

The first day of the conference will be reserved for discussion of the Cyclone Reconstruction Office’s report and expressions of donors’ willingness to support reconstruction.

On the second and last day, high-level meetings will be hosted by Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi, in which the commitments of the cooperation partners will be announced.

The Post-cyclone Reconstruction Office has already received requests for funding for 100 reconstruction projects in the regions affected by the cyclones. Agriculture, industry, trade, tourism, transport, energy, and health and education are all areas that will need intervention.

Pereira said that reconstruction aid would be subject to international audit every year, adding that the conference in Beira would cost 12 million meticais (EUR 172,000) and expected to host about 700 attendees.

The Mozambican government said earlier this month that it would request US$3.2 billion (EUR 2.8 billion) for the reconstruction of areas affected by cyclones Idai and Kenneth.

Of this amount, a little more than US$3 billion (EUR 2.6 billion) would go towards reconstruction of infrastructure damaged by Cyclone Idai in central Mozambique in March, and the remainder to address damage caused by Cyclone Kenneth in the north the following month.

Cyclone Idai hit central Mozambique in March, causing 603 deaths and affecting about 1.5 million people, while Cyclone Kenneth, which struck the north of the country in April, killed 45 people and affected 250,000.

Source: Lusa