Over $4bn is required as aid for  Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe recovery from the devastating effects of cyclone Idai that befall the three southern African nations earlier this year.

Speaking at a workshop for climate resilient investment in reconstruction and development in the cyclone affected regions of Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, representatives from the three countries has said they had not been able to get enough financial support in rebuilding lives, and fast track early recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction after Cyclones Idai and Kenneth.

According to a Press release by the communications section of the Economic Commission for Africa States, from the $4bn, Mozambique, which suffered the most from the two cyclones, needs $3.2bn for its reconstruction efforts, while Malawi requires $370m and Zimbabwe between $600m and $700m.

Mozambique was affected by the two cyclones, while Zimbabwe and Malawi suffered the brunt of Idai.

“We thought we were going to raise more money when we launched our appeal,” said Nadia Adriao, representing Mozambique at the workshop. “But we did not. Nevertheless, progress is being made with what is available so far though much remains to be done.”

Malawi’s Fyaupi Mwafongo said the country has developed a 5-year plan to address the effects of the 2019 floods.

“Recurrent and severe disasters in Malawi underscore the need for new thinking and approaches to recovery and resilience-building,” he said, adding the new way of working adopted during the response phase in the country emphasized increased coherence and synergy between humanitarian and development actors”.

Meliqiniso Sibanda from Zimbabwe’s local government ministry said some internally displaced people in the regions affected by Cyclone Idai were still living in camps with her ministry still to review housing proposals meant for the area.

“The designs are there now but yet to reach us at head office. So we have not reviewed them to see if they are resilient enough,” she said, adding China had pledged to build roads in the area but engineers from the ministry were yet still to also review their designs before they can proceed”.

Idai and Kenneth hit Mozambique between March and April 2019, killing hundreds of people and leaving over 1.8 million homeless and without basic necessities and infrastructure. Cyclone Idai also caused significant flooding, damage and destruction of homes, resulting in numerous deaths in southern Malawi as well as in eastern Zimbabwe.

The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and its partners the Department for International Development (DFID) and the United Kingdom’s Met Office, are convening the workshop for SADC to formulate actionable strategies for climate resilient reconstruction of infrastructure in the three countries post the devastating tropical Cyclone Idai and Kenneth.

The planning workshop for climate resilient investment in reconstruction and development in SADC Member States is formed by the three countries’ experiences following the two cyclones.

At the workshop, which is being held under the “building back better” approach, the countries shared first hand experiences of the impacts, lessons learnt and why they think they happened.

James Murombedzi, Chief of the African Climate Policy Center (ACPC) at the ECA, said the overall objective of the workshop was to initiate a series of initiatives to support the integration of climate information services and climate change considerations into resilience building in climate sensitive sectors of the economies of SADC.