May 2026 Editorial

Two strong concepts for Development:

Preventive forms in the face of disasters and the implementation of sustainable programs over time

 It is worth intervening in the emergency with clear ideas!

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I.                   Greetings to All Readers of this Editorial!

We were reviewing the Folders of the year 2000, the photos and the reports of the activities carried out after the Floods and we found a strong and timely response capacity to natural disasters in food, water and sanitation and shelter. The governments of Maputo, Gaza and Beira announced the facts and asked for support. The response was immediate from the Donors, the EU, FAO, other international organizations and embassies residing in Maputo and international NGOs. We have thus collected high amounts and have been able to respond quickly to the needs presented by the affected families.

II.                 How can this happen?

Several factors contributed, so that the response was quick and efficient:

·         The engagement of national NGOs was efficient and committed.

·         Community dialogue and the engagement of local forces are very effective.

·         There was no INGD machine, national and provincial, which, despite having enormous validity in response to disasters, is involved in a lot of bureaucratic network and processes are delayed. They always talk about prevention, in practice they always respond to immediate needs in the possible, but "prevention" only stays in propaganda!

·         There were no different CLUSTERs, guided by international organizations, which primarily favor the structure and rules of conduct, considered efficient by the Donors, but they become bureaucratic and delay the processes. The Donor Response was immediate and clear. No international intermediaries, who need other intermediaries, and these other local intermediaries, and thus rob the Mozambican elite of technicians, who by getting their hands dirty no longer know the term and the practice, and become only intermediaries of the international bureaucracy, in addition to considering themselves experts in emergency matters.

III.              What a difference today!

i.                    A mountain of actors, starting from the INGD and the Government structures, together with Donors who report on the disasters, the great challenges, the huge rates of shortages to meet the needs of people suffering from disasters and all organized with the help of AI, in operational groups, in a perfect way. Nothing escapes them!! And unfortunately this structure is not productive and does not solve the problems identified.

ii.                  A mountain of promises of funds, attention and plans for solving the problems, funds that need to obey the financial bureaucracy of the donors. Just imagine the time loop that it took and is taking the arrival of the funds: The floods were in mid-January, everyone hospitalized in accommodation centers. The whole month of January has passed, February, March, April and now May, 5 months to say that the promises of support are coming. There are people who did not die of hunger and were homeless, they have already found other solutions. It is not stupid and passive. He knows how to face situations of extreme poverty and risk.

iii.                A Mountain of Delays: We are now responding to the disasters committed by the armed banditos who destroyed homes and killed people in Cabo Delgado and Nampula last year. After 7 months we are going to talk to them that we will rehabilitate the burned and destroyed houses and give support in Agriculture, Water and Sanitation, How can we present ourselves to them with so much delay? It is true that there is a saying that goes: Better late than never! But when the delay is our fault, we feel ashamed of it!

OK, Let's forget the past, Let's put aside all the negatives and all these delays and Let's move forward with excuses and willpower to repair the mistakes made.

People who suffer, are always good and always accept support even if it's delayed! On our side, as support operators, we must correct these negative attitudes, and above all warn all those who feel like experts in the emergency to change their attitude!

IV.              Returning to the Concept of "PREVENTION"

We must pay attention to three fundamental aspects that the Government always insists on acting:

I.               The first main point with which we must collaborate is the change of location of our homes: After a disaster, we notice that, after the crisis period, everyone returns to the same unsuitable and unsafe places. I remember the example of CAIA, against all popular guidelines, we built a new neighborhood in a high area and the families were never flooded again, despite producing along the Zambezi River. Now they may lose their crops but the shelter is safe and in a short time they can return with minimal food support to resume a normal life.

II.             Another main point that we must advocate with the Government to support its realization is the invitation in war zones, to leave distant villages, without security, without school and health, inviting all families to integrate with the larger communities and that reside in safer places and above all in a definitive way, without being invited to return to their homelands. All Humanity was born and lived in the Bush, but over time villages and towns and cities were organized. Living apart, invites the rebel bandits to take advantage of this isolation and make barbars (it remains a Dream!)

III.           Still another:Implementationof sustainable programs over time.

KULIMA, since its first emergency intervention, has sought and continues to seek the active participation of those in need of support, putting an end to the attitude of "outstretched hands" and together seeking solutions to solve the Disasters and at the same time creating development plans and actions:

·         The rehabilitation of houses and infrastructures, all together!

·         With external support! The Recovery of Roads and Bridges.. all together!

·         With external support! The Recovery of Water Sources and Latrines, all together! With external support!

Donors and the Government are left with food support in case of total loss of reserves!

In short, all the support provided for by the emergency must have an effective participation of the beneficiaries and at the same time combine inclusive local development plans!

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Yours sincerely, 

Dominic Liuzzi,

National Director of KULIMA.