In January, tropical storm Eloíse killed at least 6 people in Mozambique. That number might seem low, but the true impact is much greater. The storm also displaced 18,000 people and has affected a total of 250,000. It also caused considerable damage to 76 health centres and 400 classrooms.
By the end of 2020, COVID-19 had killed nearly 2 million people and left many millions more with lasting injury. It also led to larger crises in health, jobs, education, domestic violence, migration, and more. That’s a lot of fires to put out. But the United Nations is built to deal with many challenges at once.
Millions of people are falling back into poverty each year due to shocks ranging from both localized severe weather to major disaster events including drought, floods and storms and, as demonstrated by COVID-19, pandemic and epidemic disease.
Having survived the UNDAF process, I provide these reflections in hope that my personal experience and personal convictions will help you and your United Nations Country Team (UNCT). These comments reflect personal experience – and where experience failed to meet expectations, personal convictions. Most will be self-evident, yet not applicable everywhere; and all may be totally misconceived.
