An Operational Peer Review (OPR) mission took place May 26 – Jun 04, 2019 as part of the IASC scale-up. The OPR team was led by the Peer-2-Peer Director and Team leader. The team comprised of senior representatives from WHO, OHCHR, UNICEF, IOM & WFP.
On 14 March 2019, Tropical Cyclone Idai made landfall near Beira City, leaving devastating loss of life and large-scale destruction of assets and infrastructure in its wake. In the following days, entire villages were submerged underwater as floodwaters rose. Thousands of people were stranded on roofs and trees. Entire swathes of crops were damaged – with nearly 500,000 hectares flooded – and severe loss of livestock, exacerbating food insecurity across the central region of the country. Many families were separated as they fled the rising flood waters, while others were trapped on high ground, unable to access basic goods and services for days. Tens of thousands of people were displaced, many having to flee with nothing. Children, the elderly and people with disabilities who are less mobile were left behind or stranded.
The IASC activated a Humanitarian System-Wide Scale-Up on 22 March 2019 to increase the humanitarian response capacity. This was the first Scale-Up Activation since the IASC protocols were revised. With this activation, the number of organizations responding to the crisis increased from 20 to 200 one month into the response. Then, six weeks after Idai struck, Tropical Cyclone Kenneth made landfall in northern Mozambique, forcing the humanitarian community to respond to two major emergencies in one country simultaneously.