Beira, Mozambique, Aug. 7, 2026 (Lusa) - Mozambique's National Institute for Disaster Risk Management and Reduction (INGD) plans to launch a digital system in October to register recipients of humanitarian aid, thereby preventing duplication and enhancing the transparency of the disaster response.
According to information released on Friday by the INGD, the system is currently being tested in the city of Beira, in Sofala province, central Mozambique, and will subsequently be rolled out to the other provinces, enabling interoperability with the database of the National Institute for Social Action (INAS), which is responsible for support programmes for vulnerable families.
«These two systems must interact with one another so that we can see who has benefited and who has not benefited from food aid,» said César Tembe, director of the INGD's Prevention and Mitigation Division, as quoted by the local media.
He added that the aim is to have the platform up and running by October, following the completion of the pilot phase, which involves technicians from various provinces, before the system is rolled out nationwide.
According to César Tembe, the platform will use biometric registration of beneficiaries, making it possible to identify who has received assistance and to monitor all operations carried out during humanitarian interventions.
«We capture the beneficiary's biometric data, which will help prevent duplication of assistance, but the system itself also allows us to track a whole range of actions carried out at local level,» he explained.
Marta Guivambo, the World Food Programme's (WFP) Preparedness and Emergency Programmes Officer, noted that the implementation of the system represents an investment of around 20 million meticais (€270,500).
«The cost of this process is around 20 million meticais, equivalent to approximately $350,000,» she said.
The launch of the platform comes at a time when the INGD is strengthening its mechanisms for responding to emergencies caused by extreme weather events. In Sofala, the authorities estimate that more than 250,000 people are facing food insecurity due to the impacts of the floods recorded at the start of the year and the risk of drought associated with the El Niño phenomenon; the pre-positioning of food and other preventive measures are currently underway.
Mozambique is one of the African countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, regularly facing floods, cyclones and droughts. During the last rainy season, between October 2025 and April 2026, natural disasters claimed 314 lives, affected more than 1.07 million people and damaged around 260,000 homes, according to data from the INGD.
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