Is Africa’s protection system ready for the next Idai?

When Cyclone Idai tore through Mozambique in 2019, it did more than shatter homes and futures – it tested whether the world’s emerging systems for protecting people displaced by disasters could withstand reality. As the floodwaters rose, the gaps in policy became painfully clear.

In a new piece, Dr Nicodemus Nyandiko and Ibukun Taiwo look back at the decade since the Nansen Initiative launched its Protection Agenda, the first global effort to address protection needs for people displaced by disasters and climate impacts. Their analysis traces how Africa has responded: building regional early-warning systems, piloting cross-border protocols, aligning national policies with the Sendai Framework, and rallying political consensus behind mobility in the context of climate change.

Yet, as the authors write, progress on paper is not the same as protection on the ground. Implementation remains inconsistent, financing is short-term, and the data needed to guide decisions is still too thin. The next decade must be about delivery – turning standards, standard operating procedures (SOPs), and declarations into systems that function under pressure, before the next cyclone or drought forces families to move.

This is a thoughtful, grounded look at what Africa has achieved, what remains fragile, and what real protection must look like for people facing disaster displacement.

The piece is the latest post on our Climate Mobility Hub blog, Nansen Initiative + 10, produced in partnership with the Platform on Disaster Displacement and UNHCR.

Read the full piece, A decade after the Nansen Initiative’s Protection Agenda, Africa is turning policy into protection – but not fast enough.

For more, visit the UNSW Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law.