City of Quilemane

1. Talk Points:
1. The Municipality of Quelimane is the fast growing capital of Zambézia province and
with an estimated population of 450.000, it is the fourth city of Mozambique. It is
connected to the national road EN7, which leads to Mocuba in the East (150 km) and
Beira in the West (500 km). The majority of the people lives in informal settlements
that are expanding in an unstructured manner. Housing and Public Infrastrutures
are of low quality and often not resilient to the impacts of natural hazards, leading to
high levels of vulnerability, and a low quality of life. Quelimane’s position in the
estuary of Rio dos Bons Sinais (around 25 km from sea), as part of the Zambezi River
delta system, and mainly below sea level, makes the city extremely prone to
seasonal flooding and strong winds - approximately 85% of the city with moderate
to highly vulnerable. Many people use the mangroves as construction wood, despite
the fact that the mangroves protect the city, reduce temperatures and are the
nursery for small fish and shrimps. UNHabitat have been working with Municipality
of Quelimane since 2008 in the following main thematic area: climate changes
(resilience and vulnerability reduction), slum upgrading, public infrastructures and
basic services, public spaces. In fact, due to the level of vulnerability of the city of
Quelimane, rapid urbanization and population growth have seen a greater pressure
on the earth and natural resources, allowing to approach the issue of climate change
as a permanent subject and transversal to the various thematic areas.
2. The City of Quelimane develop a local adaptation plan which the main objectives are
Improve city’s land use planning to foster resilience, Improve the resilience of
public infrastructures and housing, especially related to education and health,
Protect the environment and expand the green infrastructure, Prepare citizens for
emergencies, Improve governance systems to foster resilient development,
Promote sectoral climate proof development.
3. Actually, Within Coastal Cities Adaptation Programme financed by USAID, The
Municipality and UNHabitat are developing an alternative, appropriate and
affordable resilient models house design for the cities of Quelimane and 12
demonstrative houses is being built with communities and stakeholders (participatoy
approach during all process: design and construction) to increase adoption of
climate resilience measures by communities, civic, and community organizations,
including civil society, nongovernmental, and faith-based organizations and
universities, and to increase local awareness of economic risk-management tools for
at-risk urban infrastructure and livelihoods. With this, we intend to influence a
normative framework of building codes (Posturas Municipais) at city level to include
adaptation technical measures and principles of infrastructure to climate changes.
4. The city of Quelimane is currently implementing the Public Spaces for Children
project in partnership with UN-Habitat and funded by UNICEF. In Mozambique,
children represents a significant part of the population (more than 50%), to be
considered not only as future adults, but also as a category with specific needs that
should be taken into account in the development of public policies. Children face
many challenges growing up in cities, including unequal access to basic services, low
access to water and sanitation and impacts of natural hazards. Thus, it is important

2. to increase efforts to better understand the kinds of public spaces children use and
need to enjoy an adequate standard of living. The city of Quelimane has the
opportunity to become more ‘child friendly’, committed to fulfilling children’s rights.
As stated during the UN conference Habitat II (1996), “the well-being of children is
the ultimate indicator of a healthy habitat, a democratic society and of good
governance”. A Child Friendly City is the embodiment of the Convention on the
Rights of the Child at the local level, which in practice means that children’s rights are
reflected in policies, laws, programmes and budgets. In a child friendly city, children
are active agents; their voices and opinions are taken into consideration and
influence decision-making processes. The aim of the project is to involve children in
urban walks to map and rate the quality of the public spaces they use on a daily
basis. The idea is to collect their perception on the safety of the public domain they
use to play and to move around between their house and other important
infrastructures such as schools. By involving children in a participative process, the
project acknowledges the special status of children in urban settings and the
necessity to consider their best interest in local government activities and practices.
The process is giving the opportunity to better integrate children’s interests to
planning, hearing from their experiences and opinions about urban childhood. In the
objective of shaping an adequate city and communities for children, to include the
challenge of climate change is key. Urban children are more at risk to face the
impacts of climate change, responsible of higher temperature and sea level rise, as
well as increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme events, such as the floods
and cyclones that often affect the city of Quelimane. When it comes to shape a city
able to adapt to climate change, it is important to take into account this significant,
though vulnerable part of the population, that are children. It can refer to the needs
to look at the city and plan taking into account not only the infrastructures and basic
services needed, but how they can be easily accessible by kids. On the other hand,
interests of children need to be also considered regarding mitigation measures,
providing green public spaces and preserving Quelimane particularities such as the
extensive use of bicycles.
Way forward and Key Messages:
With Technical Assistance and expertise of UNHabitat, the City of Quelimane is looking
forward to:
• A transformation strategy for Quelimane that aims to revitalize its economy and
urban spatial growth through planned urban development and more effective urban-
rural linkages, while building its resilience to climate-related and other natural
hazards, and fostering greater equity and inclusion.
• Implement a CityRAP (City Resilience Action Planning) Tool at more vulnerable areas
of Quelimane City to develop capacities of the local communities to better
understand, plan and implement actions to reduce their vulnerability to climate
change impacts and natural hazards through a bottom up consultative process to
prioritize actions in a participatory manner with the local authorities.
• In order to reduce vulnerability of children and enhance resilience towards disaster
risks, it is important to learn from children s experience, bearing in mind that a city

3. well planned for children, able to adapt to climate change, is a good city for all urban
dwellers – Public Space.