The research project was part of the British Academy’s programme to explore ‘what makes a good city’. This project examined concepts of a ‘good city’ in a least-developed country and in a context of urban crises, an extreme case in which to explore ‘good city’ visions. By addressing such an extreme situation, the research contributed knowledge to improve the lives of the most impoverished urban dwellers, with widespread replicability.
The research focused on the city of Pemba in Cabo Delgado province, Mozambique, where natural disasters, Covid-19 and violent regional conflict brought over 732,000 displaced people into the city. The multi-disciplinary project drew on humanitarian and urban development studies (disaster/conflict response, forced displacement), space/place and cultural geography, and mental and public health (from a wellbeing perspective) research. After an ample collection of data, the analysis concentrated on the key elements of: livelihoods, place/space, cultural/social inclusion and wellbeing, informed by durable solution debates and how these elements impact on the making of a ‘good city'.
So far we can provide at least one example of policy influence/operational application.
There will be others, as we have worked with many stakeholders with detailed feedback. Including a workshop in Pemba (not virtual) to provide feedback and recommendations. In addition, there are policy briefs, which are easy to absorb. Plus some members of the Team have personal/professional relations with some of the stakeholders, and will go the extra mile of keeping motivating them and asking for credible evidence of the use of our research.
Back to UN-Habitat: this UN agency has worked in the neighbourhood of Mahate, which is one of the two neighbourhoods of our project. UN-Habitat is at the same time operational and influencer of policies. It works very close to the government authorities.UN-Habitat published a document called “Avaliacao Urbana Rapida Focada em Genero no Bairro Mahate” (Gender Focused Rapid Participatory Urban Assessment in Mahate Neighbourhood). The document clearly shows in different parts how it included elements of our research. In addition, it added an Annex specific about our research (written by the research team).
Urban migration for good - From forced displacement to a good city. The case of Cabo Delgado, Mozambique