Urban Maputo

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Maputo

Description of the municipality where the intervention will be carried out

 


General Information

Population of Maputo in 2012: 1,194,121 total; 576,464 men; 617,657 women.
Population resident in informal settlements: 80%
Languages (2007): Portuguese (42.9%), Xichangana (31.5%), Xirhonga (9.7%), Cichopi (3.3 percent), Xitswa (3.5 percent), Bitonga (2.8 %), other national (4.4%), other foreigners (1.3%)
Religions (2007): Zione (25.3%), Catholicism (23.1%), Protestantism (21.16%), Islam (5.35%), others (31.24%)
Main function: national capital, main center of economic, educational and health activity.

Economic structure: 20.2% of the GDP of Mozambique. Greater national concentration of services, large economic groups and companies (public and private). The main economic sectors are (2002): commerce (16%), transport and communications (17%), real estate and services to companies (17%), financial services (15%) and industry trasnformadora (13%).

Public municipal structures: Municipal Council of Maputo (CMM) and Governor of the City of Maputo.
Physical-administrative organization of CMM: city, urban district, district, quarter, block, 10 families.

Administrative structures of the CMM: CMM, Municipal Directions, Municipal departments, District Directions, Quarter secretaries, Quarter blocs, 10 families.

Municipal competences of the CMM: Health and social action; Economic activities; Education, culture and sports; Infrastructures; Markets and fairs; Urban and Environmental Planning; Human resources; Salubrity and Cemeteries; Transportation and traffic.

Source: Instituto Nacional de Estatística (2007, 2010, 2012), Governo da Cidade de Maputo, Conselho Municipal de Maputo, Wikipèdia, PEUMM 2007-08.   


Existing and problematic situation in the area focused by the project


At public policy level:

  • Public policies, programs and projects do not address the Right to the Integral and Inclusive City, nor the gender perspective and the special focus on other vulnerable groups.
  • Regarding the informal neighborhoods themselves, they are seen as a problem, not as a result; and the Holders of Rights as beneficiaries, not as actors with rights. Despite the incipient focus on these areas, lack of vision of the city as a whole, and especially towards informal areas as part of it, except when there are strategic partitide interests.
  • Interventions in informal neighborhoods end up being either sectoral and basic, or minimal urbanization plans, standardized and with stereotypical social groups; without addressing the causes of inequalities, especially gender and the most vulnerable groups; with Top-Down processes (often under private interests) with participation, transparency and accountability of symbolic accounts. Part of the problem also generates what many partial plans or neighborhood improvement are carried out by foreign consultants without experience or knowledge base of the context, specificities and resources, via international public competition. Most of the bulk of the partial plans for urbanization and reclassification carried out since 2011 has led to multiple errors, especially with regard to collective spaces (public space, facilities and services, transport spaces and tertiary activity spaces, groups), and, on the other hand, much of it is not implemented due to its disconnection with existing realities, dynamics and resources.
  • At the level of resources, the administration has a great deficit, at all levels, and its cadres are based on a lack of specialized training, a question that hinders the improvement of informal neighborhoods based on the different aspects of public policies and techniques at the own actions in interventions.
  • Thus, public data in general is precarious and inadequate, and referring to Collective Spaces (CSs), this is reduced and drags multiple errors and omissions, especially when the spaces are community, private and / or informal.
  • In addition, it is detected that the coordination of data and multisectoral work between Holders of Responsibilities and Obligations (and between these ones) is insufficient, and that from the academic world a comprehensive and multisectoral knowledge base has not been generated support public policies.


George Dimitrov

 

Political, Socioeconomic and cultural level

  • 51% women; 67% of working age (64% of workers out of GD, 46% unemployed and 70% of informal sector); 35% within the poverty line and 65% in the absolute dominate of 52854 inhabitants,
  • Despite legislative advances, as in the rest of the city, a patriarchal system dominates profoundly male-based practices and beliefs (index inequality 0.42), evident in areas such as illiteracy, education, the world of work or prey of decision (family, social and public), clearly represented also in the urban spaces themselves, the uses they admit and their use.
  • Although district and neighborhood public structures are theoretically separated from political structures, there is still a large hierarchy of powers and control for the FRELIMO party.
  • Although there are informal networks of a diverse nature, the prohibition of associationism and civil organizations outside the scope of leaving during the social-Marxist era, has damaged a greater activity and social activism, and therefore the dynamism, decision making and actions by the company or its groups, very marked and controlled by the power structures.
  • At a cultural level, a multiplicity of diverse religious centers has played an important role in the everyday life of society, both in terms of constant religious activities, as well as in supporting the most vulnerable populations, as well as mediation in the resolution of conflicts, as well as for the creation of educational, health, communal, educational, cultural, collective spaces, among others.
  • The citizenship of G.Dimitrov continues to be unpowered (lack of training and reduced resources, misinformation of rights, or no active participation in decision-making).

 

Spatial Level

  • The area of the project suffers from rich environmental and geo-climatic due to the constant floods during the rainy season, damaging the quality of the space built, and the use and accessibility of collective spaces.
  • The resident population in the neighborhood and its adjacent ones is of low resources (much of the survival centered in the informal sector, mainly tertiary activity) and long distances to the collective transport network are accessed on foot to access the educational spaces , labor, health, etc. Therefore, it has difficulty moving to CSs outside the neighborhood and its surroundings.
  • The neighborhood, with a mixed but mostly organic fabric, has an irregular road network with precarious and deteriorated conditions, and a profound lack of qualitative and quantitative connectivity between CSs to facilitate access to and activities therein they develop vulnerable groups are suffering from long and tortuous daily journeys, especially children, the elderly and people with physical disabilities; and of insecurity on the roads, on the one hand by the increase of the traffic rolled and with little awareness about pedestrian, and on the other especially to the nocturnal hours (18h-7h) due to the lack of lighting, affecting mainly to girls and women and damaging their attendance and participation in the activities that take place in the CSs, especially when the sun sets (literacy, vocational training, cultural activities, meetings, etc.).
  • Most of its public spaces and facilities are deteriorated.
  • The lack of knowledge of the authorities of many CSs (especially community facilities) and the multiple activities there, together with the problems of physico-functional isolation due to lack of accessibility and connectivity, goes hand in hand with Its use in a context where the CS system is already very small.
  • On the other hand, we are faced with a sexist society with a great imbalance between the rights and obligations of women and men and the roles of power, also represented in the types of spaces allocated according to gender. 

 

Neighborhood local structures:

  • 143 Chefes de Quarteirao de George Dimitrov i 3 Chefes de Quarteirao de Zimpeto, i  chefes das 10 familias de George Dimitrov.
  • Comissão de Chefes de Acompanhamento de SEC-GD

Members of the Technical Staff:

  • Pelouro de Ordenamento Territorial, Ambiente e Urbanizaçao : Assentamentos Informais; Planos Urbanos; Estradas; Parques e Jardins; Ambiente e Salubridade
  • Pelouro de Desenvolvimento Local e Mercados: Mercados e Feiras.
  • Pelouro de Mobilidade, Transportes e Transito: Mobilidade; Transportes e Transito.
  • Pelouro de Saúde e Acçao Social: Saúde Pública; Acçao Social.
  • Vereação do Distrito Municipal KaMubukwana (DM5): Dep. de Bairros; Dep. De Serviços.
  • Direcção de Educação e Cultura da Cidade de Maputo: D.D de Educação, Cultura e Tecnologia (DM5).
  • Direcção de Gênero, Criança e Acçao Social da Cidade de Maputo: Serviços Distritais de Gênero, Criança e Acçao Social (DM5).
  • Electricidade de Moçambique: EDM (DM5).
  • Fundo de Investimento e Património do Abastecimento de Água.
  • Aguas da Regiao de Maputo.
  • Gawat.
  • Administraçao Nacional de Estradas 
 

Transversal and Gender Participation Consulting:

ASCHA

 Associação Sócio-Cultural Horizonte Azul (ASCHA) 

 

External trainers of participatory activities:

  • ASCHA
  • Joaquim Romero de Tejada, Agencia Metropolitana de Transportes de Maputo
  • Teles Ribeiro, UNICEF
  • Denise Coletta, UNHabitat
  • Moisés Francisco, Kaya Clinica
  • Arquitectura Sense Fronteres 
 

Dynamizers of Participatory activities:

  • ASCHA
  • Jessica Lage, arquitecta
  • Ana Fernándes, arquitecta
  • Silvia Jorge, arquitecta
  • Denise Coletta, UNHabitat
  • Moisés Francisco, Kaya Clinica 
 

Residents of Participatory Activities:

  • Training in Transversal Participation I Gender Approach: girls, women, the elderly and people with reduced mobility and intellectual disability, from areas A, B, C and D, and gender and social action organizations.
  • Participatory Workshop with children for the Design of Public Spaces: 10 elementary students of the Sao Francisco Xavier Community School and 1 Junho Elementary School, together with 2 teachers.  

 

 

Participatory Journeys:

  • Table I - Technical Table
  • Table II - Responsible for Equipment and Services (Directors of 4 Schools, UrbeLimpa, PRM)
  • Table III - Commission of chefs of Accompaniment of SEC-GD and Urban Improvement Organizations (chef of the 11 divisions, Kaya Clinica, Markets-Cruz Vermelha)
  • Table IV - Women (Zone A, B, C and D)
  • Table V - Seniors, and people with reduced mobility and Intellectual disability (Zone A, B, C and D)