2026 Reports

Resilience from the Ground Up: Integrating Informal Systems in Beira’s Climate Change Response

Marais, Clara; Gate, Nicolas; Maure, Genito

The Designing Inclusive African Coastal City Resilience (INACCT Resilience) project works in Beira, Mozambique, a coastal city highly vulnerable to climate hazards such as flooding and tropical cyclones. Informal Settlements, home to over 70% of Beira’s population, face the greatest risks due to weak infrastructure and limited access to recovery resources. Cyclone Idai in 2019 exposed these inequalities, disproportionately affecting women and other marginalised groups. INACCT Resilience, launched in 2023 and led by ICLEI Africa, aims to strengthen inclusive, gender-responsive urban resilience planning in Beira. Through partnerships with Eduardo Mondlane University, Beira Municipality, and local disaster committees, the project engages both formal and informal actors as co-researchers and knowledge holders. Participatory and innovative methods such as community mapping, surveys, photovoice, and learning labs support collaborative, mutual learning and local ownership. INACCT highlights and scales community-led adaptation innovations—such as bamboo reinforcements and water-retention ditches—as effective responses to climate threats. Its gender equity and social inclusion framework ensures that planning processes centre the lived experiences and needs of vulnerable and marginalised groups. By integrating informal systems with institutional planning, INACCT fosters more equitable, sustainable, and locally grounded climate resilience. The project offers valuable insights for other African cities seeking to operationalise inclusive, community-driven adaptation in the face of accelerating climate risks.

Keywords: urban resilience; informal settlements, community-led adaptation; participatory planning; gender equity