The local case for climate migration solutions

In March 2019, tropical cyclone Idai made landfall in Mozambique. The effects were devastating, resulting in hundreds of deaths and leaving over 140,000 people displaced across the country. The coastal city of Beira was one of the hardest hit, with some 90% of its infrastructure damaged. “From that moment on, we had to change our way of living, our way of being, and the way we used to think,” said Albano Carige, mayor of Beira.

Beira is only one example of how increasingly frequent and severe extreme weather events are forcing people to leave their homes. According to World Bank predictions, climate change could displace 86 million Africans within their own countries by 2050. This threat puts immense pressure on cities across the continent to adapt and mitigate, often with very limited resources.

“Only 10% of global climate finance is reaching cities,” said Vittoria Zanuso, executive director of the mayor-led coalition Mayors Migration Council. “Cities are facing systemic barriers to accessing the finance they need … Many national governments are limiting local governments’ ability to access loans or other financing, and if they can, it's often very restricted. And internationally, most multilateral banks and financing systems require sovereign level approvals.”

Against this backdrop, MMC launched the Global Cities Fund for Migrants and Refugees, or GCF, in 2021. GCF provides direct funding for the implementation of city-led projects aimed at responding to the needs of migrants and people who are displaced.  

As one of the cities receiving GCF funding, Beira has rebuilt a local market that was destroyed by Idai and is now relocating families at risk of climate displacement to a safer area.

In a conversation with Devex, Zanuso and Carige — speaking through an interpreter — elaborated on how climate migration is affecting cities, the pressing need for donors to increase direct investment to local governments, and the positive impacts GCF has had in Beira.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

How is internal displacement affecting cities throughout the African continent?

Zanuso: Climate migration is already the new normal. And this is true for cities like Maputo, Mozambique, which could grow by 1.5 million people just because of climate. But it's also true for cities like Freetown in Sierra Leone, where the population might double in size within 10 years, partly because of internal migration due to climate. And this is true for cities like eThekwini in South Africa, where a lot of climate migrants are already moving to and within the city. And they're settling in informal settlements that are already prone to climate risks.

There will also be cities losing people because of climate change. This is true for cities like Accra, Ghana, or Casablanca, Morocco, which are coastal and therefore prone to sea level rise.

How do climate change and internal displacement in Mozambique affect Beira?

Carige: Beira is a coastal town, and because of that, we don't escape the effects of climate change and natural disasters. The individuals who live in zones that we consider risky are constantly facing problems of displacement, especially when we experienced the Idai cyclone.

Praia Nova, for example, is an extremely risky zone with a very poor population. Idai and other cyclones have made the population increasingly vulnerable. Some parts of the population left looking for safer sites. But the population affected by poverty often stays in their precarious dwelling. They are afraid of sea water coming in and dragging their house away, but also of people coming and stealing their belongings. They have limited ability to move, which accentuates the displacement problem.

Can you give us an overview of the ​​Global Cities Fund for Migrants and Refugees initiative? What are the aims of the fund?

Zanuso: The Global Cities Fund for Migrants and Refugees is a very nimble instrument to channel international private sector and private foundation money directly to city governments so they can implement projects of their own design in partnership with affected populations. They can build sustainability and prove to other funders that they can receive money directly, and do a lot with very little.

GCF is also implemented with U.N. agencies and international city networks to make sure that cities receive a suite of technical assistance, communication, and advocacy support to really expand their projects.

The fund started in 2021, supporting five cities in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. But in just a few years, it expanded to 28 cities. What's most exciting is that 90% of cities who have completed their grant terms have already used this seed funding as proof of concept to unlock external funding to continue or expand their project. So it's really proving that it's working, and could revolutionize the way that international money goes to cities, addressing the needs of their most marginalized, migrant, and refugee populations.

Beira is one of the cities that has received funding from GCF to support the Praia Resilience Project. Can you walk us through the project, and how it has impacted the city's resilience and adaptation efforts?

Carige: I’m very deeply thankful for having received this contribution for my city of Beira. The first step was to rehabilitate the local market in Praia Nova which was destroyed by the cyclone. The market was not at all able to operate, but because of the funding it's now equipped to do its role and operate the activities that are our sustenance.

We are also going to relocate 100 families from Praia Nova to new homes in a safer area. In the current pilot phase, we are moving 15 families. They will receive new, safe homes with a piece of land to grow what they need.

The Global Cities Fund showed us what is possible, but to move all 100 families we need more funding. We are going to remove people from poverty and vulnerability. These people are now going to be in a region where they are very close to the site where fishing takes place, so they will have the conditions for their way of life and work, but away from the high-risk zone. The new location will also resolve the sanitation problems related to drinking water, electricity, and energy that the people were experiencing previously.

What are the main lessons learned from the projects implemented with support from GCF?

Zanuso: The first big lesson is that while many national governments are climate delayers, mayors are climate doers. While many national governments, U.N. institutions, and international partners are talking about climate migration, our GCF grantees are really building practical evidence of what to do about it.

The second lesson is that GCF is not only creating practical evidence, it's also showing that it's possible to channel money directly to cities and that it’s sometimes more efficient than granting larger U.N. or NGO organizations, which often create parallel structures that are not sustainable, and rarely work in partnership with affected communities.

What we care about is creating a market of city-led solutions, to show the world that localization is possible, desirable, and what we need to turn migration into an opportunity.

Looking ahead, what are the remaining challenges that Beira faces in fully realizing its vision for climate resilience and migrant inclusion?

Carige: We need to clearly see growth for our city; growth that is sustainable. This means opportunities for business, opportunities for services, opportunities to develop an economically stable zone. However, the challenge is that we need every migrant, every individual to feel safe despite living in a coastal city. We need to create the conditions for this city to be able to mitigate the effects of natural disasters. I'm talking about the resilience of that location, having functional water channels, and recycling solid waste so that we can transform this resilience into growth for the community at large.

What is the next frontier for GCF, particularly in terms of funding targets and achieving scale?

Zanuso: Now that we've proven that GCF works we really have the responsibility to build on this concept and bring it to scale.

So to build momentum and transformative change, in December 2023, at the U.N. Global Refugee Forum in Geneva, we pledged to bring the Global Cities Fund for Migrants and Refugees to $50 million, starting with $25 million by 2025. This will allow us to reach more cities and build more evidence, but also deepen our impact in those cities with multiannual larger grants.

But no matter how much we grow the fund, the fund will never be the solution. The real success is when all philanthropies, international donors, and funders start investing in cities independently from GCF. So my ask is for international funders and donors to drive more money to cities so they can help more people affected by the climate crisis. And in a sense, I'm asking them to put us out of business. I want to live in a future where the Global Cities Fund is not needed anymore.

Read more about GCF at mayorsmigrationcouncil.org/gcf/.

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This piece is produced in partnership with Mayors Migrations Council as part of our Roots for Change series. Click here to learn more.