Following a request by UN-Habitat Mozambique, JIPS conducted a scoping mission to Maputo and Pemba from 20 February to 01 March 2024. The mission explored the relevance of a pilot durable solutions study in Northern Mozambique using a collaborative approach, with a specific focus on analysing urban displacement in the Metropolitan Area of Pemba, which has been hosting IDPs since 2017.

This report provides an overview of the activities implemented during the mission, and consolidates key observations as well as recommendations on advancing the durable solutions agenda in Pemba. During the mission, JIPS analysed the situational context in which the exercise would take place. We also worked with in-country partners to identify relevant stakeholders and understand their respective data and analysis needs linked to internal displacement as well as current information gaps. The mission insights will help ensure that planned exercise includes all relevant actors, is tailored to the specific analysis, and meaningfully links to other ongoing efforts in-country related to solutions and data on internal displacement in Mozambique. Upon the conclusion of the mission, a concept note for the urban profiling has been developed and is currently being reviewed by relevant stakeholders in-country.

Highlight: Session with IDPs and non-displaced communities in Pemba

During the mission, JIPS facilitated consultative sessions with IDPs and non-IDPs in one of the neighbourhoods in Pemba. Participants were brought to discuss key topics linked to local integration and durable solutions, and asked to prioritize the issues that were most pressing to them.

IDPs and non-IDPs identified access to employment and food security as the biggest challenges, which points to a need for a broader and inclusive response. Concurrently, IDPs identified access to housing and land as the next key issue, while non-displaced highlighted access to services as their next priority area – pointing to areas with distinct challenges faced by the different population groups. These preliminary consultations with community and neighborhood representatives kickstarted the process of identifying key topics that the urban profiling will need to consider.

Key takeaways from the mission

1: Lack of data on the overall context of IDPs in the North, and specifically on urban local integration: the mission found that which seems not sufficiently considered at policy and programmatic level and not yet supported adequately by necessary data and response. Due to the ongoing violence in Cabo Delgado, IDPs are expected to remain in urban centres such as Pemba for the foreseeable future, and thus their local integration should be supported with a longer-term view. However, the mission found a lack of data on IDPs in urban areas, who are also not yet sufficiently considered at the policy and programming level.

• Recommendation 1: Actors operational in Pemba, together with the municipal and provincial authorities, should jointly analyse the ongoing urban integration of IDPs to underpin and better target planning and programming.
• Recommendation 2: Municipal authorities should take the lead and be supported to monitor local integration and durable solutions against a baseline.

2: Continued efforts needed to strengthen the humanitarian, development, peace (HDP), and government ‘nexus’ and coordination on solutions responses as well as consolidation of durable solutions data standards. The mission observed valuable efforts around durable solutions coordination but also important opportunities in this area.

• Recommendation 3: HDP actors and government stakeholders should increase coordination and collaboration mechanisms.
• Recommendation 4: A durable solutions coordination structure should be established at the provincial level, in Cabo Delgado and potentially Sofala.
• Recommendation 5: Efforts to standardise durable solutions indicators should be aligned across workstreams, and correspond to government data needs for solutions monitoring (e.g. linked to monitoring the PEGDI Action Plan).