Barcelona renews confidence in Maputo through metropolitan cooperation agreement

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Barcelona renews confidence in Maputo through metropolitan cooperation agreement

7:51 CAT | 20 Oct 2025

Photo: Ajuntament de Barcelona

The City of Maputo and the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona have signed a new agreement with Architecture Without Borders Spain to implement the project “Promotion of Gender Equity in Metropolitan Mobility”.

The agreement, signed by Mayor Rasaque Manhique, reinforces Barcelona’s confidence in Maputo’s governance and aims to make public spaces safer, more accessible and inclusive, promoting women’s empowerment and combating gender-based violence.

The agreement, signed by the President of the Maputo Municipal Council, Rasaque Manhique, the Vice-President for International Affairs and Digital Metropolis of Barcelona, Jord Castellana i Gamisans, and the President of Architecture Without Borders Spain, Lúcia Garcia Cernuda Ruiz de Alda, represents the strengthening of Barcelona’s Metropolitan Area’s confidence in the governance of the Mozambican capital and its ability to lead innovative public policies centred on people.

The project, which continues the work developed around Maputo Central Hospital, aims to make public space safer, more accessible and more human, serving as a metropolitan model of urban requalification guided by the principles of inclusion, sustainability, and gender equality.

According to Mayor Rasaque Manhique, the initiative “goes beyond infrastructure, as it seeks to transform mind-sets and open pathways for women to play an active role in public transport management”. Through technical training, capacity building, and professional integration, the project will promote women’s empowerment in the transport sector, encouraging women to drive buses, manage companies, and inspire others to break historical barriers of exclusion.

Valued at US$110,000 per year, the agreement also includes actions to prevent and combat gender-based violence (GBV) in urban transport, reinforcing municipal campaigns such as “Harassment is Not a Passenger” and the STOP GBV Protocol, which reflect the zero-tolerance policy against violence adopted by the Municipality.

For Mayor Manhique, this partnership “is a pact of genuine hope, reaffirming Maputo’s commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 5 – Gender Equality and SDG 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities, translating global commitments into local results”.

The signing of the agreement falls within the framework of international cooperation between Maputo and Barcelona and symbolises the growing confidence of the international community in the metropolitan vision led by Rasaque Manhique, focused on creating a more human, safe and inclusive city.

Source: O País