Mozambique: Quelimane’s Manuel de Araújo shortlisted for World Mayor Prize 2023

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Mozambique: Quelimane’s Manuel de Araújo shortlisted for World Mayor Prize 2023

3:20 CAT | 08 Nov 2023

File photo: DW

Manuel de Araújo, president of the municipality of Quelimane, is one of nine mayors from three continents who have been shortlisted for the 2023 World Mayor award.

The nine finalists for the 2023 World Mayor Prize and Awards represent towns and cities in nine countries, on three continents. Some of the places are small, others are home to hundreds of thousands of people. While the nine finalist mayors all face and deal skilfully with issues unique to their communities, they also address opportunities and challenges common to towns and cities all over the world. At a time of major conflicts in parts of the world, the World Mayor finalists recognise the contributions cities can make towards forging friendship between people.

Since the start of 2023, the organisers of the World Mayor Project have received tens of thousands of messages, emails and letters from people nominating individual mayors and describing why they should be considered for this year’s World Mayor Honours. Qualities mentioned again and again and common to all finalists include their understanding of climate issues, their provision of opportunities for young people and their care for people who need society’s support. This year, many of the people who took part in the World Mayor Project also voiced their fears about divisions in civic society, which threaten to turn into conflicts.

The nine finalists’ conducts, goals and achievements have been valued and commended by participants in the World Mayor Project. In addition, many mayors have been praised for the most important quality a local leader can have: Love for their fellow citizens. The German language has the word ‘bürgernah’ (“close to citizens”/”proche des citoyens”) to describe the relationship between mayors and their citizens. “Bürgernähe makes a mayor.”

In January, at the beginning of the 2023 World Mayor Project, the world was sickened by the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. Now, in the autumn, the conflict in the Middle East threatens to kill and destroy the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people, while the fighting in Ukraine is continuing.

In response to the senselessness of war, all wars, the leitmotif of World Mayor 2023 has been friendship and co-operation between cities. All nine finalists share in the belief that at a time of strife, conflict and war between nations, cities, when joining forces, can become peacemakers.

The 2023 winners will be announced in January 2024.

The 2023 World Mayor Finalists

(Listed in alphabetical order of cities)

Bristol, UK, Population 468,000: Marvin Rees, Mayor since 2016

Bristol-Marvin-Rees-200
Dover, Newfoundland & Labrador, Canada, Population 700: Tony Keats, Mayor since 1996