Urban Governance and Metropolitan Sustainability in Mozambique: Revisiting Greater Maputo in Light of the 2024 Urbanization Policy

Urbanization in Sub-Saharan Africa is advancing rapidly, raising critical questions about whether metropolitan growth fosters transformation or exacerbates inequality and ecological risk. The Greater Maputo Metropolitan Area exemplifies these tensions, with consolidated urban cores, expanding informal settlements, peri-urban “problem areas,” and vulnerable ecological zones. This article applies a comparative policy analysis methodology to assess the alignment between the structural challenges identified in Greater Maputo in 2015—unregulated sprawl, informal settlement dominance, ecological degradation, and fragmented governance—and the governance principles in Mozambique’s 2024 Urbanization Policy. The purpose of the study is to determine whether recent policy directions meaningfully address these persistent challenges. The study combines secondary analysis of spatial and institutional data from 2015 research with documentary review of the 2024 Urbanization Policy. A convergence assessment framework is applied across four governance dimensions—urban containment, informal settlement upgrading, ecological sustainability, and institutional coordination—to evaluate policy–practice alignment. Results reveal differentiated convergence: while the policy acknowledges key challenges, it remains largely declarative and lacks clear operational mechanisms. Although the 2024 Urbanization Policy marks a step toward integrated governance, its effectiveness will depend on enforceable containment strategies, participatory upgrading, ecological protection, and multi-scalar coordination. The findings underscore the need for inter-municipal collaboration, dedicated financing mechanisms, and inclusive governance for effective metropolitan management.