Winning innovations from Global Mayors challenge announced

Twenty-four cities from 20 countries have been named as winners of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayors Challenge, with each municipality receiving $1m to spur local government innovation that improves lives in cities around the world.

The sixth challenge awards municipalities that have proposed and tested the best breakthrough ideas to bolster essential services at scale – including cooling homes, reducing waste, lowering utility costs, expanding transit, increasing jobs, and more. In addition to the award, winning municipalities will also receive operational support as well as additional funding for dedicated staff to help bring their ideas to life.

Pressure-tested core hypotheses

Selected from more than 630 applications, Bloomberg Philanthropies considered prototypes developed by 50 cities during the finalist phase, when each pressure-tested core hypotheses with residents. The 24 winning ideas were ultimately chosen for their novelty, potential impact, and strength of implementation plans.

“The most effective city halls are bold, creative, and proactive in solving problems and meeting residents’ needs – and we launched the Mayors Challenge to help more of them succeed,” said Michael Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and Bloomberg. “We look forward to supporting this year’s 24 winners as they bring their innovative projects to life – and to seeing their ideas spread to more cities around the world.”

“The most effective city halls are bold, creative, and proactive in solving problems and meeting residents’ needs – and we launched the Mayors Challenge to help more of them succeed”

Reflecting some of the greatest public service challenges cities face, and the ingenuity that animates local governments across the globe, they include:

• As-Salt, Jordan: training unemployed youth in specialised restoration and heritage techniques to create jobs, boost tourism, and preserve the city’s historic architecture
• Barcelona, Spain: making ageing home retrofits more affordable and accessible citywide by providing city-backed financing and removing technical and regulatory barriers – reducing timelines for approval by 40 per cent
• Beira, Mozambique: relocating hundreds of families of fishermen in high risk, flood-prone coastal areas to insulated, inland neighbourhoods – co-designing new infrastructure with impacted residents while preserving livelihoods
• Belfast, UK: transforming 126 miles of neglected alleyways into safer, greener, community-owned spaces for tens of thousands of residents
• Boise, US: using municipally owned geothermal energy to lower costs and deliver sustainable heating and cooling for multifamily housing – the first effort of its kind led by a US city
• Cape Town, South Africa: co-creating waste collection systems with informal settlement residents to reduce illegal dumping, create jobs, and extend reliable service
• Fez, Morocco: formalising the work of informal waste picker jobs with stable incomes, upskilling, and better working conditions – improving these residents’ quality of life and recycling and waste management citywide