Bloomberg Philanthropies announced the 15 winning cities of the 2021-2022 Global Mayors Challenge on January 18, a worldwide innovation competition that supports and spreads cities’ most promising ideas. These 15 winners are being recognized for designing the boldest and most ambitious urban innovations to emerge from the global COVID-19 pandemic. The winning ideas address one or more of four current issue areas in cities including economic recovery and inclusive growth; health and wellbeing; climate and environment; and gender and equality.
To make an impact here was Odisha’s smart city, Rourkela which ranked 15 among the Top Cities of the world under the challenge. This makes the city eligible for a grant of USD 1 Million from Bloomberg Philanthropies and technical assistance to carry out the innovation over the next 3 years. Rourkela, one of the five Municipal Corporations and a leading industrial town of Odisha, is the only Indian city to make the honor.
The reason for Rourkela to have won this prestigious award was, it developed a sustainable model which augments the income of women and small-time traders of the city while promoting the use of technology. As part of the project, Rourkela Municipal Corporation (RMC) developed a cold storage facility at the local Veer Surendra Sai (VSS) Market in partnership with a NIT Rourkela based startup and managed by Women self-help group members. With this solution, the local farmers and fruit traders have been able to enhance their income by preserving their produce and preventing any wastage. In addition, fresh vegetables and fruits are delivered to people’s doorsteps, especially in times of COVID19. All of this is being managed by members of women self-help groups using mobile apps. While developing the ecosystem and helping all the stakeholders, the model helps the women in augmenting their livelihoods.
The other winners were Amman (Jordan); Bogota, (Colombia); Butuan, (Philippines); Freetown (Sierra Leone); Hermosillo (Mexico); Istanbul (Turkey); Kigali (Rwanda); Kumasi (Ghana); Paterson (US); Phoenix (US); Rochester (US); Rotterdam (the Netherlands); Vilnius, (Lithuania); and Wellington (New Zealand). As many as 631 cities from 99 countries had participated in the competition.
Michael R Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and Bloomberg LP and 108th Mayor of New York said that their fifteen winners offer bold, achievable plans to improve health, reduce unemployment, empower women, and more. Collectively, they have the potential to improve millions of their residents’ lives and the most successful solutions will inspire cities around the world to embrace them, he said.
