Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown has emerged as one of the winners of this year’s Bloomberg Global Mayors Challenge.
The city was named alongside 14 others as winners of the global innovation competition, according to a statement issued by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the sponsor of the initiative, on Tuesday.
The year-long competition, launched in 2021, focused on efforts to elevate the Most Promising Urban Innovations to emerge from the Covid-19 Pandemic era.
Among the other winning cities are Amman, the capital of Jordan; Bogotá in Colombia; Butuan in Philippines; and Hermosillo in Mexico.
Kigali, the capital of Rwanda and Kumasi in Ghana made up the three African cities, alongside Freetown, that made it to the final in the 2021-2022 edition of the challenge. Some of the other cities include Istanbul in Turkey and cities in the US, Netherlands, India and New Zealand.
Each of the winning cities will receive US$1 million, plus three years of technical support to implement their projects, the organizers said.
“These 15 winners are being recognized for designing the boldest and most ambitious urban innovations to emerge from the global COVID-19 pandemic,” Bloomberg Philanthropies said in its statement announcing the finalists.
It said that the winning ideas addressed 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.
Image, FCC
Bloomberg Philanthropies is an umbrella body of all charity organizations founded by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The organization invests in 941 cities and 173 countries around the world to ensure better, longer lives for the greatest number of people. It focuses on five key areas for creating lasting change: the Arts, Education, Environment, Government Innovation, and Public Health. In 2021, the organization distributed $1.66 billion.
“As the world works to address the profound public health and economic effects of the ongoing pandemic, cities can implement innovative ideas at a pace that national governments simply can’t match,” Mr Bloomberg was quoted in the statement.
“Our 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 added.
The 15 winning cities come from 13 nations on six continents, collectively representing over 30 million residents, according to the organizers.
The Freetown City Council summitted its ambitious tree planting project, which is part of Mayor Yvoone Aki-Sawyer’s Transform Freetown initiative. The project entails the creation of a vibrant new digital marketplace supporting tree maintenance and the urban canopy using digital technologies.
Mayor Aki-Sawyer released a photo of herself celebrating the news in a jubilant mood.
“The competition was stiff and the process lasted for a whole year but we made it,” she wrote on a the Mayor’s official facebook page.
She hailed the team behind the project, singling out its leader, Isatu Manja Kargbo.
“The hard work doesn’t stop here though. We will continue to improve our idea to ensure its success here, in other cities in Sierra Leone and elsewhere,” the Freetown Mayor added.
A total of 38 ideas have won the competition since its launch in 2013.
Bloomberg Philanthropies said this year’s edition – the fifth – saw the largest number of submissions, with mayors from 631 cities in 99 countries making submissions, nearly twice the number of cities that applied to the last edition in 2018.
The charity said selection of the winners was done on the basis of four criteria: Vision; Potential for impact; Feasibility; and Transferability.
“The ideas provide a powerful snapshot of the innovation priorities of hundreds of the world’s cities,” it said.
The judging committee for the competition comprises a group of distinguished personalities from across the globe, among them former UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who is currently President & CEO of the International Rescue Committee; former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard; and the United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.
“When it comes to solving issues of equality and access, people need people,” said Mellody Hobson, co-chair of the committee and Bloomberg Philanthropies board member.
“Each of the winning teams took a people-first, novel approach to improving their community. I am looking forward to seeing the long-term impact generated by these projects around the world,” she added.
“At a time when the world needs ambitious solutions, these cities are delivering. They stood out from the 631 applicants for their vision and leadership and will hopefully deliver real results for residents,” added Mr Miliband.
During the implementation period, beneficiary cities are expected to work to evolve and scale their ideas into a real-life program to improve the lives of their residents. They will also work to share their ideas with additional cities around the world to enable their tested innovations to spread.
James Anderson, who leads the Government Innovation program at Bloomberg Philanthropies, said the Mayors Challenge shows that there can be a positive legacy to emerge from all the hardship of the past two years.
“Now we turn to help these mayors implement their ideas, evaluate, and spread the ideas that produce big impact,” he said.
