Bloomberg Philanthropies launches its largest Mayors Challenge ever to inspire city leaders globally

The beauty of Rourkela, India’s city-changing idea is in its simplicity. Giving farmers affordable access to cold storage for their crops reduces waste and increases sales.

What turned that idea into an award winner in the annual Bloomberg Philanthropies Global Mayors Challenge was the ambition of its execution. Rourkela made the cold storage affordable by powering it with solar panels. It enlisted women from the community to manage the units, providing them with new skills and a new source of income. And it encouraged farmers to store excess produce there rather than selling at reduced prices to avoid spoilage in the Indian heat.

“This is not new technology. It is not rocket science,” said Rourkela’s commissioner Ashutosh Kulkarni. “It is a question of ideas. I believe that ideas can move mountains.”

To support more innovative ideas from cities around the world, Michael R. Bloomberg, former mayor of New York City and founder of Bloomberg L.P. and Bloomberg Philanthropies, Wednesday announced the largest Mayors Challenge ever. The expanded initiative will provide 50 cities with $50,000 and an invitation to Ideas Camp so the city leaders can hone and test their ideas. The 25 cities with the best ideas will then receive $1 million and the technical support needed to enact them.

“This new challenge will empower cities to re-think the way they deliver essential services in ways that better meet the everyday needs of residents,” Bloomberg said in a statement from the Bloomberg CityLab 2024 meeting in Mexico City. “Bloomberg Philanthropies believes in the power of cities to affect change and we’re looking forward to seeing the bold proposals that mayors put together – and helping their cities bring them to life.”

The most successful of those ideas may go into the new Bloomberg Cities Ideas Exchange program, where municipal leaders share what has worked and what hasn’t, so other cities can replicate those ideas.

Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego says that through the Bloomberg Cities program, she has already informally learned about municipal tree-planting programs in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and how Rochester, New York, was able to get more women hired in construction – two issues that are important in her city. And Gallego has happily shared with numerous cities how she started Phoenix’s “mobile career units” program, which travels to areas where people have challenges with transportation to inform them about job opportunities and offer interviews. That program was also a Mayors Challenge award winner.

“Cities are the beginnings of innovation for the world,” Gallego said. “We come up with so many of the solutions for different challenges and we get real results. So many countries are failing to meet their Paris climate agreement goals, but many cities are ahead of schedule.”

James Anderson, who leads Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Government Innovation program, said he was excited about the expansion of the Mayors Challenge initiative, especially with its focus on reimagining core municipal services. The new initiatives are designed to get mayors to dream bigger, he added, because they get things done.

“Cities care for the well-being of the world,” Anderson said. “We are living in an urban age. The policies and programs that mayors put in place shape the day to day well-being of citizens.”

Kulkarni, of Rourkela, said the success of his city’s cold storage program has been even more satisfying because many cities in India have already replicated and other countries are looking at starting similar programs as well.

He said the program has already eliminated 75% of produce waste in Rourkela and increased the revenue of small farmers in the area by 25%.

“I joined civil service to ensure that there is some change, that there are some people will go home satisfied,” Kulkarni said. “They will get something tangible and seeing that change gives us satisfaction.”

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