Urban innovative initiatives by Milan of Italy, Guadalajara of Mexico, Wuhan of China, Mezitli of Turkey and New York of the U.S. have won this year’s Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation (Guangzhou Award) on December 7th.

Celia Wade-Brown, chairman of the jury, said, “we have been through intensive discussion considering whether the initiative is innovative and original; Whether it has substantial impact on global challenges and is able to help other cities to cope with similar problems.”

The jury made the decision based on the initiatives’ scale, geographic location and the problems they have solved. In addition, Surabaya of Indonesia was selected as the online popular city.

This year, 193 cities from 66 countries attended the award with 273 innovation projects, and 15 among which were shortlisted and invited to share their insights during the three-day-event.

One of the winning initiatives, the Milan Food Policy, is an innovation framework dedicated to a more sustainable food system regarding the process of production, transformation, logistics, distribution, consumption and waste.

Andrea Magarini, the Food Policy Coordinator of Mayor’s Office of Milan, said the city started working on the policy in 2015 with an integrated cross-sectoral approach involving public agencies, social organizations, research bodies and the private sector. Now they are in the phrase of implementation and created a series of actions such as waste tax reduction, waste donate and short supply chain.

Magarini added that Guangzhou has already been linked via the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact, an international pact signed by 180 cities and committed to make food systems in urban areas more equitable and sustainable. “Guangzhou is one of the very first cities that participated in the pact, and won an award in the first edition of our award,” he said.

The Guangzhou Award is co-sponsored by UCLG, Metropolis and the City of Guangzhou, aiming to inspire urban planners with cases and experiences brought by cities from all over the world.

Reported by Jasmine Yin

Edited by Wing Zhang

Highlights of the winning initiatives:

Milan of Italy-Milan Food Policy

•A key innovation in the “Milan Food Policy” is the new model of urban governance which is based on an integrated cross an integrated cross-sectoral approach involving public agencies, social organizations, research bodies and the private sector.

•The food policy acts with three main approaches: design of actions that can generate institutional legacy, streamlining of ordinary activities and creating incentives capable of generating impacts.

•To date, the policy has generated more than 40 initiatives related to reuse, recycling waste food and reducing food miles.

•The policy facilitates the exchange of knowledge through the community, local organizations and international partners, pursuing a joint effort and commitment towards a more sustainable local food system.

Guadalajara of Mexico- Citizen-led Metropolitan Coordination of Guadalajara

•The Guadalajara Metropolitan Area (GMA) decided to take a metropolitan approach to planning in lieu of the traditional scheme of fragmented planning and governance by individual municipalities. This planning reform was formalized into an institute called IMEPLAN (Metropolitan Institute of Planning), the first one of its kind for Mexico and a rare example across Latin America.

•The central idea of IMEPLAN is to engage its citizens, experts and municipalities into participatory planning process at the metropolitan scale through collaborative roundtables, workshops and an educational curriculum. The activities encourage all stakeholders to imagine, innovate and plan at a metropolitan scale with a focus on reducing the negative impacts of unplanned urban development

•A new stage of the cooperative development of the planning tools: Ruta 2042 results as a permanent exercise of dialogue and consultation that travels through the metropolitan area-it creates diverse spaces for education, consultation and dialogue and adapts the methodology to the public or subject in question

Wuhan of China-The “Rebirth” of Urban Waste Dump

•Aerobiotic technology was adopted, which has reduced the degradation circle of waste from 30 years to 2 years and has minimized the harmful impact of garbage.

•Measures were taken to improve the surrounding environment and public infrastructure, benefiting the local residents as there has been a rise in emerging industries, business and job opportunities and property prices. The gaps between rich and poor as well as in living conditions caused by ‘pollution divide* have been partly filled.

•Garden expo has conducted a series of programmes, including environmental education, lantern festivals, music festivals, wedding ceremonies, and joy run. which create profits to the local communities and lead to the transition of the local economic growth model.

•The "Garden Expo Model" of utilizing ecological remediation to improve residents' living conditions and bridge the gap between nch and poor has been introduced to other parts of the city The experience has also been introduced to other Chinese cities, including Qinhuangdao, Hengshui, Hefei and Huangshi.

Mezitli of Turkey-Mezitli Women Producers Market

•The Foundation of the Mezitli Women Producers Market was organized as a collaborative work between the Mezitli municipality, the local women producers as well as consumers. The Market has been designed according to the needs and wishes of the local population and appropriate to the local conditions so that all partners are continuous benefiters from this initiative.

•The market is used to organize women, educate them on production and marketing practice as well as informing them of their rights and encouraging them to participate in public life. Having a women-only market brings into one space women from different ethnic, educational and socio-economic backgrounds, which promotes exchange and mutual support that build women's confidence.

•The women-only market is free (no fees) which makes entry easy for women. A wide range of products is sold, including farm produce from neighbouring rural areas as well as traditional handicrafts.

•Since the initial model market started in 2014, seven more markets have been opened and the intention is to eventually have a women-only market in each of the 40 sub-districts of Mezitli. The municipality is also working on forming a women producers’ cooperative that will be in charge of organizing the market.

New York of the U.S.-Global Vision| Urban Action(GVUA):New York City’s Voluntary Local Review(VLR) of the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) Shows Local Progress for Global Action

•NYC has used the SDGs as a common language to share sustainability innovations and challenges with cities and countries worldwide since December 2015.

•The VLR was adapted artfully from OneNYC, the city’s sustainable development strategy so as to minimize the cost and time required to produce the report and avoid what could have been seen as unnecessary on local agencies.

•It is critical to consult with each agency whose progress was reflected in the report to ensure interest of partners, understanding of the value of this effort and reaffirmation of the accuracy of the report because this is ultimately an opportunity to learn ways to improve service delivery for the benefit of the citizens.

•Hopefully the VLR will serve as a catalyst to identify additional possibilities for engagement with cities and other stakeholders, and as a way to exchange best practices and to build momentum towards achieving all 17 SDGs by 2030.