Five cities, namely China’s Chongqing,  Lebanon’s Dannieh Municipalities, Ecuador’s Quito, Austria’s Vienna, Senegal’s Saint Louis won the 5th Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation (Guangzhou Award). India’s Odisha was awarded the "Online Popular City ".

The 2021 Global Mayors’ Forum serial events which include the 13th Metropolis World Congress, Global Mayors’ Forum and Guangzhou Award wrapped up on the evening of November 12.

This year’s Guangzhou Award received 273 submissions from 175 cities in 60 countries and regions despite of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

According to Yu Keping, the president of 5th Guangzhou Award judges, there are seven indicators, that is, innovation, public participation, influence, significance, replicability, learnability and inclusiveness when the judges evaluate the submissions. The five winning submissions involve different innovative themes, geographic locations, development levels and urban size, which have strong representativeness.

“The winning cases not only in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) but also showcase the importance of urban innovation in improving people’s life and fighting against the pandemic. They show a future path for urban innovation,” said Yu Keping.

Guangzhou, the UCLG and Metropolis created the Guangzhou Award in 2012. Each cycle of the Guangzhou Award has attracted more than 150 cities from more than 50 countries to participate, and has so far collected more than 1,300 cases of urban governance innovation from all over the world, providing significant reference for cities around the world to enhance their urban governance capacity.

Octavi de la Varga, Secretary General of Metropolis, also announced the winners of “ Metropolis through Children’s Eyes” drawing contest at the event on November 12.

During the 2021 Global Mayors’ Forum serial events from November 8 to 13, more than 800 government officers, international organization managers and scholars from 126 cities of 80 countries and 9 international organizations participated in the discussion on “Moving Forward Together, Modernizing Global Urban Governance”, sharing urban governance experience and insight into potential cooperation under the context of global pandemic and economic recovery.

The winning cities and their projects of this year’s Guangzhou Award include:

Chongqing, China

How to deal with urban medical waste disposal in emergency under COVID-19?

The emergency solution, combining novel technology to deal with urban medical waste disposal and strict supervision for hospitals, was implemented in Chongqing to ensure effective regulation of medical wastes, thus preventing secondary infection and virus spread.

At the same time, Chongqing Zhide Thermal Power Industry Co., Ltd. provided complete sets of equipment and technology to Wuhan. It helped China Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Group(CECEP) to construct an emergency disposal center for medical wastes of COVID-19 to process medical wastes.

This initiative provides a good model for emergency disposal of medical waste for improving urban safety resilience under pandemic and also alerts other cities in the world the importance of medical waste disposal in controlling the spread of disease.

Dannieh Municipalities, Lebanon

Encourage youth participation and use technology in the fight against the pandemic

 In order to effectively respond to the COVID-19, the Union of Dannieh Municipalities has established an Emergency Response Plan with 15 committees of volunteers from youth with the support of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs).

This initiative had relied on the use of technology. The use of shared folders and WhatsApp groups has helped facilitating communication between committees inside the cell and with people. The initiative connects the municipal staff, other municipalities under its umbrella, the 15 committees, citizens and the community at large with information quickly and effectively, through using multimedia and technology as well as traditional means. The initiative gave full play to citizens’ strength by encouraging them to their abilities and skills to combat the pandemic.

Quito, Ecuador

Reduce carbon footprint before erecting new buildings?

In 2016, Ecuador’s capital city, Quito passed the Eco Efficiency Ordinance for the Metropolitan District of Quito, which incentivizes the construction of high density ‘green’ buildings on key transportation nodes and with provisions for affordable housing. As important, the Ordinance deploys the concept of land value capture to ensure that the city retains its share of the land value increments generated by greater density and land use allowances in designated zones.The Ordinance not only curbs on urban expansion, but it also bolsters community and developer support for green building construction. The city calculates that it has generated approximately $10.7 million in revenue from the sale of development rights.

Vienna, Austria

How can cities be more child-and youth-friendly?

Over the past 50 years, Vienna has shifted from a shrinking and aging city into a young and growing one. The project Werkstadt Junges Wien (Vienna Children and Youth Program) organizes more than 1,300 participatory activities, enabling children and young people of all age groups and backgrounds to connect to a process where they can freely articulate their own ideas for the city.

The initiative goes the next step by aiming for a more structural, long-term and large-scale approach. The objective is to put social inclusion of all children and young people living and growing up in Vienna at the heart of policy-making and city administration.

To date, the impressive result is 193 specific measures and actions underway across the city. The strategy has been adopted by the Vienna City Council and thus is a binding commitment.

Saint Louis, Senegal

Adopting inter-municipal approach for the conservation of the mangroves

1,000 hectares of mangroves in Saint Louis of Senegal are threatened with extinction due to climatic and anthropogenic pressures. To restore the mangroves, the Departmental Council of Saint Louis in Senegal developed an innovative approach to environmental governance, which integrated the restoration of mangroves ecosystems across three municipalities with strategies for addressing urgent urban climate challenges and enhancing livelihoods through the promotion of resilient and structured economic activities around mangroves.

Over the nine years of the intervention, more than 50 ha. of mangrove have been regenerated, which is equivalent to a sequestration rate of 350 tons of carbon annually. The mangrove growth rate has risen to 7% per year and the clearance rate is down by 25%. Nearly 80,000 people from over 50 organizations were involved in the initiative, representing local authorities, academics and environmental experts who were engaged to support the local private sector, civil society organizations and community organizations.

Odisha, India ("Online Popular City")

To ensure the livelihood for the urban poor

 The national lockdown caused by COVID-19 in India has led to an exodus of the urban workforce, which is composed largely of migrants from lagging parts of the country working in informal sector in the primary cities.

Migrants from Odisha also returned to their home state. In response, the provincial government launched Urban Wage Employment Initiative (UWEI) whereby the urban workforce has been guaranteed a minimum number of workdays annually at specified daily wage.

The workers are being engaged in public works and the resources are drawn from on-going welfare schemes of the national and provincial governments. In addition to mitigating the economic stress due to the pandemic of the impoverished urban labour force, the provincial government has adopted the initiative as a long-term measure for poverty alleviation.

Author | Jasmine

Editor | Nan, Jerry