Congratulations to the cities of Butuan and Manila for making it to the Top 50 Champion Cities of the Global Mayors Challenge sponsored by Bloomberg Philanthropies!
📌 The Mayors Challenge is a global competition for mayors all over the world to pitch their most innovative solutions in response to the pandemic.
📌 Both cities will advance to the next phase of the competition where they enhance their proposals and compete for the final round of 15 winners. The top 15 cities will be granted USD 1 million each plus free consultancy services to implement their projects and make them a reality.
📌 More than 600 cities from 99 countries submitted ideas addressing urban challenges that emerged in the wake of COVID-19.
📌 Butuan and Manila are the only Philippine and Southeast Asian cities that made it to the Top 50 of the competition.
📌 Butuan City's entry focused on "leveraging predictive data to bolster local farmers" while Manila's entry was about "building a 21st-century data infrastructure to improve the city."
📌 Ever since the competition launched, the Liveable Cities Challenge Philippines promoted the 2021 Mayors Challenge to Philippine cities nationwide through a series of virtual workshops in partnership with Globe Telecom and the League of Cities of the Philippines.
📌 A virtual briefing with Bloomberg experts Michael Odermatt and Eamon Nolan and a Mentors’ Workshop with local multidisciplinary experts were also organized along with volunteer mentorship sessions between experts and LGU representatives to help cities develop the best possible entries.
For more information about the Top 50 cities: https://bloombergcities.jhu.edu/news/2021-mayors-challenge-announcing-50-champion-cities