Rourkela from India wins Global Mayors’ Challenge

ROURKELA: The Bloomberg philanthropies announced the result of the Mayors’ Challenge this week. The 15 winners of this challenge are to be awarded $1 million each to help cities implement their breakthrough ideas. India’s city Rourkela came in the list of 15 winner cities this year.

The Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Mayors Challenge is a competition that encourages leaders to think outside the box on how to face their most difficult challenges in order to stimulate new, scalable ideas for improving cities and the lives of those who live in them. The Bloomberg Philanthropies launched the first Global Mayors Challenge in 2021. The focus was on identifying and accelerating the most ambitious ideas developed by cities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The winners of the Global Mayors’ Challenge include Amman (Jordan), Bogota (Colombia), Butuan (Philippines), Freetown (Sierra Leone), Hermosillo (Mexico), Istanbul (Turkey), Kigali (Rwanda), Kumasi (Ghana), Paterson (USA), Phoenix (USA), Rochester (USA), Rotterdam (Netherlands), Rourkela (India), Vilnius (Lithuana) and Wellington (New Zealand).

Rourkela from India has been awarded for its initiatives in economic recovery and inclusive growth. Rourkela’s project focused on empowering female food entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurs in Rourkela have long struggled with a shortage of storage facilities, reducing the shelf life of their products. Rourkela is minimising food loss and extending the selling window for vegetables by providing cold-storage facilities to women entrepreneurs. In a single programme, this provides several benefits including economic empowerment, food security, and mobility for women. Because the majority of the sellers are women, the storage facilities will be managed by women’s federations throughout the city.

Dibyajyoti Parida, IAS, Commissioner, Rourkela Municipal Corporation and CEO, Rourkela Smart City Limited, had said that climate change solutions, women empowerment, social inclusion have been the core themes of the project and are the driving forces toward strengthening the local economy during the COVID-19 pandemic and post-COVID scenario. He added, “We are very hopeful that our solution will be scaled up in various parts of India and that Rourkela city will act as a role model for many other cities.”