The WRI Ross Center Prize for Cities is the premier global award celebrating and spotlighting transformative urban change. The five finalists for the $250,000 prize come from very different urban environments — in Kenya, Argentina, Mexico, India and the United Kingdom — but all demonstrate how to effectively tackle both urban inequality and climate change together.

In this podcast we hear about all five 2020-2021 Prize for Cities finalists and what makes each of them special, from urban agriculture to community designed public space. Anne Maassen, WRI's global lead on the prize, explains the challenges faced by residents in each city and the unique solutions the finalists came up with.

For more on the Prize for Cities, including video profiles of each of the finalists featured as clips in this episode, go to prizeforcities.org. Each finalist also receives $25,000.

Sustainable Food Production for a Resilient Rosario, a project by the municipality of Rosario, Argentina, was announced as the grand prize winner on June 29, 2021.

 

— Anne Maassen, Global Lead, WRI Ross Center Prize for Cities

“There’s a lot of bad news coming from cities, and good news is often lost in this sea of bad news; you know, traffic congestion, pollution. So we wanted to draw attention to the fact that a lot of good things are happening in cities and are happening right now. We were looking for initiatives and projects that show us how to live and thrive in a changing climate, by tackling climate change but also urban inequality."

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