2021–22 FINALISTS
Transformative Cities People’s Choice Award
Three transformative initiatives in four different categories (water, energy, housing and food systems) were selected as the 12 finalists for the Transformative Cities 2022 Award. Between mid-October and mid-November, more than sixteen thousand people participated in a global public contest and cast their vote for the initiatives they found most inspiring.
On 9 December 2022, the Transformative Cities Initiative announced which four initiatives received the most popular support for each category and are thus the recipients of the Transformative Cities 2021-2022 People’s Choice Award. One representative per winning initiative joined the finale to discuss the opportunities and challenges for transforming our local contexts and addressing the global challenges we are facing.
This exceptional event was hosted by Shaun Matsheza, the Transnational Institute’s coordinator of the State of Power Podcast series.
These were the finalists:
In the Water category:
- Isla Urbana – Rainwater harvesting in Mexico City’s marginalized neighborhoods (Mexico City, Mexico)
- Million wells for Bengaluru (Bengaluru, India)
- Keep water in public hands! (Yaounde, Cameroon)
In the Energy category:
- No Bicycle, No Planet (Guazapa, El Salvador)
- Valencia walks towards the future: the cycling revolution in Valencia (Valencia, Spain)
- 100% renewable energy for Gaza (Gaza, Palestine)
In the Housing category:
- Social, cultural, and economic empowerment in Bukit Duri Urban Kampung reconstruction (Jakarta, Indonesia)
- Entrepatios (Madrid, Spain)
- Kirtipur Sambriddha Awas – relocation of road construction project affected slum dwellers (Kirtipur, Nepal)
In the Food category:
- Women for Food Sovereignty in Cochabamba (Cochabamba, Bolivia)
- Building the movement for agroecological urban gardening to ensure food sovereignty (Penang, Malasya)
- Sahaja Aharam: linking urban consumer to rural producers (Hyderabad, India)
The event was livestreamed worldwide, giving everyone the opportunity to engage and be part of this celebration of collectives.
CATEGORY: WATER
Isla Urbana – Rainwater harvesting in Mexico City’s marginalized neighborhoods
Mexico City, Mexico
Isla Urbana – Rainwater harvesting in Mexico City’s marginalized neighborhoods
Mexico City, Mexico
The expanding water crisis in Mexico and abroad calls for sustainable, effective, and innovative solutions that contribute to the creation of sustainable water management models. Isla Urbana firmly believes that rainwater harvesting, capacity building and water culture promotion, public policy development, and, above all, high quality work based on empathy, are key elements for a much-needed water paradigm shift.
Beneficiary of a programme and its rainwater harvesting system for urban contexts, by Lluvia para Todos, A.C.
Million wells for Bengaluru
Bengaluru (earlier Bangalore), India
Million wells for Bengaluru
Bengaluru (earlier Bangalore), India
Bengaluru City meets a large part of its water needs from deep groundwater. As Bengaluru gets paved over, recharge from rainfall reduces, and the city floods. If the residents and institutions of the city dig a million wells, it would not only help send rainwater to replenish the water table and mitigate flooding but also help revive the livelihoods of the Mannu Vaddars, a traditional but marginalized well-digging community.
Well diggers laughing at work, by journalist Radhika Viswanathan
Keep water in public hands!
Yaounde, Cameroon
Keep water in public hands!
Yaounde, Cameroon
Ten years of water privatization have affected about 43% of the Cameroonian population, with women and children bearing the brunt. In 2019, African Center for Advocacy (ACA) launched the «Keep Water in Public Hands» campaign with a coalition of civil society, media, unions and grassroots organisations to stop the corporate agenda of forcing the government to privatize water. This movement has contributed to stopping water privatization and to advancing the human right to water in Cameroon.
Activists demonstrate during the African week against water privatization in the streets of Yaounde, Cameroon. Photograph: African Center for Advocacy (ACA).
CATEGORY: ENERGY
No Bicycle, No Planet
Guazapa, El Salvador
No Bicycle, No Planet
Guazapa, El Salvador
To reduce the impacts of climate change, CESTA’s “No Bicycle, No Planet” campaign promotes bicycle transport in Guazapa, with bicycle ordinances, cycle routes, six women with bicycle workshops and road safety education for 1,000 young people. At the national level, 50 bicycle workshops were established, 20 run by women, road safety education for 5,000 students, a bicycle promotion law, 12 municipalities with bicycle ordinances and bicycle lanes are being built.
Women cyclists of Guazapa, by CESTA Friends of the Earth El Salvador
Valencia walks towards the future: the cycling revolution in Valencia
Valencia, Spain
Valencia walks towards the future: the cycling revolution in Valencia
Valencia, Spain
For decades, Valencia was a city that revered motor vehicles and boasted about the quantity and fluidity of its traffic. However, in the summer of 2015, the municipal authorities took a step towards reversing this situation. The climate emergency scenario demanded it, but also the desire to improve the quality of life of its inhabitants, who, with the promotion of cycling and the new pedestrianisation, save energy and improve their economy.
Valencia's town hall square, traditionally occupied by cars, is now completely pedestrianized, by journalist Lis Gaibar
100% renewable energy for Gaza
Gaza, Palestine
100% renewable energy for Gaza
Gaza, Palestine
Clean Energy Initiative in Gaza strip aims to find significant solutions for Energy scarcity in Gaza, bringing light and hope for Gazan people. The Clean Energy Initiative eliminates darkness in Gaza by bringing clean energy into community hands, with a special focus on empowering women as Sustainable Energy Leaders. The initiative brings women together to transform the energy system in Palestine and to lead the decision-making processes in the clean energy sector.
Gazaties installing a solar panel on one of Gaza's rooftops, by PENGON Friends of the Earth Palestine
CATEGORY: HOUSING
Social, cultural, and economic empowerment in Bukit Duri Urban Kampung reconstruction
Jakarta, Indonesia
Social, cultural, and economic empowerment in Bukit Duri Urban Kampung reconstruction
Jakarta, Indonesia
Kampung Susun Produktif Tumbuh is one of the symbols of community victory against forced eviction in Jakarta. The rebuilt Bukit Duri settlement stands for urban kampung life; that is, a socially, culturally, and economically tight-knit community in a spatial unit. The design is flexible to allow each family to expand when opportunities come, in support of human agency in housing development, and provides space for water, reflecting on Bukit Durit residents’ first-hand experience as a flood-resilient community.
Bukit Duri residents celebrating their lawsuit victory at Central Jakarta Court, September 2017. Photo by Ciliwung Merdeka.
Entrepatios
Madrid, Spain
Entrepatios
Madrid, Spain
Entrepatios is a neighbourhood community residing in a right-to-use cooperative housing building in Madrid since 2020. The high environmental standards of the building are combined with a democratic and collective organization which is sensitive to the differences among the inhabitants. Its intense community life is connected to the neighbourhood, trying to practise in the present what is desired for the cities of the future.
Kids playing in front of the building owned by the cooperative Entrepatios Las Carolinas, by journalist Álvaro Minguito
Kirtipur Sambriddha Awas – relocation of road construction project affected slum dwellers
Kirtipur, Nepal
Kirtipur Sambriddha Awas – relocation of road construction project affected slum dwellers
Kirtipur, Nepal
Kirtipur Housing Project is the first planned urban relocation project in Nepal. This project gave a successful alternative to forced eviction. The project was initiated by Kathmandu Metropolitan City in partnership with Lumanti and the communities, to relocate the slum families affected by the road construction project. A total of 43 families were relocated to a green and spacious settlement built on 444 sq.ft of land. Establishment of an ‘Urban Community Support Fund’ proved to be the successful approach in the sustainability of the project.
Some of the slum dwellers who were affected by the government-initiated road project in front of their new houses, By Lumanti Support Group for Shelter
CATEGORY: FOOD
Women for Food Sovereignty in Cochabamba
Cochabamba, Bolivia
Women for Food Sovereignty in Cochabamba
Cochabamba, Bolivia
The Women In Progress organisation is a group of 15 women dedicated to the production and commercialisation of organic vegetables under an associative and solidarity economy scheme. This enterprise, identified by the EcoMujer brand and certified by the SPG (Participatory Guarantee System), promotes ecology and the social and economic empowerment of women, and fights for the food security of women producers and the preservation of biodiversity to be included in public policy agendas.
Part of Women In Progress association from Carcaje in the shop where they promote social economy, sustainable agriculture and food sovereignty and security, by Women in Progress Social Organization of Carcaje Azirumani Bartolina Sisa Complex
Building the movement for agroecological urban gardening to ensure food sovereignty
Penang, George Town, Malaysia
Building the movement for agroecological urban gardening to ensure food sovereignty
Penang, George Town, Malaysia
This agroecological urban farming movement is a positive vision based on the principles of simple, low-cost, traditional, healthy sustainable food that challenges the dominant narrative of the industrial food system. They demonstrate that you can grow your own food anywhere – small yard, balcony, or street corner. This project connects people to nature and each other, creating a movement of small farmers and urban dwellers who are together building a sustainable future and ensuring food sovereignty.
Nurturing the young students of SK Tanjung Bungah planting a vegetable garden at their school premise, by Theeban Gunasekaran
Sahaja Aharam: linking urban consumers to rural producers
Hyderabad, India
Sahaja Aharam: linking urban consumers to rural producers
Hyderabad, India
Sahaja Aaharam is an Independent Farmer Produce Company under the Center for Sustainable Agriculture dedicated to connecting and creating awareness among farmers and consumers through producer co-operatives. They aim to ensure maximum financial and economic benefit to the farmers, to provide nutritional food choices to the consumers and to bring ecological benefits to the environment.
Two women from the Collective of Farmers registered as Farmer Producer Company, Sahaja Aharam, by journalist Jaideep Hardikar