On September 14th, the 15 Shortlisted Cities of the 6th Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation (Guangzhou Award) were officially released, which include Antalya, Türkiye; Bogotá, Colombia; Cape Town, South Africa; Gwangju, Korea; Halandri, Greece; Iztapalapa, Mexico; Jakarta, Indonesia; Kampala, Uganda; Kazan, Russia; Mannheim, Germany; Pimpri Chinchwad, India; Ramallah, Palestine; São Paulo, Brazil; Tehran, Iran; Xianning, China. 

The 15 shortlisted cities stand out from 274 initiatives from 193 cities and regions in 54 countries based on their innovation, effectiveness, context, and replicability and their relevance to the local implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the New Urban Agenda (NUA).

Among the shortlisted cities, Xianning of China’s Hubei province has engaged students in building a child-friendly school. With curb elevation, heart-shaped photo collection, and decoration made with recycled bottles, the road to the school gate has separated walkers from vehicles, and has been transformed into a safe and appealing environment for children.

ZHANG Yajie, Vice Chairman of the Guangzhou Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said the initiatives collected by the 6th Guangzhou Award fully reflect the stronger determination and greater faith in improving creative governance, innovation, and sustainable development.

Emilia Saiz, the Secretary General of UCLG, said, “It has become clear that the Guangzhou Award is a reference, a space for recognition, documentation, and dissemination of localized knowledge. Through the involved networks, Metropolis, and UCLG with the city of Guangzhou, we are ensuring the up-scaling of practices and the links between local, regional, and global agendas.”

Jordi Vaquer, the Secretary General of Metropolis, noted that with Metropolis partnering with Guangzhou and UCLG on the Guangzhou Award for over 10 years, he saw a community of innovators committed to sharing for mutual benefit.

Azza Sirry, Chair of the Technical Committee, introduced that this year’s Guangzhou Award has received many submissions with high-quality initiatives, whether from the perspective of innovative urban development or the attention to social inclusion and civic participation. Those initiatives all boasted relatively advanced representativeness and reference value.

After the release, with the topic of High-quality Development and Urban Innovation, Kobie Brand, Deputy Secretary General of ICLEI, Chief Executive Officer and Regional Director of ICLEI Africa; Dyan Currie, Chief Planner of the Brisbane City Council and Lead of Brisbane 2032 Host City Office, together with other experts and scholars, discussed how to make cities healthier, safer and more livable places for high-quality life by promoting the modernization of the urban industrial system, governance capacity and culture type. 

The Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation (Guangzhou Award) has been co-sponsored by the City of Guangzhou, UCLG, and Metropolis since 2012. With more than 1,300 initiatives worldwide over the past five cycles, it has become a global platform for global knowledge creation and city-to-city learning on urban innovation.