Durban, South Africa./Photo; courtesy
African cities have emerged among the winners of the 2025–2026 Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayors Challenge, a global competition that rewards innovative local government projects aimed at improving essential services.
Cape Town, South Africa, Beira, Mozambique, and As-Salt, Jordan, were among the 24 winners selected from over 630 applications across 20 countries.
Each winning city will receive $1 million in funding, along with operational support and resources to scale their tested innovations.
The initiative, launched by Bloomberg Philanthropies in 2014, aims to empower city governments to design creative solutions that address pressing civic challenges, from waste management to housing and food security.
In Cape Town, municipal authorities will work closely with informal settlement residents to co-create waste collection systems that reduce illegal dumping, generate employment, and improve service reliability.
The project seeks to combine practical infrastructure improvements with local engagement, ensuring that solutions are sustainable and community-led.
Beira, Mozambique, will focus on relocating families living in high-risk, flood-prone coastal areas to safer, inland neighborhoods.
The program emphasizes co-design, with residents actively involved in planning new infrastructure to preserve livelihoods while safeguarding homes.
“As a Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Mayors Challenge winner, Beira will work side-by-side with our most at-risk coastal communities’ fishermen and their families to preserve their homes, their lives, and their livelihoods before disaster strikes,” said Mayor Albano Carige.
Meanwhile, As-Salt in Jordan is tackling unemployment and urban revitalization by training youth in specialized restoration and heritage techniques.
The initiative aims to boost tourism, create jobs, and preserve the city’s historic architecture.
Mayor Ali Radwan Al-Bataineh noted, “With the support of Bloomberg Philanthropies, we are creating vibrant hubs that drive local economic growth, strengthen tourism and enterprise, and equip our youth with skills and jobs establishing new opportunities for hundreds of unemployed residents.”
The Mayors Challenge evaluates entries on novelty, potential impact, and the strength of implementation plans.
Finalist cities undergo a rigorous prototyping phase, testing their solutions in collaboration with residents to ensure effectiveness before scaling.
The winning projects exemplify local ingenuity and offer scalable models that can inspire other cities worldwide.
Cape Town’s initiative also highlights the intersection of waste management and job creation.
By formalizing and integrating informal waste pickers into the collection system, the city aims to provide stable incomes and improve recycling services.
The project reflects a broader trend across the Challenge, where municipalities are designing interventions that address social, economic, and environmental challenges simultaneously.
This round of winners illustrates the rising importance of municipal innovation in Africa and other regions, where urban populations are expanding rapidly.
More than 56% of the global population now lives in cities a number expected to reach 70% by 2050 placing immense pressure on municipal governments to provide essential services efficiently.
Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies, emphasized the importance of bold local leadership.
“The most effective city halls are bold, creative, and proactive in solving problems and meeting residents’ needs. We look forward to supporting this year’s 24 winners as they bring their innovative projects to life and to seeing their ideas spread to more cities around the world,” he said.
Other global winners include municipalities in Colombia, the Philippines, the United States, Japan, and Europe, tackling diverse challenges from AI-enabled service delivery to sustainable housing retrofits and urban flood mitigation.
African cities’ inclusion underscores the continent’s growing role in generating innovative, community-centered solutions that can be adapted to other urban contexts.
The Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayors Challenge is designed not only to fund new ideas but to cultivate a culture of experimentation and learning within local government.
By combining financial support with operational guidance, the program helps municipalities develop sustainable systems and scalable models that benefit residents over the long term.
As Cape Town, Beira, and As-Salt prepare to implement their initiatives, the projects are expected to demonstrate how targeted municipal interventions can improve daily life, strengthen local economies, and promote resilience in the face of social and environmental challenges.
The winners collectively reflect a 21st-century model of urban governance, one that places residents at the center, leverages technology, and builds local capacity to solve complex problems.
