Initiatives from five continents win Guangzhou Awards

By Neil Pierce, the founder and editor-in-chief of Citiscope.

One city per continent emerged as winners of the 2014 Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation, selected by a jury and announced in Guangzhou, China on November 28.

The five cities were selected after public presentations by 15 finalist cities. Those cities had been selected from more than 200 submissions by an international technical committee that met in Guangzhou in September. Citiscope previously reported on the technical committee deliberations, background on Guangzhou city, and each of the 15 finalist city submissions.

The five winners are:

Antioquia of Colombia, for its “Educational Parks for All” modeled on pioneering experiments in Medellín.

Bristol, United Kingdom, for hosting lively public events and making sustainability an integral way of improving peoples’ lives.

Christchurch, New Zealand, for its remarkable recovery and citizen outreach after a series of deadly earthquakes and aftershocks in 2010.

Dakar, Senegal, for successfully accessing mainstream capital markets for a major capital project — a first in sub-Saharan Africa outside of South Africa.

Hangzhou, China, for the country’s first public bike sharing program, now the largest of any city in the world.

In comments at the award ceremony, Bristol Mayor George Ferguson said: “This is far better than the Oscar! This is about real life. This is about changing people’s life.”