Using data sounds great until you start to see that what you’re doing doesn’t work, that what you’re paying for isn’t making a difference. But of course that’s where the real value comes in. Thanks to Bloomberg Philanthropies, we’re making headway on that front.
Mayor Tony Yarber
City of Jackson, Mississippi
The Mayors Challenge
Using Competitions to Create Opportunities for Cities to Boldly Experiment
Surfacing new, replicable, and bold solutions to urban challenges
In the United States and Europe, the Mayors Challenge offered city leaders powerful incentives that encouraged them to develop creative new approaches to their cities’ most pressing problems. With our assistance, the winning cities have since been working to bring their ideas to life—testing and adapting them along the way.
- A program in Providence, Rhode Island, is helping increase the number of words heard by children in low-income households before they enter kindergarten.
- Santa Monica, California, developed and published a first-of-its-kind index of residents’ well-being, which is now informing policy with replication potential and interest from around the globe.
- Barcelona, Spain, began piloting a platform that connects friends, family, professional caregivers and volunteers to engage and empower at-risk elderly residents.
Building on these successes, we’re thrilled to bring the Mayors Challenge to cities in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2016—a region experiencing record urban growth and whose citizens are demanding more responsive, transparent, and effective public services.
The Smart Cities Challenge
Partnering to Improve Quality of Life in India's Cities
Helping the Government of India use innovation and competition to improve the way it allocates billions in urban development funds
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office in 2014, he pledged that billions would be spent to help cities undertake ambitious transformations that improve quality of life and expand urban opportunity. He invited Bloomberg Philanthropies to help design and execute India’s first-ever competition to distribute national urban development funding—what would become the Smart Cities Challenge.
- Bloomberg Philanthropies helped government officials devise the competition guidelines and then developed a robust program of support for chronically under-resourced Indian municipal officials.
- The effort supported the government’s commitment to running a transparent, merit-based grant-making process, breaking significantly with past practice.
- The Government of India is now exploring other ways competitive models can be used to spur innovation, local buy-in, and better results for India’s rapidly growing population.
What Works Cities
Helping Cities Use Data and Evidence to Improve People's Lives
Helping cities use data more effectively
Our What Works Cities program is helping mayors enhance their use of data and evidence to engage residents; improve services and government efficiency; and strengthen communities. At the same time, the program is creating a standard for what data-driven decision-making in the public sector looks like and, importantly, what it can achieve for residents. Twenty seven cities were admitted to the What Works Cities program in 2015. The program will reach 100 cities by the end of 2018. Through technical support and peer-to-peer learning, Bloomberg Philanthropies is helping city managers better address issues like homelessness, job growth, and public safety.
100 cities
in What Works Cities program by the end of 2018