Empowering people to shape city futures with a challenge-led approach

In the next 30 years another 2.5 billion people will call our cities home; in Africa alone, urban populations are expected to triple by 2050. Billions of people will be highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. 

Yet we lack reliable, easy-to-use, data-driven planning and mapping tools to guide future city growth in ways that are socially inclusive and resilient to climate change. In particular, we need to create better ways to empower people in rapidly growing cities to shape their communities’ futures, reflecting their actual wants and needs. 

We think a challenge prize could drive innovation in this space. 

At Challenge Works, we design and run challenge prizes to reward whoever can first or most effectively solve a problem – and we support innovators along the way to reach the goal. 

Increasingly, we’ve been working more and more with cities around the globe as partners in challenges; under these programmes, we’ve worked with city governments and mayors to frame local challenges and co-design solutions with innovators. 

To address the scale and urgency of the climate crisis, we recently identified a set of bold breakthroughs needed to adapt to the reality of a changing world – particularly for our most vulnerable communities. We think there is an urgent need to upskill and empower the next generation of city and community leaders to accelerate the creation of data-driven planning and development tools and inclusive decision-making processes.

Too often, technologies are developed in siloes and local residents are left out of the process. Cities and the people who live in them should be empowered to shape innovation to create the kinds of futures they want; for example, to decide if and how their city should embrace things like urban drones, smart housing construction, or AI-based flood protection measures. 

A challenge run in partnership with a growing city can empower the public – especially young people – to collaborate with city leaders and innovators from the beginning, to explore and use data in new ways, and to create ways to test and demonstrate new technologies in the public realm, with the input of local residents and businesses.

One reason we really like city-based challenges is that they can help local governments and city stakeholders collaborate differently. When we develop a challenge focused around a cross-sectoral mission like climate, on a time-bound schedule, local governments and community stakeholders are prompted to work together outside of standard processes. A challenge with rapidly growing cities can offer a platform to engage groups typically outside of planning processes to have a voice in future plans. 

Further, engaging innovators and city residents to co-design solutions with local authorities gives the public a bigger say in products and services that get developed (for example, by inviting residents to test out new public engagement tools or inform the design of new zero-carbon social housing) and sets up innovators to understand city contexts and processes better (such as by sharing data sets or introducing them to local stakeholders). 

Through a unique partnership among cities, innovators, and local residents, a city-based open innovation challenge can empower people in rapidly growing cities to boost their city’s future resilience and create better opportunities for the next generation of city residents. We are keen to hear from potential partners interested in collaborating on this with us!