Bloomberg Philanthropies announced on Tuesday the first 11 urban innovations added to its Cities Idea Exchange, a digital clearinghouse of evidence-based strategies for addressing urban challenges.
The goal of the Cities Idea Exchange online platform — launched last year — is to help cities more easily replicate programs and policies that are working in other jurisdictions. The platform aims to provide urban leaders with the necessary evidence and technical assistance to customize the strategies to their community.
“Cities may be culturally and demographically distinct, but they face many of the same intractable problems,” James Anderson, who leads the Government Innovation program at Bloomberg Philanthropies, said in a statement. Any city can register for free for the online platform, which also provides access to networking and grant opportunities.
Here are some of the first ideas Bloomberg Philanthropies announced will be added to the platform:
- Installing low-cost air pollution sensors to inform public behavior change and policy improvements.
- Assessing and retrofitting aging public housing for better energy efficiency.
- Implementing initiatives to connect residents in need with those who can provide support. For example, a city-led online donation platform in Istanbul has helped residents pay utility bills and access global aid in the wake of a major earthquake.
- Banning smoking in certain public places and educating the public about the dangers of secondhand smoke.
- Converting shipping containers into temporary housing for people experiencing homelessness.
Bloomberg Philanthropies assessed each idea added to the platform against the Nesta Standards of Evidence, a framework developed in 2012 for evaluating if innovations are creating positive change. Bloomberg Philanthropies said in a press release that it also looked at the cost and complexity of each idea, as well as the amount of related available documentation and the idea’s flexibility.
“We can help cities meet their biggest challenges by spreading proven solutions faster, but only if we also empower them to customize those solutions around their unique circumstances,” Bloomberg Philanthropies CEO Patricia Harris said in a statement.
The philanthropic organization says that the innovations it eventually selected for the Cities Idea Exchange “have a track record of stoking enthusiasm from stakeholders, attracting investment, rallying ambassadorship, generating political interest, and creating excitement in communities—sparking the momentum ideas need to take hold in new places.”
