Water as Leverage City Champions Challenge: the winners!

The Winners

The winners of the Water as Leverage City Champion Challenge, the first activity under the Water as Leverage Multilevel Climate Action Programme, presented their projects during the 12th World Urban Forum (WUF12) in Cairo, Egypt. The winners are:

Kuonkuey Design Initiative with their initiative: ‘Dallas ASILI (Adaptation Solutions, Inclusive Locally-led Infrastructure)’ from Embu, Kenya
Aquafondo with their initiative: ‘AMUNAS: Ancestral Green-Blue Solution to Improve Lima Water Resilience’ from Lima, Peru
Aldayjover with their initiative: ‘Madrid Metropolitan Forest: The Southern River Banks’ from Madrid, Spain
Entropía with their initiative: ‘The Quebrada La Torura Parks: Infrastructure for Flood Risk Mitigation’ from Entrerrios, Colombia

The Objective

The objective of this first edition of the Challenge was to identify urban stakeholders and cities who have developed initiatives that promote just and sustainable water and climate resilience. The Challenge provided a unique opportunity for collaboration among leading cities and stakeholders, offering international visibility and a chance to address critical water-related challenges through inclusive and integrated solutions. An overview of all initiatives submitted can be found here. They all demonstrate the diverse global efforts to improve urban water resilience.

These initiatives were celebrated as exemplars of innovation and collaboration and have now become part of the global Water as Leverage community. The four selected initiatives stood up for their strong alignment with the WaL Principles and their potential for scalability and impact.

A short summary of the four winning initiatives, highlighting their innovative approaches and transformative potential, can be found here.