21 Global Cities Call for Solutions to Improve 121 Million Lives

 Today, twenty-one global cities and Citymart.com announce the LLGA|Cities Pilot the Future program to discover and implement the most promising solutions that meet pressing social and urban challenges. Over the coming 18 months, the initiative will evaluate around 1,000 submissions, and implement real-life pilots in all partner cities to improve the quality of life of their 121 million citizens.

The participating cities vary in population size from less than 100 thousand to 21 million. They are: Aalborg, Barcelona, Boston, Christchurch, Eindhoven, Fukuoka DC, L’Hospitalet, Lagos, Lavasa, London, Mexico, Oulu, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Rosario, San Francisco, Sant Cugat, Sheffield, Tacoma, Terrassa and York.

Challenges are presented by global cities – with the support of Oracle, the UN Global Compact Cities Programme and The Climate Group – in areas such as mobility, economic development, social inclusion, health & wellbeing, urban management, lighting, energy, culture, future government and sustainable lifestyles.  In May 2013, key city leaders and 150 nominated solutions providers selected from over 4,500 candidates will come together in San Francisco to share challenges, opportunities and kick-start implementation during the 3-day LLGA Summit on Service Innovation in Cities.

Xavier Trias, Mayor of Barcelona, says “LLGA|Cities Pilot the Future is a great opportunity to identify and share solutions to the global challenges that cities are facing. Every city is a world in itself, and we are living in an urban world, this is why it is so important to identify those common problems which require shared solutions. Barcelona has participated in all LLGA editions, and shares the vision of this transparent process with leading technology companies, social entrepeneurs, and international research centers. Furthermore, LLGA is a great opportunity for Catalan companies to join in and participate in this global process.”

San Francisco Mayor, Ed Lee,says “San Francisco is excited to be the first city in the United States to host the LLGA Summit on Service Innovation in Cities.  San Francisco, as the Innovation Capital of the World, will facilitate a vigorous exchange of ideas and help develop innovative solutions to common urban challenges including transportation, the environment and healthcare that will build a better world.”

Sascha Haselmayer, CEO of Citymart.com says  “LLGA|Cities Pilot the Future has transformed the way cities approach solving problems and improving lives. After a selection process involving more than 350 cities, we are proud to work on the challenges presented by our fully committed partner cities to make a difference already in the short term, creating new markets, getting improvements to citizens faster and making significant savings along the way”.

Juan Rada, Senior Vice President of Oracle, Public Sector, says “We are delighted to be working with Citymart.com and cities around the world to develop transformational solutions that address urban infrastructure, service, and operational challenges.  The future looks very bright for the development of innovative ideas. ”

In the past three editions, LLGA has attracted 1,519 entries from 70 countries. By providing systematic market intelligence to decision-makers in cities, the program has proven to help cities discover innovative solutions that reach citizens 3 times faster with 80% lower spending.

Pilots and transformations to citizens’ experiences and opportunities can be seen in cities around the world:

• Citizens in Barcelona benefit from more fluid transport through real-time traffic monitoring;
• San Francisco’s citizens will enjoy more efficient and sustainable urban services thanks to the implementation of a citywide wireless communication network by Paradox Engineering.
• Thousands of citizens in Lagos, working in the world’s third largest movie cluster, will see their livelihoods transformed by eliminating endemic DVD piracy undermining the economy through the Nollywood Upgrade Project.

Entries to LLGA can be submitted free of charge until 31January 2013. A shortlist of the 5 nominated solutions will be presented by each city in March 2013. The solutions selected to implement a pilot will be announced in a Summit in May 2013, hosted by the city of San Francisco.

Adebiyi Fatai Mabadeje, Chairman Lagos Innovation Advisory Council, Lagos State says "We are once again participating in this program which seeks to promote innovation in service delivery by tapping into the more than 7 billion potential innovators worldwide and hope LLGA  will realize the solution that will best resolve our city’s challenge"

Paul James, Director of the UN Global Compact Cities Programme, says “For all of the information swirling around cities there are few clear platforms for communication that bring urban decision-makers and technology and process providers together. Good stories about good practices are not enough. We need lines of direct connection. The Cities Programme is excited to be a strong supporter of this project.”

About Citymart.com /LLGA/Cities Pilot the Future

Citymart.com is a global marketplace for cities based in Copenhagen (Denmark) and Barcelona (Spain), working with more than 80 cities and 1,000 companies and research centers in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas. Its mission is to open the market for service innovation in cities and overcome key technologcal, organizational  and trade barriers.

The organization, and its one-of a kind program LLGA| Cities Pilot the Future, has been recognized by leading global organizations such as the Clinton Global Initiative, the UN Global Compact Cities Programme and Ashoka Innovators for the Public for its transformative impact on improving decision-making, transparency and accountability in cities around the world.

Social media: twitter.com/LLGACities and facebook.com/citymartcom

For information about LLGA visit www.llga.org  and www.citymart.com

About Oracle

Oracle’s City Platform solutions leverage the company’s best-in-class portfolio of products to address complex business processes relevant to the public sector, helping speed time to market, reduce costs and gain a competitive edge. 

For more information about Oracle, visit www.oracle.com

About The Climate Group

The Climate Group is an independent, not-for-profit organization, which brings together a global coalition of the world’s most powerful governments, brands and public figures across Asia, Europe and North America. Since 2004, they’ve been working with governments, business leaders and the world’s most influential individuals -- to push for the policies, technologies and investment we need to make the Clean Revolution commercially viable. Together, we have the power to create a smarter, better, more prosperous future for all.

For more information about The Climate Group visit www.theclimategroup.org

About the UN Global Compact Cities Programme

The UN Global Compact Cities Programme was initiated by former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan in 2003. It is a discrete component of the Global Compact, based in Melbourne and New York. The UN Global Compact Cities Programme provides an innovative framework for cities to develop and implement sustainable solutions to urban challenges of a long-term and often intractable nature. It was developed in response to the need to rethink sustainability approaches and to enable meaningful engagement of cities across all their activities—economic, ecological, political and cultural. By utilizing a common methodology, ‘Circles of Sustainability’, UN Global Compact Cities Programme combines the knowledge, experience and resources inherent within municipalities, business and civil society to bring together the strengths of each.

For more information about The UN Global Compact Cities Programme visit www.citiesprogramme.com

Citymart.com

Citymart.com

Living Labs Global is a non-profit association based in Copenhagen and Barcelona working with 50 global cities and 500 businesses, research and technology centres to promote the use of new technologies to meet some of the major challenges meeting cities today.

Cities include Barcelona, Birmingham, Caceres, Cape Town, Coventry, Derry-Londonderry, Eindhoven, Glasgow, Guadalajara, Hamburg, Lagos, Mexico City, New Taipei City, Rio de Janeiro, San Francisco, Sant Cugat, Santiago de Chile, Tainan, and Terrassa.

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