Peshawar BRT shortlisted for award

PESHAWAR: After achieving the Gold Standard BRT Award and the Sustainable Transport Award earlier this year, Zu Peshawar has once again brought an honor to the country by getting shortlisted as one of the five finalists for the World Resources Institute (WRI), Ross Center Prize for Cities Award -- 2021- 22.

While the Gold Standard BRT Award is limited to BRT Systems and the Sustainable Transport Award only includes urban mobility projects, the WRI Prize for Cities is not limited to transportation alone and includes all kinds of transformative projects in cities including sectors such as agriculture, climate change, oceans, energy, forests, water ,etc.

The WRI Ross Center Prize for Cities award recognizes cutting-edge, innovative projects and initiatives for their contribution to inclusive and sustainable urban transformation.

The theme for the 2021-22 Prize for Cities award was “Thriving Together in Turbulent Times” and WRI invited submissions from initiatives and projects demonstrating how to live and thrive in turbulent times. USD250,000 will be awarded to one grand prize winner and USD25,000 each to four runners-up. A total of 260 projects and initiatives of 155 cities from 65 countries contended for the 2021-22 Prize for Cities Award.

Five finalists were then selected from the submission pool based on an assessment by an international and multi-disciplinary evaluation team according to set criteria (innovation, impact, ripple effect etc.).

The evaluation team comprises of representatives from various international organizations (such as UN Habitat, UNESCO, World Economic Forum, World Bank, International Finance Corporation, UNHCR, ICRC etc.), academia (including Australian National University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Manchester, Durham University, University College London) and other organizations working in areas of urban development and climate change such as Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, ITDP, Resilient Cities Catalyst, Global Designing Cities Initiative at NACTO ,etc.

The finalists were announced in the 11th session of the World Urban Forum, held in Poland on 29th June, 2022. The grand prize winner will be announced by the end of this year. ZU Peshawar is selected as one of the five finalists for facilitating women, vulnerable groups.