RELEASE: WRI Ross Center Prize for Cities Names Five Finalists Transforming Health and Daily Life in Cities

Guided by the theme “Catalyzing Healthy Cities,” the 2025–2026 Prize highlights initiatives that respond to the growing pressures around public health, climate risk and inequality — by improving access to nature, mobility and everyday services people rely on. This year’s finalists were selected from a record 334 submissions from 230 cities in 77 countries, highlighting the scale and diversity of urban innovation worldwide. 

“Cities are facing an unprecedented convergence of health, climate and sustainability challenges,” said Ani Dasgupta, President & CEO of WRI. “The decisions they make now will shape health and resilience for decades to come. As global engines of innovation, this year’s finalists are already demonstrating how communities can unite to transform crisis into opportunity.”

“We were inspired by the creativity and the real-world results of this year’s submissions, showing the many ways urban transformation is improving people’s lives,” said Jen Shin, Global Lead for the Prize. “These finalists show what it looks like when cities turn urgent challenges into practical action — grounded in local needs, delivering measurable impact and demonstrating that healthier, more inclusive cities are within reach for communities everywhere.”

The 2025-2026 Prize finalists are:

• Atlanta Beltline (Atlanta, United States): Transforming a 22-mile loop of abandoned railway into a network of parks, trails and transit, the Atlanta Beltline has made life healthier for everyday Atlantans by delivering more than 470 acres of green space, over 4,200 affordable housing units and over 29,000 permanent jobs within half a mile of the corridor. The project has become a global reference for large-scale urban redevelopment, showing how cities can guide low-carbon growth, adapt existing infrastructure for mixed-use development and manage the pressures of rapid development.
• Sistema Verde Urbano (Loja, Ecuador): Through its Urban Green System, the Municipality of Loja has improved livability for Loja’s residents by stitching together more than 600 hectares of parks, forests and river corridors into a continuous green network that runs through the city. The system brings nature closer to daily life for 214,000 residents — supporting mobility, improving public health and setting a new standard for nature-based urban planning across Ecuador and the Andean region.
• Revitalizing Informal Settlements and Environments (RISE) (Makassar, Indonesia): Led by Monash University, RISE works with communities in Makassar’s informal settlements to redesign local water and sanitation systems using nature-based solutions — such as wetlands and natural drainage — that clean wastewater and reduce flood risk. Built with local residents, these low-cost systems are improving daily life for 1,400 people and benefiting 6,000 more, while helping inform participatory planning and urban health policy in Indonesia and beyond.
• Move As One Coalition (Manila, The Philippines): The Move As One Coalition — a national civil society movement of more than 140 organizations — has helped turn transportation reform into a people-led campaign for a healthier Manila. By blending grassroots organizing with policy advocacy, the coalition has secured nearly $1B for public transport, secured better pay and protections for tens of thousands of workers and helped make transit safer and more accessible for low-income commuters. The coalition has also supported the creation of more than 800km of bike lanes, helped launch the country’s first bus rapid transit system and trained 140 young leaders pushing inclusive transport across the country.
• Book Bunk (Nairobi, Kenya): Book Bunk is restoring Nairobi’s heritage library sites and transforming them into “Palaces for the People” — vibrant public hubs for learning, civic care and environmental stewardship. By revitalizing libraries as social infrastructure, the project delivers programs spanning sustainability, ecology, arts and wellness, giving nearly 200,000 people access to safe public spaces and new opportunities. The model is now scaling across Nairobi and nationally, with more than 1,000 libraries mapped across Kenya for future restoration.

“The WRI Ross Center Prize for Cities is about discovering transformative urban solutions that are already working and powerful enough to inspire action far beyond where they began,” said Rogier van den Berg, Global Director of WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities. “The projects recognized this year show how cities can champion health, resilience and sustainability through ambitious but practical ideas. They offer models that other cities and communities can learn from, tailor and put into action.”

Past grand prize winners have shown how urban innovation can deliver wide-ranging benefits for residents — from Fortaleza’s Re-Ciclo (2024), which combines electric mobility and improved livelihoods for informal waste pickers, and Barranquilla’s Todos al Parque (2022),  transforming long-neglected spaces into lively neighborhood parks, to Sustainable Food Production for a Resilient Rosario (2021) advancing urban agriculture and climate resilience, and SARSAI’s work in Dar es Salaam and other African cities (2019) to make daily journeys to school safer for children.

About World Resources Institute (WRI)
WRI works to improve people’s lives, protect and restore nature and stabilize the climate. As an independent research organization, we leverage our data, expertise and global reach to influence policy and catalyze change across systems like food, land and water; energy; and cities. Our 2,000+ staff work on the ground in more than a dozen focus countries and with partners in over 50 nations.