World Mayor 2025
Mayors fighting Poverty The 2025 World Mayor Project will be managed from several locations. For operational and security reasons, nominating mayors for the 2025 Word Mayor Prize and Awards will be moved to and conducted on our secure ‘Women Mayors’ platform. The World Mayor Project is, of course, open to both men and women. | In English | En español | En français | Auf Deutsch | In italiano | |
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The most recent winners of the World Mayor Prize: Elke Kahr, Mayor of Graz, Austria (2023); Philippe Rio, Mayor of Grigny, France (2021); Ahmed Aboutaleb, Mayor of Rotterdam, Netherlands (2021); Valeria Mancinelli, Mayor of Ancona, Italy (2018) (Full history from 2004 to 2023) | ||||||
March 2025: The 2025 World Mayor Prize is dedicated to Mayors fighting poverty, particularly poverty among women and children. Poverty is an affront to humanity and human rights. It prevents hundreds of millions of people from realising their full potential. Poverty is about a lack of food, housing, health care, education, prospects, safety, resources, dignity, and, indeed, love. For the 2025 World Mayor Prize and Awards, the World Mayor Project is seeking mayors from large cities, towns and even villages who have put in place measures in support of the least well-off in their communities. The initiatives may be small-scale or have the potential to be applied by other towns and cities. We would also like to learn about mayors and their cities who co-operate nationally and internationally and engage with charitable organisations. Since the inception of World Mayor 2004, the Project has featured many mayors who have made poverty relief one of their main aims in office. We now wish to hear from many more. Please nominate a mayor who has made fighting poverty a priority. Please nominate your candidate for the World Mayor Prize or write to us with any questions. | In English | En español | En français | Auf Deutsch | In italiano | |
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The World Mayor Project The World Mayor Project was established in 2004 to discover, portray and honour exceptional mayors from all parts of the world. The Project has never been about finding the ‘best mayor’ in the world. It would indeed be ludicrous to attempt to do so. Mayors of megacities and those of small towns, mayors of affluent cities and those leading struggling communities, mayors of places at peace and those in war-torn regions require very different mindsets and qualities. Some city leaders can plan for the future with confidence while others struggle to provide basic amenities and safety for their citizens. However, despite all the different challenges, mayors who aim to selflessly serve their communities must do so beyond reproach. They must possess a genuine love for their fellow citizens and a willingness to share resources and expertise with less fortunate localities. Above all, they must respect the human rights of everyone. In 1958, former American First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt wrote: “Where do human rights begin? In small places, close to home, so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of individual people - the communities they live in, the factories, farms or offices where they work. Such are the places, towns and cities where every man, woman and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, and equal dignity without discrimination.” DETAILS World Mayor since 2004 The City Mayors Foundation has given The World Mayor Prize and Awards since 2004. Every two years, the World Mayor Project features some of the world’s most outstanding mayors, mayors who have served their fellow citizens with integrity, courage and imagination. Since 2016, the World Mayor Project has addressed some of the big issues of our time: The refugee crisis (2016); The underrepresentation of women in local government (2018); Cities during Covid (2021) and, in 2023, the strengthening of local democracy and human rights as well as the promotion of friendship between cities at a time when thousands of people are killed in senseless conflicts in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. DETAILS Code of Ethics for city leaders The City Mayors Foundation and the World Mayor Project were established in 2004 to promote, encourage and facilitate good local government. To strengthen local government further, a Code of Ethics for city leaders, who wish to perform their duties beyond all reproach, has been established. DETAILS World Mayor Prize sculpture shows courage and conviction City Mayors commissioned French artist Manuel Ferrari to design a sculpture that was as unique as the city of the winning mayor. City Mayors' founding fellow, Tann vom Hove, said: “We asked Manuel Ferrari to produce a design that shows what an inspirational mayor can achieve if they build on strong foundations.” The World Mayor Prize has been sculpted by Berlin-based sculptor Kaspar Swankey since 2004. DETAILS World Mayor winners 2023 Mayor of Graz | Mayor of Dover | Mayor of Greifswald | Mayor of Queliomone | World Mayor essays Essays by: Mayor of Dover | Mayor of Graz | Bürgermeisterin von Graz | Mayor of Greifswald |Oberbürgermeister von Greifswald | Mayor of Oliveri | Sindaco di Oliveri | Mayor of Quelimane | Mayor of Utrecht | Burgemeester van Utrecht | World Mayor interviews With: Elke Kahr, Mayor of Graz and Tony Keats, Mayor of Dover World Mayor commendations Commendations for mayors of: Braga | Bristol | Dover | Graz | Greifswald | Kyiv | Malmö | Oliveri | Quelimane | Tremblay-en-France | Utrecht | ON OTHER PAGES: Front page | The 2023 Finalists | About World Mayor 2023 | The 2023 Shortlist | The 2023 Longlist | World Mayor History | World Mayor Sculpture | Code of Ethics | Universal qualities of mayors | Press & Media | For your information: The World Mayor Project, organised by the philanthropic City Mayors Foundation since 2004, has no connection with any city or organisation and is run on strictly non-commercial lines. Sponsorships, advertising, subscriptions, donations or any other kind of revenue are NOT sought and will be rejected, if offered. Privacy: All personal information you provide us with will be treated in strict confidence. Your email addresses will NOT be passed on to any third parties. Also, we do NOT collect data by cookies or other hidden means. Please contact us if you have any further questions. Please insert 'World Mayor 2023' in the subject line of any email. © Copyright: All content of the City Mayors and World Mayor websites is protected by worldwide copyright. Please contact us if you wish to use any material from the City Mayors, World Mayor or Women Mayors websites. |
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