World Mayor: Honouring outstanding mayors since 2004

	2023 winners		About World Mayor	2023 Finalists	2023 Shortlist		20-year History	Press & Media


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.

		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)
	The shortlist of nominees for the 2025 World Mayor Prize and Awards has been announced The 15 World Mayor Prize and Awards nominees represent towns and cities in 14 countries. Some of the places are small, others are home to hundreds of thousands of people. You choose the winners. Please comment and vote
June 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. The mayors nominated for this year’s Prize and Awards all recognise that poverty destroys human potential, livelihoods, and even lives. They have initiated programmes to reduce and possibly eliminate all forms of poverty. Many mayors and their communities also contribute to poverty relief in parts of the world struck by strife and the lack of basic necessities for families to survive. The late US President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter said, “The measure of a society is found in how it treats its weakest and most helpless citizens.” In recognition of the immense hardship inflicted on the People of Gaza, the 2025 World Mayor Project has reserved a special nomination for all those in Gaza who daily save lives, feed the old and the young and console those who have lost friends and family members in the war. The recipients of the World Mayor Prize and Awards will be chosen based on the persuasiveness of your arguments. By participating in the 2025 World Mayor Project, you contribute, however small, to reducing poverty. Thank you. Please nominate your candidate for the World Mayor Prize or write to us with any questions. The 2025 World Mayor list of nominees


	The winners of the World Mayor Prize and Awards 2023 The winners of the 2023 World Mayor Prize and the World Mayor Community, Friendship and Jury Awards were announced on 30 January 2024
			Elke Kahr, Mayor of Graz, Austria has been awarded the 2023 World Mayor Prize for her selfless dedication to her city and its people, as city councillor and mayor. Mayor Kahr has proven that citizen-orientated (bürgernahe) local politics can be compelling and successful. Her decision to share a large part of her salary with people in need has attracted worldwide admiration. DETAILS
			Tony Keats, Mayor of Dover, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada has been given the 2023 World Mayor Community Award for his extraordinary service to his town and its people since 1996. He has shown that mayors from small communities can become role models for civic leaders everywhere. DETAILS
			Stefan Fassbinder, Mayor of Greifswald, Germany, has been given the 2023 World Mayor Friendship Award for his and the City of Greifswald's cooperation with and support of communities in Ukraine, Poland and Brazil. The Mayor, together with many of his fellow citizens, has also provided generous assistance to refugees arriving from war-torn Ukraine DETAILS
			Manuel De Araújo, Mayor of Quelimane, Mozambique, has been given the 2023 World Mayor Jury Award for his defence of democratic values in his country and his ambitious plans and initiatives to make Quelimane one of the most sustainable cities in Africa DETAILS

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

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.

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The City Mayors Foundation London SW1 Email Tel: +44 20 8439 7978		ABOUT WORLD MAYOR The World Mayor Project was conceived in 2004 by the City Mayors Foundation to raise the profile of mayors worldwide and honour those who have contributed exceptionally to local and urban affairs. Mayors must carry out their duties selflessly and beyond reproach. The Project has no association with any city or organisation and is run on philanthropic lines. Any kind of revenue is NOT sought and will be rejected if offered. DETAILS Winners of the World Mayor Prize since 2004: Edi Rama, Tirana (2004); Dora Bakoyannis, Athens (2005); John So, Melbourne (2006); Helen Zille, Cape Town (2008); Marcelo Ebrard, Mexico City (2010); Iñaki Azkuna, Bilbao (2012); Naheed Nenshi, Calgary (2014); Bart Somers, Mechelen (2016); Valeria Mancinelli, Ancona (2018); Ahmed Aboutaleb, Rotterdam (2021); Philippe Rio, Grigny (2021); Elke Kahr, Graz (2023) DETAILS