City leaders discuss disruptive tech at the Mayors Innovation Studio
October 23, 2017
By James Anderson, Bloomberg Philanthropies Government Innovation Team
At Bloomberg Philanthropies, we work with thousands of city leaders in hundreds of cities around the world—and yet there is one topic that comes up time and time again: Disruptive technology. That’s because mayors understand that new technologies are shaping our future. They also know that if they want a stake in the game, they first have to get in the game.
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Follow the Data Podcast Episode 12: Cornell Tech: Engineering the Future of New York City
October 13, 2017
The 12th episode of Follow the Data celebrates the launch of the new Cornell Tech campus on Roosevelt Island, by looking back at the project’s inception. Cornell Tech is the first campus ever built for the digital age, bringing together academia and industry to create pioneering leaders and transformational new research, products, companies and social ventures.
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What the Mayors Challenge team learned after offering training to 4,000 city employees in 308 U.S. cities
October 3, 2017
By Anne Emig, Bloomberg Philanthropies Government Innovation Team
The Mayors Challenge has been an integral part of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ strategy to help city leaders generate innovative solutions since 2013. But we’ve never attempted a competition on the scale of what we’re doing right now.
After successful runs in the U.S. (2013), Europe (2014), and Latin America and the Caribbean (2016), we brought the Mayors Challenge back to the United States this year as the first investment in Michael Bloomberg’s $200-million American Cities Initiative, a recently announced suite of new and expanded offerings that will strengthen U.S. cities through bold leadership.
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Bloomberg 35: Broadening perspectives by shaping talent and communities with arts and culture
September 28, 2017
Since our earliest days, our founder Mike Bloomberg has been committed to celebrating and supporting creativity and innovation, and Bloomberg LP has always valued the powerful impact the arts can have on cities and individuals. Through Mike’s board leadership and support for cultural organizations around the world, Bloomberg has helped these institutions to strengthen communities, drive economic growth and serve a vital role in education.
As our company has continued to grow, we’ve continued to strengthen our cultural support and in turn have been able to provide unique experiences and cultural access for our employees, community and clients.
Through Bloomberg Philanthropies, our global cultural partnerships advance creativity, innovation, access and new technologies in the arts. In this Bloomberg 35 post, we highlight some of our key cultural partners and their programs that leverage art to educate the next generation of creative leaders.
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2017 Global Adult Tobacco Survey Shows a 20 Percent Reduction of Smoking in Ukraine
September 15, 2017
By Advocacy Center LIFE, Ukraine
New data from the 2017 Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS), presented on September 5 in Kyiv, is a testimony to the success of Ukraine in our fight against the tobacco epidemic. Everyone who is passionate about public health and noncommunicable disease prevention was looking forward to learn about the progress that Ukraine has made in reducing tobacco consumption since 2010, when the first GATS was conducted.
According to the results of the survey, daily smoking prevalence has dropped by nearly 20 percent during the last seven years, from 25% in 2010 to 20% in 2017.
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The faces behind the Data for Health program in Bangladesh
September 8, 2017
By Nadine Clopton, a rising junior at Lehigh University and summer intern for Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Public Health team
The Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Data for Health Initiative has been partnering with governments in 20 low- and middle income countries (LMICs) to support strengthening their health data and data use since 2015. Co-funded by the Australia Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Data for Health is delineated into three complimentary arms: the Data Impact arm focuses on using data to support public health decision making, the Noncommunicable Disease Survey arm supports household and mobile phone surveys in collecting NCD risk factor data, and the Civil Registration and Vital Statistics arm works to strengthen birth and death data. The work is country led through relevant Ministries and Country Coordinators. Oftentimes, it is hard to conceptualize the personal impact that a program of this magnitude has.
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Building blocks to effective public-private collaboration
September 7, 2017
City governments constantly struggle to address complex challenges with limited budgets – and as cities grow, mayors are feeling increasing pressure to find new ways to meet public needs. Many are finding answers in public-private collaboration.
These partnerships can help cities increase funding, rethink the delivery of services, enhance public amenities, and pilot new programs. While every city has different needs and resources, there are some key steps every mayor can take to effectively cultivate private support and deliver results.
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Follow the Data Podcast Episode 11: Closing the Word Gap in Providence, RI
September 6, 2017
The eleventh episode of Follow the Data features the winner of the 2013 Mayors Challenge: Providence, Rhode Island. A component of Mike Bloomberg’s recently announced American Cities Initiative, and now in its fourth round, the Mayors Challenge empowers city leaders to think big, be bold, and uncover inventive ideas that have the power to spread.
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How data is empowering city climate action
August 24, 2017
By Kelly Shultz, Bloomberg Philanthropies Environment Team, Hanya Gartner of C40 Cities, and Kyra Appleby of CDP
As Michael Bloomberg says: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it and you can’t fix it.” Cites are leaders in the transition to sustainable economies but first they need to know where they stand. The first step for cities to get on the sustainability ladder is to measure and report.
To help with this challenge, on August 8th-9th Bloomberg Philanthropies hosted the “Empowering cities with data” workshop in collaboration with C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, CDP, and the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy. The two-day meeting was held in the City of San Francisco, in a region known as the global epicenter of tech innovation. Under San Francisco’s Mayor Edwin M. Lee, the city has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 28% from 1990 levels, while its GDP has grown by 78% and its population by almost 20%.
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On Building a Strong Team
August 22, 2017
By Stacey Gillett, Bloomberg Philanthropies Government Innovation Team
Last month, 40 mayors from around the world came together for a first-of-its-kind leadership program, the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative. A collaboration among Bloomberg Philanthropies, Harvard Business School, and the Harvard Kennedy School, the initiative is designed to connect mayors and senior city leaders with the latest information, best practices, and networks as they seek to make life better for residents.
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