Big money for city projects

City folk: Wolfgang Nowak of the Alfred Herrhausen Society and jury members Nomfundo Walaza, UCT's Prof Edgar Pieterse and Malika Ndlovu enjoy the sights of Cape Town, the recipient of a major international award.

UCT's African Centre for Cities (ACC) will have a hand in selecting a Cape Town project (or projects) to receive the 2012 Deutsche Bank Urban Age Award, a major international prize focused on the world's cities.

The annual award, made by the Alfred Herrhausen Society of the German-based Deutsche Bank, is made to projects that come up with creative solutions to the problems - and opportunities - that face the billions around the world living in cities. In November, the Society named Cape Town as the 2012 recipient of the award, which is valued at US$100 000 (around R750 000).

Cape Town will become the fifth city from which such projects will be selected. Previous projects have won the award in Mumbai (India), São Paulo (Brazil), Istanbul (Turkey) and Mexico City (Mexico).

The award forms part of the Society's international Urban Age project and is run with LSE Cities, a centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

An international jury chaired by the ACC's director, Professor Edgar Pieterse, will select the winning project, which will be announced in April 2012. The jury includes LSE Cities and Urban Age director, Ricky Burdett; Tony Williams, the former mayor of Washington DC; Cape Town poet and playwright Malika Ndlovu; TEN Arquitectos founder and architect Enrique Norten; Desmond Tutu Peace Centre CEO, Nomfundo Walaza; and Andrew Boraine, CEO of the Cape Town Partnership.

"With the population reaching seven billion, we need to ask ourselves how we govern and use our resources to create a sustainable future," said Pieterse. "The Urban Age award will recognise and honour people who despite the odds are making a difference and creating spaces for healthy cities."