Rwanda Receives World’s Most Inventive Inclusive Prosperity Practice Award

Rwanda capital city Kigali has received the "Most Inventive Inclusive Prosperity Practice" Award at the inaugural event held in Bilbao, Spain.

This is no ordinary feat as the award recognizes a city that has developed into an urban city. Kigali is highly rated around the world for its environmental practices and inclusive policies.

You will recall that Kigali was mentioned in the Forbes' list of the 20 best places to visit in 2020 last month. In the ranking, the Rwandan capital ranked toe-to-toe with top cities around the world.

According to the organizers of the PICSA awards, Kigali was awarded for upholding environmental protection values. Notable among these values is Rwanda's practice for bi-monthly car-free days where sport is done to fight non-communicable diseases, organize general tests and health checkups on-site, and large internet connection in public spaces, among others.

The inaugural 2019 PICSA index also recognized the world's top-performing cities for inclusive prosperity.

The Prosperity & Inclusion City Seal and Awards (PICSA) event in Spain over the weekend was the launch of the awards and Rwanda will go down in record to be the first country to win the prestigious award.

PICSA Index is a quality of life assessment that mainly focuses on economic and social inclusivity.

Inclusive prosperity is defined as a measure of economic productivity that reflects how far all sectors of the population are empowered to contribute to the economy and share in its benefits.

It aims to show what makes cities successful, both economically and socially.

The city of Zurich, a global center for banking and finance, in Switzerland, was ranked number one on the top 20 list of most successful cities in the world. It was followed by Vienna, Copenhagen, Luxembourg, Helsinki, Taipei, Alone, Ottawa, Kiev, and Geneva, in that order.

Kigali is not among the top 20 but was awarded a special award for its inventive, inclusive prosperity practices.

City of Kigali mayor, Prudence Rubingisa said: "The City of Kigali is excited to have won this award. This recognition is for us another example of the great achievement from the joint efforts of all stakeholders involved in CoK development agenda. We are looking forward to keeping Kigali a green, clean and inclusive city."

The index analyses 113 cities across the world, and while other indexes rely on GDP, this cannot measure the levels of inequality, and it is the reason none of the wealthiest cities in the world has made it into the top 20.

Header Image Credit: Lonely PLanet