We’re excited to announce the 15 finalists of the Resilience Innovation through Scaling Entrepreneurship (RISE) Urban Challenge. The RISE Urban Innovation Challenge aims to convert innovative urban ideas that are meeting resilience needs in informality contexts and scale them to sustainable ideas. After a rigorous global selection process, the team has chosen 15 initiatives. Over the next few months, the finalists will receive tailored support to maximise their impact, opportunities to connect with potential funders, and additional support to help them accelerate the shift toward more inclusive and resilient urban systems.
Meet the finalists :
For profit
RODA Recycling Delivery: Advancing Social Equity for Waste Pickers
Lead organisation: SOLOS
Country: Brazil
In Brazil, just 4% of waste is recycled, with most recycling done by underpaid, informal waste pickers, many of them women. This project introduces SOLOS’ door-to-door selective waste collection system in Salvador to address this challenge. In partnership with waste pickers, the initiative provides training, low-carbon vehicles, Personal Protective Equipment, and fair pay, while establishing a worker-managed Recycling Center. By formalising recycling, it enhances urban resilience through environmental sustainability, economic empowerment, and collaboration with the city and key partners.
Resilient City Platform
Lead organisation: Qala AI Ltd.
Country: Kazakhstan
Qala AI’s Resilient City Platform equips city leaders with an AI-powered tool that tackles complex urban challenges by integrating telecom, satellite, the Internet of Things, and municipal data. The platform looks at five key areas, social infrastructure, inequality, housing, mobility, and urban health, to uncover hidden risks and predict how problems in one area can affect others. Through a natural language interface, it transforms complex queries into actionable maps and policy briefs. With planned pilots in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and the MENA region, the platform supports equitable, evidence-based planning.
Carbon Harvest Tanzania: Turning CO into Clean Air and Sustainable Materials
Lead organisation: Amshakilimo Company Ltd
Country: Tanzania
This innovative technology captures carbon directly from the air and transforms it into sustainable building materials. By reducing CO₂ levels, it cools urban areas, and cuts reliance on high-carbon construction. Scalable across cities, this initiative supports climate adaptation and green economic growth in Tanzania.
LivingWaters Systems: The World’s First Portable Rain Harvesting Gutter Units for Refugee and Off-Grid Settlements
Lead organisation: Living Waters Systems
Country: Colombia
Living Waters Systems provides affordable, portable rainwater harvesting kits for refugee and off-grid communities. Small enough to fit in a laptop sleeve, the kits are being piloted in Northern Colombia to support clean water access, validate impact, and inform future scale-up.
MPost: Enhancing Urban Resilience through Digital Addressing
Lead organisation: Smart Anwani Solutions Kenya Limited (MPost)
Country: Kenya
Smart Anwani Solutions is transforming access in informal urban areas by turning mobile numbers into official postal addresses. Through MPost, users gain access to deliveries, financial services, and emergency support. With smart lockers and digital verification, this scalable solution improves urban resilience, economic inclusion, and service delivery in underserved communities.
Not-for Profit
Harnessing Equitable Actionable Technologies through Artificial Intelligence (HeatAI)
Lead organisation: Youth Innovation Lab
Country: Nepal
Nepalgunj’s rising heatwaves threaten its inhabitants, especially those in informal settlements. HeatAI, an AI-powered alert system, provides forecasts and localised guidance via mobile and web platforms. Through school-based heat sensors, community outreach, and digital learning on Shikshya.org, the project equips communities with tools, knowledge, and alerts to adapt and prepare for potential shocks.
Life Platforms: Building Urban Resilience by Integrating Nature-Based Solutions
Lead organisation: Associacao Cidada para Cooperacao e Desenvolvimento Sustentavel – ACODES
Country: Mozambique
In flood-prone Beira, Mozambique, this initiative builds elevated community platforms that double as public spaces and flood refuges. Combined with green drainage infrastructure using native plants, the solution reduces flood risk, enhances biodiversity, supports livelihoods, and strengthens community resilience through nature-based design and active local participation.
Ecovironment: Scaling Climate-Resilient Construction through Plastic Waste Recycling
Lead organisation: Ecovironment
Country: Sierra Leone
Ecovironment combats plastic pollution, climate impacts, and youth unemployment in Sierra Leone by converting plastic waste into durable, affordable construction bricks using chemical-free extrusion. With over 450 tons recycled and 85,000 bricks made, the project creates green jobs, reduces flood risk, and strengthens climate-resilient infrastructure. This scalable model promotes circular economy principles and inclusive urban development nationwide.
A community-led innovation to transform plastic waste into eco-friendly construction materials for climate-resilient housing in the informal urban areas of Mocha, Yemen
Lead organisation: Wyam Youth Foundation for Development
Country: Yemen
In Mocha, Yemen, this project transforms plastic waste into eco-friendly construction materials to build climate-resilient homes. It empowers frontline communities, including displaced persons and persons with disabilities, through training and jobs in recycling and sustainable building. By reducing pollution and creating safe housing, this initiative fosters social inclusion, environmental protection, and urban resilience in communities most impacted.
NEWA Somalia: Resilient Urban Retrofit Pods for Climate-Affected Communities
Lead organisation: Hiran Youth Organisation (HYO)
Country: Somalia
NEWA Somalia is a youth-led project using modular, solar-powered pods to tackle climate challenges, water scarcity, and displacement in urban informal settlements. The pods feature solar air vents, rainwater harvesting, algae walls, and vocational training. Piloted in Mogadishu with 150 households, this initiative lowers indoor temperatures, improves water access, and creates employment opportunities. Built with local, sustainable materials, each pod cluster acts as a micro-resilience hub powered by shared solar grids. Through partnerships and innovative tech, NEWA empowers communities by combining housing solutions with skill-building and environmental regeneration.
Fanmsaj Resilience: Women-led Innovation for Social Transformation and Urban Adaptation in Displaced Communities of Jérémie, Haiti
Lead organisation: REFKAD – Réseau des Femmes Capables d’Haïti
Country: Haiti
Fanmsaj Resilience is a women-led initiative in Jérémie, Haiti. It aims to empower women and youth in the community through leadership training, climate adaptation workshops, and co-designed micro-projects. The project fosters social cohesion, prevents gender-based violence, and builds resilience using participatory methods and cultural expression. Its locally rooted model promotes community ownership, while possessing the potential to be replicated elsewhere.
BambuRemedy (Flood management and phytoremediation in urban spaces using bamboo: from basic research to plant care and innovation)
Lead organisation: National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO)/National Forestry Resources Research Institute (NaFORRI)
Country: Uganda
Bambu Remedy uses fast-growing bamboo to reduce urban flooding and absorb heavy metal pollutants in Uganda. By establishing bamboo in flood-prone public and private lands and engaging communities, especially women and young people, the project promotes soil stabilisation, water absorption, and sustainable flood management through training and partnerships.
PoBot is an AI-powered chatbot that mitigates migration risks and enhances worker protection.
Lead organisation: The Migrasia Center for Global Assistance Inc
Country: Philippines, Indonesia, Taiwan
An AI-powered multilingual chatbot provides legal, emotional, and reporting support to migrant workers facing exploitation. By enabling real-time abuse reporting to companies, the tool increases supply chain transparency, empowers workers, and assists NGOs and governments in strengthening protections for at-risk workers across industries.
Green Resilience for Zarqa (GRZ)
Lead organisation: Fourum of Federations
Country: Jordan
Zarqa Governorate in Jordan faces severe air pollution from industrial emissions. This project creates green buffer zones, applies photocatalytic coatings, and enables community-led air quality monitoring. By combining nature-based solutions with innovative technology and inclusive engagement, it builds resilience, improves air quality, and promotes sustainable urban development in Zarqa.
Systems Change for Resilient Housing: Using technology to increase access to housing finance and technical assistance, and scale resilient housing for all
Lead organisation: Yayasan Build Change Indonesia (YBCI)
Country: Indonesia
This project enhances the capacity of local partners to implement resilient housing programs through Build Change’s digital platform, BCtap. By integrating technical assistance, financing access, and community education on housing vulnerabilities and risk reduction, BCtap drives demand and supply for climate-resilient homes. The platform engages community mobilisers and stakeholders with user-friendly tools, streamlining training, data management, and communication. BCtap’s adaptable, scalable approach empowers communities and organisations to make resilience standard practice in housing, improving safety, economic stability, and climate adaptation at scale across diverse regions.