Announcing the Winners of the 2023 Urbanlinks Photo Contest!

Two young girls play with large plastic jugs and a funnel.
Credit: USAID IUWASH Tangguh

We are excited to announce the winners of the inaugural Urbanlinks 2023 Photo Contest! Over 80 submissions representing 12 countries were submitted to the contest. Submissions to the four themes of Air Quality, Climate, Ocean Plastics, and Urban Communities highlight the work that USAID engages in with local partners, alongside the challenges and opportunities presented by urbanization. One winner and one runner up was selected for each theme.

Congratulations to this year’s winners and runners-up, and thanks to everyone who participated in the contest!

Air Quality

Winner

A group of bicyclists rides through a narrow street with low-slung buildings on either side. Several onlookers are spectating and taking photos on phones.

A woman marshal trained by USAID Clean Air leads cyclists at the 2023 Kora Cycling Challenge, Nepal’s largest cycling event with 4,000 riders across 20 cities. As part of their efforts to promote gender equality and cycling culture for the sake of reducing air pollution, USAID Clean Air trained 100 women marshals and recruited double the percentage of female riders from the previous year. 

Credit: FHI 360

Country: Nepal

Runner Up

A group of men and women watch as one man leans close to the ground with a brush to collect a dust sample.

Researchers collect road dust from the streets of Kathmandu to analyze its contribution to the city’s air pollution. USAID Clean Air is conducting studies such as this one, to determine the different sources of air pollution in Kathmandu and quantify their contributions to the overall pollution load.

Credit: FHI 360

Country: Nepal

Climate

Winner

A group of men and women sit together at a table, talking and studying. Behind them, a sign says "Stop Melting Life, Save the Himalayas."

At a three-day event, hosted by Nepalese Youth for Climate Action with support from USAID Clean Air and other partners, a hundred young advocates for climate action from various regions of Nepal gathered to discuss climate and clean air issues. The conclusions from their discussions were then shared with the Ministry of Forest and Environment and presented at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)’s 27th Conference of Parties (COP 27) in Egypt. 

Credit: FHI 360

Country: Nepal

Runner Up

A woman in a high-visibility vest and a red bicycle helmet walks toward the camera smiling and holding her bicycle handles.

Bindra Lawa, one of the 100 female marshals trained by USAID Clean Air, prepares to kick off the Kathmandu Kora Cycling Challenge – Nepal’s largest cycling event that draws around 4,000 participants across 20 cities. As a result of USAID Clean Air’s efforts to both empower women and reduce air pollution, the percentage of women riders at Kora 2023 doubled from the previous year.

Credit: FHI 360

Country: Nepal

Ocean Plastics

Winner

A man in a blue work helmet stands in front of a large trailer truck filled to the brim with bald plastic recyclables.

Alfonso Frías, a former informal waste collector, now sells plastics at a set market rate. Thanks to USAID’s Clean Cities, Blue Ocean initiative and support, he entered into an agreement with Cilpen Global, the Dominican Republic’s first recycling facility, and registered his recycling business. Because of his business, Reciclajes Bahía (Recycling Bay), plastic waste from Las Terrenas is making its way back into the island’s circular economy for the first time.

Credit: USAID

Country: Dominican Republic

Runner Up

A boy and girl sit side by side in a classroom. Both are in the middle of a hearty laugh.

The Mombasa Plastics Prize aims to encourage innovation and awareness among aspiring entrepreneurs and leaders in Mombasa County, Kenya by inspiring the development of solutions that tackle ocean plastic pollution. In May 2023, Twende Green Ecocycle were announced the winners for developing these eco school desks made out of recycled plastic. Students from a public primary school in Tudor, Mombasa County, are pictured trying out the desk, as part of their user testing phase.

Credit: Twende Green Ecocycle

Country: Kenya

Urban Communities

Winner

Two girls stand near large water jugs - one of them holds a red funnel and smiles at the camera.

Two little girls happily play with a water funnel while waiting for their mother to fetch water from a well in Tallo urban village in Makassar City, South Sulawesi Province, Indonesia. Their mother brings them along to teach them that women are the ones responsible for making water and sanitation access available for their families. USAID IUWASH Tangguh works to deconstruct gendered roles and promote women’s agency and empowerment in WASH and within the water resource management workforce.

Credit: USAID IUWASH Tangguh

Country: Indonesia

Runner Up

A group of four women and a baby are in the midst of a discussion. The woman on the left holds a pen and notepad and appears to be leading the discussion.

Hema, 17, lives with her parents and three siblings in a small one-room dwelling in densely populated Golapbagh, Bangladesh. As a college student, Hema sought medical help for a persistent cough and was referred to the USAID Alliance for Combating TB in Bangladesh (ACTB). She received the necessary tests and was diagnosed with pulmonary TB, a disease which kills about 45,000 people each year in Bangladesh. She was started on a 6 month treatment course and has since been cured. Her family members have also received the TB Preventive Treatment (TPT). Overall, since 2000, USAID has decreased TB incidence by 25 percent and TB mortality by 41 percent in their priority countries.

Credit: USAID

Country: Bangladesh