The COVID-19 pandemic has forced Latin American cities to rethink their policies to face the new local reality and the challenge of maintaining the balance between economic performance and the social well-being of their citizens, especially those most vulnerable.

Although COVID-19 reflected limitations of our cities to face challenges of this magnitude, limitations that in many cases respond to structural issues, identified before the pandemic, it also made visible the creativity and ingenuity to design and implement innovative solutions that respond to the situation and transcend the crisis with an eye on the future. Many of these ideas have stimulated permanent practices, functional to a more sustainable and healthy life in the city, in many cases even contributing to improve the access of the most vulnerable populations to basic services, employment, education, health, public spaces. and, in general, to the opportunities that the city offers.

It is precisely the identification of these good ideas that emerged during the pandemic, with the potential to become sustainable urban policies, that the Cities With Future Initiative of CAF -development bank of Latin America- and the Avina Foundation want to promote through the Contest of Ideas "COVID-19: New opportunities for sustainable cities".