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We, the members of the International
Jury, after having reviewed the 40 best practices forwarded
to us by an independent Technical Advisory Committee (TAC),
have decided that the following ten initiatives be given the
Dubai International Award for Best Practices to Improve the
Living Environment:
• Urban Agriculture Programme, Rosario, Argentina
• Tomorrow's Seeds, Human Development and Urban Poverty
Reduction, Aurá, Brazil
• First Nations Community Planning project, Canada
• Brownfield Remediation of the Tangshan Southern Coal
Mining Area, China
• A Green path to Sustainable Development of Marginal
Drylands, Iran
• Sand dams for water for semi-arid lands, Kitui District,
Kenya
• IT4Youth, Palestine
• The Alba-Ter Consortium: an inter-jurisdictional commitment
to sustainable development of the River Ter Basin, Spain
• Business development to reduce poverty and unemployment,
Togo
• Poverty reduction among women through vocational training
and micro-credit, Uzbekistan
In addition to the above, the Jury recommends that the "Association
for Forest Development and Conservation" of Lebanon and
the "Flying Circus" of Mexico be given special commendations
for the outstanding creativity, energy and continued commitment
of the young people leading these initiatives. It further
recommends that both UN-HABITAT and Dubai Municipality bring
to the attention of relevant agencies and organizations the
high degree of replicability and transferability of these
initiatives.
In reviewing the 40 submissions, the Jury used the established
criteria of tangible impact, partnership, and sustainability
as well as the additional considerations of leadership and
community empowerment, gender equality and social inclusion,
innovation within the local context and transferability.
In reaching its conclusions, the members of the Jury worked
in two independent groups, each selecting its own list before
unanimously agreeing in plenary session on the final selection.
The Jury gave due recognition to the need for geographical
representation and the diverse social, economic and environmental
issues associated with urbanization.
The 1996 Awards featured initiatives in the areas of housing,
infrastructure and basic services. The 1998 Awards witnessed
the emerging concerns for environmental planning and management.
The 2000 Awards, while reaffirming the continued importance
of basic needs and of sectoral concerns, gave more emphasis
to the interdependencies of these issues with those of human
rights, good governance and the empowerment of people. The
2002 Award-winning practices, despite the diversity of themes
covered and their different scales of intervention, reflect
an overriding concern with social equity, justice and integration.
The 2012 Awards focused on partnerships for sustainable and
integrated development at diverse scales (from grassroots
to large scale), social inclusion (self-help empowerment of
women, youth and indigenous peoples), basic needs, and innovative
approaches to realizing the Millennium Development Goals and
the right to water.
The Jury commends UN-HABITAT for the impetus it is giving
to new forms of action in the field of international co-operation
and development based on the exchange of lessons learned derived
from successful practices and policies. The Jury notes with
particular satisfaction the growing use of the UN-HABITAT
Best Practices Database by decision-makers and practicing
professionals from a wide range of countries at all levels
and encourages both UN-HABITAT and Dubai Municipality to continue
to invest in the broadest possible dissemination and transfer
of Best Practices.
The Jury also notes with satisfaction the number of submissions
from all areas and regions and commends, in particular, Brazil,
China, India and Spain for organizing national Best Practice
competitions. We encourage other countries, especially those
which have hosted award-winning practices in recent years,
to undertake similar competitions.
In light of the above, the Jury fully endorses the further
development of the Best Practices Database as an information-sharing
and networking tool. In addition, it encourages all partners
and relevant institutions in all sectors, to actively participate
in, and contribute to, the Best Practice and Local Leadership
Programme as a unique international forum and network for
mutual learning, for promoting peer-to-peer learning and as
a basis for matching supply with demand for decentralized
forms of cooperation.
The 2012 Dubai International Award for Best Practices has
resulted in total of more than 2,000 documented and peer-reviewed
success stories. The lessons learned from this critical mass
of knowledge, expertise and experience, not to mention human
ingenuity, is of particular significance in a world characterized
by increasing globalization, interdependence and social, economic
and environmental challenges.
The Jury wishes to thank the members of the TAC for their
excellent work and fully endorses the TAC’s recommendations,
in particular, the need to increase the number of Awards to
12, ensure broad dissemination of results and user-friendly
database development, recognize "promising" new
initiatives, and improve coordination with other international
awards.
Last but not least, the Jury wishes to express its gratitude
to Dubai Municipality for hosting the Jury as well as its
continuing contribution along with UN-HABITAT to the entire
best practices endeavour.
Dubai, 12 July 2012.
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Members of the 2012 Jury:
• Ms. Nie Meisheng, China
• Mr. Pedro Alejandro Florian Borbon , Colombia
• Mr. Rod Hackney, U.K. (Chair)
• Ms. Marie Claire Cordonier Segger, Canada
• Mr. Hussein Lootah, U.A.E.
Secretariat:
• Dr. Amer Al-Hashimi, Australia (Chair of TAC)
• Dr. Vincent Kitio, UN-HABITAT
• Prof. Nicholas You, UN-HABITAT
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For more information, please contact:
Best Practices and Local Leadership Programme (BLP)
UN-HABITAT
P.O. Box 30030, Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: (254 20) 623029; 624981; 624328
Fax: (254 20) 623080, 624266, 624267
Email: bestpractices@unhabitat.org
Dubai Municipality
P.O.Box 67
Dubai
United Arab Emirates (UAE)
Tel: (+971) 4 206 4414 / 221 5555
Fax: (+971) 4 222 1319 / 224 6666
E-mail: info@dm.gov.ae
dubai-award@dm.gov.ae
Web: http://dubai-award.dm.gov.ae |
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