2006 Dubai International Award for Best Practices: Twelve Winners Announced An independent jury of international experts met last week and selected 12 winners for the 2006 Dubai International Award for Best Practices to Improve the Living Environment. The jury met in Palermo, Italy during the meeting of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership of Local and Regional Authorities. The selection was made from a list of 48 initiatives, short-listed out of 715 submissions. The winners were all deemed to have made outstanding contributions to improving the quality of life in cities and communities. An independent Technical Advisory Committee, had earlier reviewed 690 qualifying submissions, and drawn up a short list of 48 initiatives which were then forwarded to the jury to select the winners. The jury, chaired by Mr. Abdulkarim Bangura, a national of Sierra Leone, professor at American University in Washington DC, an author and development consultant, based their decisions on criteria of tangible impact, partnership, and sustainability. They also took into account considerations of leadership and community empowerment, gender equality and social inclusion, and innovations that can be replicated. Starting with the 2006 cycle, two additional practices were added to the traditional 10. This is in order to dedicate at least two awards to best practice transfers. The winners are: Village of Hope - Rwanda; [addressing HIV/AIDS, women’s right to shelter, culture of peace], RWA130_06 Job Creation Through Restoration of Historic Centres of Palestine; PLS243_06 Ahmedabad Slum Networking Programme – India; IND610_06 Urban Management and Participative Governance: Neiva’s Commune – Colombia; COL341_06 Talisay Rivers for Environmental and Economic Sustainability Project; PHL030_06 Sustainable Solid Waste Management Program in the city of Carhuaz and the School of Planning and Environmental Municipal Management - Peru; PER673_06 Parla’s Citizen’s Forum –Spain; ESP427_06 Mise en Place d’une équipe de 1200 femmes pour assurer le balayage manuel des voies urbaines à Ougadougou - Burkina Faso; ["Green Brigade" cleaning Ougadougou]; BFA721_06 Hatien, Habitats, Handbags – Vietnam; [saving a wetland] VTM385_06 Chaîne des foyers Saint Nicodeme – Cameroon; [addressing problem of street children] CMR048_06 For Best Practice Transfers: Rede Jovem de Cidadania [Youth Citizenship Network] – Belo Horizonte, Brazil; BRA302_06 Grassroots Women International Academy. NLD129_06 Each winner will be awarded a US$ 30,000 prize, a trophy and a commemorative certificate at the award ceremony in Dubai early in 2007, at a date still to be announced. The original call for Best Practices was launched in 1995 during preparations for the Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) as a means of identifying what works in improving living conditions on a sustainable basis. Each year, the Municipality of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT), sponsor the 'Best Practice' for the 2004 Dubai International Award. Best Practices are initiatives which have made outstanding contributions to improving the quality of life in cities and communities around the world. The original call for Best Practices was launched in 1995 during preparations for the Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) as a means of identifying what works in improving living conditions on a sustainable basis. For the 1996 Awards, over 700 Best Practices from 90 countries were submitted to Habitat. An independent intemational Technical Advisory Comrnittee identified 105 submissions as Best Practices and six of these were selected by a jury to receive the 1996 Dubai Intemational Award during Habitat II conference (June 1996). In 1998, the Dubai Intemational Award attracted 470 submissions from over 80 countries. 124 submissions were selected as Best Practices and 10 initiatives were chosen to receive the Dubai Intemational Award at a special award ceremony on World Habitat Day, 5 October 1998. In 2000 over 700 submissions from 100 countries were received with 112 being classified as BestPractices,10 of who were selected as award winners. In 2002, 550+ submissions and updates from more than 90 countries were received with 126 being classified as best practices. The Best Practices and Award winners were selected by the Technical Advisory Comrnittee (TAC) and the Best Practices Jury respectively. In November 2002, Dubai Municipality presented the Fourth Dubai Intemational Award to a new group of 10 Best Practices. Currently, 1600 Good and Best Practices from 140 countries are documented on the Best Practices database. Call For Submissions The Best Practices and Local Leadership Programme is currently accepting submissions for the 2004 Cycle of the Dubai International Awards for Best Practices. The purpose of the awards is to recognise and enhance awareness of outstanding and sustainable achievements in improving the living environment as per the basic criteria established by the Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) and the Dubai Declaration. Submissions received before 31 January 2004 stand to benefit from substantive feedback. The submission guidelines for the Award are available at www.sustainabledevelopment.org/awards/2004/guide_en.html.   For more information, email: bestpractices@unhabitat.org or info@dm.gov.ae