The second cycle of the Rafik Hariri UN-Habitat Memorial Award has been launched, the steering committee announced last week.
The committee convened on 25 and 26 October, 2011 in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to launch the Second Cycle of the award. The Steering Committee members: Prof. Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, representing UN-HABITAT's Executive Director Dr. Joan Clos; Mrs. Hind Al-Hariri Al-Karout representing the Rafik Hariri Foundation's President Mrs. Nazek Rafik Hariri and Dr. Anna Tibaijuka, Senior Personality appointed by Mrs. Nazek Rafik Hariri, all endorsed the award process.
In an announcement, the Steering Committee confirmed a successful completion of the first cycle of the Award. It took note of the forward-looking recommendations from an assessment of the first cycle. It called for continued and active engagements of all stakeholders in the second cycle, in search for a fitting winner who will be presented the award at the Award Ceremony and Dinner for Cycle 2 to be held in New York, as a parallel event in conjunction with the General Assembly of the United Nations in September 2012.
The award will continue to be presented biennially to individuals or institutions around the world. Specifically, the award focuses on achievements in: leadership, statesmanship and good governance; construction and reconstruction of settlements and communities as well as human resources development and benevolent activities in fighting urban poverty and the implementation of the Habitat Agenda.
This Award was instituted in commemoration of martyr Prime Minister of Lebanon Mr. Rafik Hariri’s accomplishments, and in mutual aspiration by UN-HABITAT and the Rafik Hariri Foundation to reward individuals and institutions who have made significant contributions to the development of human settlements.
In 2004, Mr. Rafik Hariri was awarded a special citation of the UN-HABITAT’s Scroll of Honour at the World Urban Forum in Barcelona for his achievements in the reconstruction of a Lebanon torn by war. The following year, on the 14th of February 2005, he was assassinated in a car bomb attack in Beirut.
The inauguration of the Rafik Hariri Award took place in March 2010 during the Opening Ceremony of the World Urban Forum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where, the Prime Minister of Turkey Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was the first winner of the award. The WUF drew more than 10,000 people from all over the world including four heads of state, governors, mayors, governmental institutions and non-government organizations.
Events related to the Second Cycle of the Award will be held both at the sixth session of the World Urban Forum in Naples, Italy, and at UN Headquarters in New York, USA.
The call for submissions for Cycle 2 of this Award will open on December 1st, 2011. For more information please see UN-HABITAT website under PROGRAMMES, Best Practices and Local Leadership and the Award Website.Enquiries to:hariri.award@unhabitat.org |
