The 2004 Dubai International Award for Best Practices to Improve the Living Environment will be conferred on Monday to an international array of 10 winners from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Iran, Kenya, Palestine, Spain, Togo, and Uzbekistan. Each of the 10 winning practices will present their experiences, the challenges they faced and innovative strategies at a Laureates' Forum aimed at promoting the lessons learned from Best Practices, and strengthening the Best Practices and Local Leadership Network. The ceremony takes place a day after the annual Steering Committee meeting of UN-HABITAT's Best Practices and Local Leadership Programme (BLP) in Dubai from 29 - 30 January 2005 with over 20 partners from around the world. Each winner will receive a US$ 30,000 cash prize, a trophy and a commemorative certificate. This year's winners are: the Urban Agriculture Programme, Rosario, Argentina; the Tomorrow’s Seeds Human Development and Urban Poverty Reduction programme, Aurá, Brazil; the First Nations Community Planning project, Canada; the Brownfield Remediation of the Tangshan Southern Coal Mining Area, China; the Green Path to Sustainable Development of Marginal Drylands, Iran; the Sand Dams of Kitui: Providing Potable and Production Water in Semi-Arid Lands of Kitui District, Kenya; the IT4YOUTH computer literacy programme for young Palestinians; the Alba-Ter Consortium of the River Ter Basin, Spain; the Business and Competence Development: Working to reduce poverty, unemployment and hardship in Togo and a Poverty Reduction Programme for women in Uzbekistan.The original call for Best Practices was launched in 1995 during preparations for the Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) in Istanbul, as a means of identifying what works in improving living conditions on a sustainable basis. For further details see: http://www.unhabitat.org/2004_best_practice.asp |
