Best Practices are defined as initiatives which make outstanding contributions to improving the quality of life in cities and communities around the world.

Since 1996, the Best Practices Programme and its network of partners have helped identify, evaluate, document and disseminate over 4,000 proven solutions to the common social, economic, economic and environmental problems, from over 140 countries. These success stories are contained in a searchable and regularly updated database known as the Best Practices Database

The Best Practices Database contains practices submitted to the Dubai International Award for Best Practices between 1996 and 2010. You can access all of the features of the Database from the main menu .

Using the Database
The database allows you to search for a practice at two levels – using a simple or advanced search option.

Simple search
The simple search allows you to filter practices by year of submission, or by rating

1. Practice year – from the main menu go to practice year, type required year and then click on filter. A list of all the practices for that year will appear.

Note: valid years are: 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2010.


2. Practice rating – practices are classified into four categories – “Award winners”, “Best Practices”, “Good Practices” and “Promising Practices.” From the main menu, go to “listings” and click on any of the four options. A list of all practices under that rating will appear.

You can combine the two search options (year and rating) to narrow down your search.

Advanced Search
From the main menu click on advanced search. This opens a window with several search options. From the advanced search, you can filter practices by:

1. Title : If you know the practice title type it here and click on filter
2. Thematic Category: Each submitting organization chooses up to three thematic categories to describe their practice, from 25 pre-defined options.By using this search option, you can narrow down your search to a thematic area. For example; for practices on climate change (mitigation, adaptation e.t.c), choose the climate change option under categories and click on filter. A list of all practices which address climate change will appear.
3. You can also filter by region, country, type of submitting organization or submission year.

Under the advanced search option, you can use a combination of search options for narrower searches.

Once you initiate a search for a specific set of records, then what?
You'll receive a list of Search Results - records that meet your search criteria. The list shows the name of the practice, country and organizational type of submitter. To see the whole record, click on the name of the practice.
Each record consists of four sections -- Summary, Narrative, Categories and Contacts. This information is available to all users.