2002 DUBAI INTERNATIONAL AWARD
USD 400,000 Awards For Best Practices!

The Dubai (UAE) Municipality, and the UN Center for Human Settlements (HABITAT) are pleased to invite you to submit your “Best Practice” for the 2002 Dubai International Award. Individuals and companies (private or public) of any nationality are illegible.

Best Practices are initiatives, which have made outstanding contributions to improving the quality of life in cities and communities around the world.

The competition is held every two years. In 2000, 700 submissions were received from more than 100 countries. From 19 to 21 November 2000, the Dubai Municipality presented the Third Dubai International Award to the submitters of 10 Best Practices.

The Submission Guidelines for submitting Best Practices for the 2002 Dubai International Award are:

The Award:

The total amount of the Award is US$ 400,000 (Four hundred thousand US Dollars). This amount will be divided as follows:

US$ 300,000 (Three hundred thousand US Dollars) for ten Best Practices.
US$ 100,000 (One hundred thousand US Dollars) towards management expenses including travel and accommodation for a delegation of up to two people for each award winning best practice.
Each Best Practice Award winner will also receive a trophy and commemorative certificate especially designed for the award.

Eligibility:
The Award is open to:

· Individuals

· Private Sector

· Government organizations or agencies, including bilateral aid agencies;

· Multilateral Agencies (United Nations Agencies, World Bank, etc.)

· Cities, local authorities or their associations;

· Non-governmental organizations (NGOs);

· Community-based organizations (CBOs);

· Research and academic institutions;

· Media;

· Public or Private foundations;

Criteria for a Best Practice:
The major criteria for a Best Practice to be considered for the Award:

Impact: The best practice should demonstrate a positive and tangible impact on improving the living environment of people particularly of the poor and disadvantaged.

Sustainable shelter and community development:

i. Affordable housing, services and community facilities;

ii. Access to land, secure tenure and finance;

iii. Community-based planning and participation in decision making and resource allocation;

iv. Extension of safe water supply and sanitation;

v. Inner-city core, neighborhood and settlement revival and rehabilitation;

vi. Safe and healthy building materials and technologies.

Sustainable urban and regional development:

i. Job creation and eradication of poverty;

ii. Reduction of pollution and improvement of environmental health;

iii. Improved access to public transport and communication;

iv. Improved waste collection, recycling and reuse;

v. Greening of the city and effective use of public space;

vi. Improved production and consumption cycles, including replacement/reduction of non-renewable resources;

vii. Protection and conservation of natural resources and of the environment;

viii. More efficient energy use and production;

ix. Preservation of historically/culturally important sites;

x. Formulation and implementation of integrated and comprehensive urban development strategies.

Sustainable, efficient, accountable and transparent settlements management:

i. More effective and efficient administrative, management and information systems;

ii. Gender equality and equity in decision-making, resource-allocation and program design and implementation;

iii. Crime reduction and prevention;

iv. Improved disaster preparedness, mitigation and reconstruction;

v. Social integration and reduction of exclusion;

vi. Leadership in inspiring action and change, including change in public policy;

vii. Promotion of accountability and transparency;

viii. Promotion of social equality and equity;

ix. Improvement of inter-agency co-ordination.

Sustainability: Best practices should result in lasting changes in at least one of the areas listed below:

i. Legislation, regulatory frameworks, by-laws or standards formally recognizing the issues and problems that have been addressed;

ii. Social policies and/or sectoral strategies at the (sub) national level that have a potential for replication elsewhere;

iii. Institutional frameworks and decision-making processes that assign clear roles and responsibilities to various levels and groups of actors, such as central and local governmental organizations and community-based organizations;

iv. Efficient, transparent and accountable management systems that make more effective use of human, technical, financial and natural resources.

Additional Criteria:
The following criteria will be used by the Technical Advisory Committee and Jury for differentiating between good, best and award winning practices.

Leadership & community empowerment:

i. Leadership in inspiring action and change, including change in public policy;

ii. Empowerment of people, neighborhoods and communities and incorporation of their contributions;

iii. Acceptance of and responsiveness to social and cultural diversity;

iv. Potential for transferability, adaptability and replicability;

v. Appropriateness to local conditions and levels of developments.

Gender Equality and social inclusion: Initiatives which: accept and respond to social and cultural diversity; promote social equality and equity, for example on the basis of income, gender, age and physical/mental condition; and recognize and value different abilities.

Innovation within local context and transferability:

i. How others have learnt or benefited from the initiative.

ii. Means used for sharing or transferring knowledge, expertise and lessons learnt.

Submission Process:
Best Practices shall be submitted in accordance with the reporting format

a. The reporting format is available in three versions: on-line via the Internet (http://www.bestpractices.org/bp2002/) by Email or fax. Paper submissions will also be accepted.

Dubai Municipality, P.O. Box 67, Dubai,

United Arab Emirates, Fax:(971 4) 2246666;

Email: dm@emirates.net.ae  Web: http://www.dm.gov.ae

b. Submissions shall be made in English. If possible, submissions in Arabic, French or Spanish should be accompanied by an English translation.

c. Submitters are encouraged to include the following supporting materials:

· Articles appearing in newspapers, professional journals, newsletters or other publications;

· Beta-Cam or other standard format videos less than 10 minutes in length;

· Photographs and/or other graphic material;

· Brochures or other promotional material.

Submissions shall be sent to either UNCHS (Habitat) or Dubai Municipality, or any recognized Best Practice partner institutions.

All submissions received will be acknowledged and assigned a catalogue number by UNCHS for documentation (code, name of submitter, subject, etc) purposes and for eventual inclusion in the Best Practices Database. UNCHS shall inform all submitters the status of their submission.

Partners may contact the submitters who shall provide effective assistance to them by reviewing the documents with the objective of ensuring their compliance with the criteria as well as the rules and regulations of the award and advise them of any further actions required. Partners shall forward the validated submissions meeting the award criteria to UNCHS.

Selection Process:
The deadline for submissions is 31 March 2002.

June 2002: Evaluation of submissions the Technical Advisory Committee - selection of up to 100 submissions that deserve to be considered as Best Practices and short-listing a maximum 50 initiatives to be forwarded to the International Jury.

July 2002: International Jury selects Award recipients.

October 2002: Best Practices Award ceremony and international seminar on Learning from Best Practices coinciding with the World Habitat Day.

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