Dubai Municipality press release -- Dubai Municipality has announced the 11 winners of the Dubai International Award for Best Practices to Improve the Living Environment (DIABP) at its 10th cycle. Dubai will host a special ceremony to distribute prizes at the end of this year.
This came at a press conference held by the Municipality on Wednesday, attended by Eng. Hussain Nasser Lootah, director general, Khalid Zayed, Salah Amiri, Salem Bin Mesmar, assistant director generals of Dubai Municipality.
The Director General of Dubai Municipality said that the International Jury for the award completed its meeting during the past two days in Dubai and selected the six winners in Best Practices category, two in University Research category, two in Best Practices Transfer category and one in Personal Award category.
Mr. Lootah said award distribution ceremony will give all the winners an opportunity to benefit from the experiences of other practices and lessons.
He pointed out that the International Jury, led by Dr. Ahmed Ali Abdalla Murad, Dubai, U.A.E consisted of Dr. Sahar Attia, Egypt, Dr. Oscar Carracedo Garcia-Villalba, Spain, Prof. Roberto Sansón Mizrahi, Argentina and Miss Sri Husnaini Sofjan, Malaysia.
He said that each one of the eleven winning practices will receive a cash prize worth US$30,000, in addition to the "Barjeel" trophy and certificate of merit.
Lootah also spoke about ongoing efforts to disseminate and exchange information about the award undertaken by Dubai Municipality in cooperation with the UN-Habitat. This includes publications and public information campaigns by various means, as well as a database which can also be found on the Internet on its website: http://www.dubaiaward.ae; www.bestpractices.org.
It should be noted that the DIABP has been developed based on the directives of Sheikh Maktoum Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the late Ruler of Dubai in 1995, to honour outstanding achievements in improving the living conditions and increase awareness of the accomplishments that contribute to the achievement of sustainable development.
He stated that earlier a Technical Advisory Committee concluded its 3-day sitting and short-listed 50 submissions from the 406 received from 95 countries for the 10th cycle of the award. Lootah stressed on the role of partners in inviting nominations and endorsing the practices in some cases and also in encouraging the exchange and transfer of knowledge and experience.
On the evaluation procedures, he said the committee has assessed each nomination using the basic criteria adopted in the statute of the award which is sustainability, impact and partnership, in addition to other considerations such as the prospects for redoing them in other places, innovation and contribution to the promotion of gender equality and social inclusion and integrated approach to human settlements issues.
Dr. Ahmed Ali Abdalla Murad said : “The nominations accepted for the 10th cycle of the award were on best practices implemented by local and federal governments, NGOs and the private sector that address the various issues related to safe housing, poverty eradication, economic development, environmental management, land use management, issues of children and youth, architecture and urban planning as well as several other issues,”.
He pointed out that the best practices nominations addressed the issues that affect the lives of people, and in fact, provided concrete solutions to the problems faced by communities around the world in their efforts to provide a better living conditions for the population. All the submissions received will be added to the UN-Habitat Best Practices database to help in the sharing of knowledge and the transfer of best practices to other communities around the world.
The Dubai International Best Practices Award, set up in 1995, attracted during its last nine cycles over 6,000 submissions from over 150 countries.
To see the complete list of winners, visit the Dubai Award website.