Dubai: Dubai Municipality and UN-Habitat are planning to set up a centre of excellence in best practices for living conditions in Dubai.
The centre is aimed at compiling best practices in different development areas in various cities, and providing training in them.
The plan was revealed at a press conference held on Wednesday to announce the details of the 11th cycle of the Dubai International Award for Best Practices to Improve the Living Environment, which was established in Dubai 20 years ago.
Eduardo Lopez Moreno, head of Research and Capacity Development at the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), said the organisation would work with the municipality to set up the centre of excellence.
“It will handle best practices in different development areas …it could be health education, technology transfer etc… in a way that all of them can be converged and compared and we will move from the award itself to create training activities, tools for research analysis, and publications,” he said.
Hussain Nasser Lootah, director-general of Dubai Municipality, announced that the award’s cycle will be extended from two years to three years from the 11th cycle “to give the Award’s organisers enough time to sort and evaluate all applications in a more accurate, objective, and transparent manner during the period of revision and assessment of applicants and sorting winners”.
Lootah pointed out that the winning practices that were honoured played a significant role in addressing issues affecting people’s lives, and presented concrete solutions to problems faced by worldwide communities in their enormous efforts to provide better living standards for residents.
With the financial support from the award, an official said, some of the winners were able to expand the scope of coverage of their projects in their areas which was limited before the awarding.
“This financial support has dramatically made big changes in their society and contributed to the prosperity of lives of people in their city or province,” said Sameer Mohammad Abdul Rahman, foreign affairs and awards specialist at the municipality’s Partnership Department.
The award carries a total amount of $360,000 to be divided among 12 winning best practices with key accomplishments and positive impacts on the living environment of communities and individuals.
The Award’s original categories are the best practices category, and the best practices transfer category. Three new categories for the private sector, university scientific research category, and individual achievers, were added to the list during the last cycle.
The international jury will receive submissions for the 11th cycle through the website www.dubaiaward.ae till 29th December. The final selection will be held in March 2017 and the awarding ceremony will be held in mid-May 2017.
The Award has so far received more than 5,270 practices that were monitored and documented in an electronic archive on the Award website for free, and everyone is allowed to benefit from it as well as transfer it to their communities and cities, and circulate these successful practices that improve the living environment in their habitat, said Lootah.
The number of those who were honoured during the past 10 cycles was nearly 105 winners from more than 115 countries in the world.
