INTERNATIONAL JURY SELECTS 12 'BEST PRACTICES' TO BE AWARDED AT ISTANBUL CONFERENCE ON HUMAN SETTLEMENTS

4 April 1996

Press Release
HAB/116

INTERNATIONAL JURY SELECTS 12 'BEST PRACTICES' TO BE AWARDED AT ISTANBUL CONFERENCE ON HUMAN SETTLEMENTS

19960404 TORONTO, 29 March (Habitat) -- A 10-member international Best Practices jury meeting in Toronto, Canada, has selected 12 initiatives to receive awards and be highlighted at the Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements -- the City Summit -- (Habitat II) which will meet 3 to 14 June, in Istanbul.

The 12 Best Practices are:

-- Project on Sites and Services for Family Groups with Low Income Living in the North of Gran Buenos Aires, Argentina;

-- Integration Council in the Favelas' Rehabilitation Process, Fortaleza, Brazil;

-- Metro Toronto's Changing Communities: Innovative Responses, Metro Toronto, Canada;

-- Post-calamity Reconstruction of Anhui Province's Rural Areas, China;

-- Successful Institutionalization of Community-based Development in the Commune of Adjamé, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire;

-- A Women's Self-help Organization for Poverty Alleviation in India: The SEWA Bank, India;

-- Shelter Upgrading, Agadir, Morocco;

-- City Management in Tilburg, the Netherlands;

-- Local Initiative Programme: Community Planning Process and City/Neighbourhood Partnership, Lublin, Poland;

-- Community Information Resource Centre (CIRC), Alexandra, South Africa;

-- "Don't Move, Improve", community-owned and-governed urban revitalization Project, South Bronx, New York City, United States;

-- City of Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States;

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Announcing the awards, the Chairman of the jury, Alan Tonks, Chairman of the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto (Metro Toronto), said reviewing the 43 short-listed Best Practices had been a difficult task to perform in the two days allocated, since they "clearly revealed inspired innovations delivering tangible improvements to aid the communities they served". He said the jury hoped that the 12 selected Best Practices would "send a message to the world at the City Summit in Istanbul that will encourage and motivate other communities to adopt plans that provide healthier, safer, more equitable and sustainable living conditions".

The awards for the selected Best Practices, offered by the Municipality of Dubai and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, will include a special plaque and scroll, as well as a grant. In addition to the awards, the practices will be highlighted at the Best Practice Exhibition during the Habitat II City Summit. They will also become part of the Best Practices Initiative database, providing an educational, training and policy development tool that can be accessed by hands-on practitioners developing better practices in their own communities.

Nearly 600 best practices were submitted to the Technical Advisory Committee, which then selected 100. From the 100, 43 were short-listed and forwarded to the jury in Toronto. The Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation hosted the international Best Practices jury.

The two overall themes of the Habitat II City Summit are adequate shelter for all and sustainable human settlements development in an urbanizing world. The Summit will bring together all governments and representatives from local authorities, non-governmental organizations, community-based organizations and the corporate sector.

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