Best Practices
by Ed Frank Institute of Housing and Urban Development (IHS) Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Recently, the IHS has become a formal partner to the Best Practices and Local Leadership Program (BLP). The goal of the BLP is to identify Best Practices in Improving the Living Environment and disseminate their lessons and experiences as a tool towards capacity building. Best Practices are defined as initiatives undertaken by Governments, local authorities and civil society, including the private sector, that have made outstanding contributions to improving the quality of life in our urban and rural communities. Best Practices contribute directly to poverty eradication gender equity and social inclusion. The Best Practices Initiative dates back to the preparatory process for Habitat II. In 1996, at the Istanbul conference, the first round was concluded with more than 600 submissions. Out of these, 350 submissions qualified as either Best or Good and an independent Jury selected 12 Best Practices that received an Award at Habitat II. At Habitat II it was also decided to sustain the initiative and to develop it into a partners initiative of capacity building institutions worldwide. This program includes now 18 capacity building institutes including among others: the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) at Bangkok, Thailand; the Brazilian Institute for Municipal Administration (IBAM), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; the Centre for Environment and Development in the Arab Region and Europe (CEDARE); the Centre for Developing Cities (CDC), Canberra, Australia; CityNet, Yokohama, Japan; Dubai Municipality, United Arab Emirates; ENDA Tiers Monde, Dakar, Senegal; Harvard University, Cambridge, USA; Huairou Commission, New York, USA; Human Settlement Management Institute, New Delhi, India; Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), New York, USA; International Centre for the Prevention of Crime (ICPC), Montreal, Canada; International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), Toronto, Canada; International Union of Local Authorities (IULA) and; the Together Foundation. Co-ordination of the Initiative is the responsibility of the Global Urban Observatory of the UNCHS, Nairobi. This program brings together the experiences of the Best Practices Initiative and the Urban Indicators Program.
The second round of submissions (1996 1998) resulted in over 450 submissions. Out of them more than 100 were classified as Best Practices by a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) that also recommended 40 Best Practices, of equal merit, for review by an independent, international Jury. The Jury selected the following ten initiatives that will receive the prestigious Dubai International Award for Best Practices in Improving the Living Environment on World Habitat Day at Dubai on 5 October 1998.
«Comprehensive Improvement of the Urban Environment of Zhuhai, China Urban Sub-centres for Citizen Life in the Low-income Areas of Medellin, Colombia Household Solid Waste Management - Zabbaleen Garbage Collectors, Cairo, Egypt Housing Programme for the Peripheral Areas of Xalapa, Vera Cruz, Mexico Urban Governance, Environmental and Public Management in Surat, India The Kipepeo Project, Arabuko-Sokoke Forest, Kenya Participatory Planning Initiatives in Naga City, The Philippines Programmes for Improving the Urban Environment in Malaga, Spain Community Infrastructure Upgrading Programme, Dar-es-Salaam, United Republic of Tanzania Interface's Journey to Sustainability, Kennesaw, Georgia, United States of America »
The Press Release gives the following descriptions of the 10 Award Recipients: Once a poor fishing village, Zhuhai, China, has become a model city for comprehensive environmental management amidst rapid urban growth, leading to the replication of its experience in many other Chinese cities. Rapid population growth, economic stagnation and the rise of drug trafficking have fragmented the low-income communities of Medellin, Colombia. Through the urban subcentres, residents are working in partnership with Government, local authorities and the private sector to reclaim their communities.
In Cairo, Egypt, the Zabbaleen are not only selling products made from garbage they have collected and recycled, but they have also been successful in persuading the Government to legally recognize their community. In 1995, the Municipality of Surat, India engaged in a comprehensive participatory planning process, producing an integrated programme of 47 projects addressing issues of transportation, water supply, sanitation and environmental management. Within 18 months, Surat was judged the second cleanest city in India. An island of unique biodiversity threatened by pressing demands for more agricultural land, Kenya's Arabuko-Sokoke Forest has been saved by the Kipepeo (Butterfly) Project. The success of the project lies in linking conservation with development through the sustainable harvesting and Export of butterfly pupae. By producing their own professional standard development plan, a low-income community on the outskirts of Xalapa, Vera Cruz, Mexico, has initiated a housing project, a women's credit scheme, a nutrition and education project and has succeeded in obtaining the official incorporation of their community as part of the municipality. Popular participation in local planning has been crucial to the ongoing rehabilitation of the Naga River, the upgrading of the City Hospital and the improvement of solid waste management in Naga City, The Philippines. Through the rehabilitation of its historic city centre, the recovery of its urban beach and the implementation of a modern waste-water treatment plant, the City of Malaga, Spain, represents an excellent example of how cities can put into practice the recommendations of the 1992 Earth Summit and the commitments made by partners at the "City Summit" the Habitat II Conference held in Istanbul in 1996. The Dar-es-Salaam City Council realized it could not meet the demand for infrastructure by itself. Through the Community Infrastructure Upgrading Programme (CIP), communities such as Tabata are contributing their ideas, energy and money for roads, water and sanitation projects.
Since 1994, Interface, Inc. Kennesaw, Georgia, United States of America, has applied its philosophy of "Doing well by doing good" to all aspects of its carpet manufacturing business, significantly reducing its environmental impact, saving $50 million, quadrupling its stock price and reducing the environmental impact of the operations of its domestic and international suppliers. Both the 1998 and 1996 Award recipients and over 600 other Good and Best Practices can be found on the Best Practices database, currently available on the Internet at http://www.bestpractices.org, and in addition, on the common web site that the BLP partners have established and is accessible under http://www.sustainabledevelopment.org/blp. This web site has been recently established but already provides some interesting information. Under “What’s new” you find the main documents prepared for the second round of Best Practices submissions. Also here you find a short description of the 1998 Best Practices Award winners. Under “Best Practices database” you find the database of submissions that were qualified as Best and as Good. When you access this database you get for each Practice summary information. For review of the complete case description and listing of the contact persons responsible for submission of the Practice you have to get a password by registering your name first. When you click some of the other entries you are asked to give a user name and password. It means that only access is provided to partners of the BLP and others authorized. At the bottom of the page you find the Logo’s of the different partners involved. When you click them you get connected to the individual web sites and find information on the respective activities. The IHS has full access to the database and for training and capacity building purposes extensive use is being made now of the available case study materials. Also, we have committed ourselves to contribute to the further development of the BLP. In includes the further identification of successful examples of improving the living environment and application and dissemination of Best Practices. For the validation of new submissions and feedback to the submitters a system has been established of regional and thematic centres. Each submission will be reviewed by at least two BLP partners. The IHS is one of the thematic centres and has as its main focus the review of experiences with local urban environmental management and capacity building. However, as a training and educational
institute in Housing and Urban Development we also take a wider interest in other development issues. In case your organization is interested in submitting a Best Practice in the third round (1998 2000), and likes to make a bid for the Dubai Awards provided at World Habitat Day in the year 2000, you can consult the web site http://www.bestpractices.org for the format of submission. You can also send an email to bestpractices@unchs.org or write to the BLP, UNCHS (Habitat), P.O. Box 30030, Nairobi, Kenya. New submissions can be send to the UNCHS/BLP or through one of the contributing partners. We also like to invite our partner institutions that have an interest to contribute directly to the BLP to contact the UNCHS or us. In order to be prepared for the challenges of the next century there is a need to further expand our global network of contributing capacity building institutions. Especially in Europe, including Central and Eastern Europe and regions in the South, there is a need to intensify our efforts. For more information about this Initiative please contact Ed Frank at the IHS.