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B E S T P R A C T I C E S N E W S L E T T E R
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April 2005 Edition
The Best Practices Newsletter
Apologies for cross-postings
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IN THIS ISSUE:
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- The 20th session of the Governing Council of UN-HABITAT
- African premiere of “The Miracle of Candeal”
- 2005 Standing Committee Meeting
- Dubai Municipality and UN-HABITAT increase number of Award winners
- Launch of Best Practices Magazine
- Best Practices Feature

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20th session of Governing Council of UN-HABITAT
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During the 20th session of Governing Council, several resolutions were passed which further mainstream Best Practices in all aspects of UN-HABITAT’s work. Following are excerpts from various resolutions. Official versions will be posted on the web.

“Best practices, good policies and enabling legislation in support of sustainable urbanisation and the attainment of Millennium Development Goals” The entire resolution is of relevance, including transfers of best practices, scaling up and distilling lessons learned and policy implications.

“Decentralization and strengthening of local authorities”: Invites governments to provide their comments on the draft guidelines to the secretariat before the end of 2005, and to document cases of best practices for incorporation in the compendium of best practices requested in resolution 19/12;

“Enhancing the involvement of civil society in local governance”: Requests the Executive Director to continue compiling lessons learned and best practices from innovative examples enhancing local governance through the involvement of civil society collected or tested by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme or its partners, or discussed at the World Urban Forum, including recommendations for overcoming the challenges encountered in the application of those innovations in human settlements work, and to improve the dissemination and exchange of such information in close collaboration with other parts of the United Nations system, as well as other partners, in particular those with existing networks for the review and dissemination of such information;

“World Urban Forum”: Also request the Executive Director to provide adequate organizational and substantive support to the preparations for the third session of the World Urban Forum, in order to maximize opportunities for sharing lessons learned, best practices and good policies in the field of shelter and sustainable urbanization;

“Youth and human settlements”: Invites local authorities to establish city-to-city partnerships for developing, exchanging and improving best practices on youth participation in decision-making processes, in close partnership with local formal and informal youth movements; and encourages local and central governments to support forms of cultural and recreational expressions to enable young people living in slums and inner cities to play an active role in support of the internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration.

“Access to basic services for all within the context of sustainable human settlements”: Requests the Executive Director, in cooperation with other relevant United Nations bodies, to compile best practices on policies, norms and institutional conditions related to the delivery of basic services within the context of sustainable human settlements, focusing on the respective roles and responsibilities of national governments and local authorities and other Habitat Agenda partners;

Also requests the Executive Director, in cooperation with other relevant United Nations bodies, to identify underlying principles on access to basic services for all within the context of sustainable human settlements which can be drawn from those best practices, and to present a report on best practices and principles for discussion by the Committee of Permanent Representatives;

“Gender equality in human settlements development”: Requests the Executive Director in cooperation with Habitat Agenda partners to prepare information material and disseminate best practices on gender mainstreaming and women’s empowerment in human settlements development at the local, municipal and national levels.

“Sustainable Development of Arctic Cities”: the entire resolution is of relevance to the North-North Network, which is linked to the Best Practices and Local Leadership Programme.

“Thirteenth session of the Commission on Sustainable Development”: Encourages United Nations Human Settlements Programme to contribute to the Thirteenth session of the Commission on Sustainable Development relevant case studies on good urban governance for inclusion in the “Examples” column of the Chair’s summary of the intergovernmental preparatory meeting for the Thirteenth session of the Commission on Sustainable Development; also UN-HABITAT should continue to encourage the registration of human settlements-related partnerships in the partnership database of the Commission on Sustainable Development [For this request, the best Practices Programme provided more than 40 geographically and thematically-representative set of examples of best practices].

The resolution contains several other sections on monitoring, partnership, and policy approaches, that are relevant to the work of the Best Practices and Local Leadership Programme.
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African premiere of “The Miracle of Candeal”
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The African premiere of the film The Miracle of Candeal took place on Monday 4 April 2005 at the Governing Council. The film is about the social empowerment and transformation, through music, of the Candeal neighbourhood in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil. The show was preceded by a message from the Director, Fernando Trueba. On 5 April 2005, three shows for the general public were run at the Alliance Française. One of these was specifically for youth - former street children now in reception centers of the Nairobi City Council. The encounter was facilitated by the Best Practices and Local Leadership Programme, in Partnership with Alliance Française. Nearly 200 young people currently undergoing the Street Children’s Rehabilitation Programme participated. They were also joined by university and college students and were able to exchange views with Graciete Batista and Patricia Marchesini who had been brought from Candeal to Nairobi for the occasion.

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2005 Standing Committee Meeting
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The Standing Committee Meeting was held on 6 April 2004. Partners who were present during the Governing Council include the Best Practices Hub, Vienna, Joslyn Castle Institute, Huairou Commission, Dubai Municipality, BLP Core Programme and five new partners covering Russia, CIS countries and China which have previously been un-represented. In the Steering Committee. These new partners are the Russian Self Regulation Organization of Arbitrage Managers, focusing on local authority finances and solvency, The Anti-crisis Management Foundation, Russia, focusing on mediation and conflict resolution; Canada LVC international Investments Inc. Beijing Office, focusing on socially responsible real estate development; The International Art & Architecture Research Association (IAARA) of Iran focusing on sustainable urban design and municipal capacity building; and Green Cross International, Beijing Office focusing on water. The Standing Committee reviewed the recent recommendation of the Steering Committee meeting and the issues that were being discussed at the Governing Council.

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Dubai Municipality and UN-HABITAT increase number of Award winners
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Dubai Municipality and the UN-HABITAT have decided to raise the number of recipients of the Dubai International Award for Best Practices to Improve the Living Environment (DIABP) from the current 10 to 12 starting from next cycle in 2006. The two additional awards are devoted to best practice transfers, setting the stage for increased focus of the BLP partners on the scaling up and transfer of lessons learned from experience. The 2006 Award ceremony will take place in conjunction with an international conference in Dubai in November 2006 on “Learning from Best Practices in support of the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals” 'The objective of this conference is to bring together governments, local authorities, community based organizations and the private sector to assess the experience of compiling best practices over the last ten years and formulate an effective strategy for transferring best practices aimed at achieving a positive impact on the living environment including the attainment of MDGs.

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Dubai Municipality supports the Habitat Programme Managers Network
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Dubai Municipality will support UN-HABITAT’s Habitat Programme Managers Network in countries around the world with the objective of mainstreaming and disseminating lessons learned from best practices in human settlements with particular focus on transfers. The Programme Managers will also help organizations and municipalities to document and submit policies and practices that meet the award's criteria. Dubai Municipality and UN-Habitat have also decided to establish a board of trustees for a trust fund to support the Palestinian National Authority in its efforts to develop human settlements and housing programmes in the Palestinian territories. Mr. Qassim Sultan, Director General of Dubai Municipality, will, in his capacity as UN-HABITAT Goodwill Ambassador to Arab Countries, provide active support in housing construction, slum upgrading, water and sanitation and capacity building in Arab countries. The municipality is currently considering the prospect of setting up a Geographic Information Systems Centre in Palestine. In addition, a housing programme will be undertaken in the Palestinian territories in cooperation with the Al Maktoum Charitable Foundation. A US$200,000 feasibility study is currently underway.

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Launch of Best Practices Magazine
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The North-North Network comprising of different institutes from Russia, China, USA and Canada and dedicated to the issues of sustainable urbanization in the northern hemisphere, including energy, mobility, production and consumption patterns, is committed to funding and publishing a Best Practices Magazine initially with a target circulation of 300,000. The magazine was launched at the 20th Session of the Governing Council, during a press conference.
The first issue of the Best Practices Magazine will be published this summer 2005 in English, Chinese, and Russian. A Japanese edition of the Magazine is foreseen in 2007.
The magazine will present success stories on sustainable urbanization from around the world, carry interviews with the people behind these initiatives, and provide background information and analysis. The magazine will also promote the exchange of information, knowledge and expertise on the implementation of the Habitat Agenda and the Millennium Development Goals.
It will comprise of two publications: the BP Magazine proper (a UN-HABITAT publication) with a mixed editorial board, and a supplement (containing commercial advertising) focusing on issues and practices of interest to cities, industry, human rights, the environment and international trade.

The target outreach and visibility is estimated at: 800 cities/mayors above the 35th parallel, 500,000 readership of the magazine in countries not presently covered by UN-HABITAT outreach and publications (Russia, China, Canada, Japan, USA).
The Best Practices Magazine will be managed by an organizational board and an editorial board. The organizational board is comprised of the following members:

• Director of the Board: Ms. Ariane Muller;
• Executive Secretary: Mr. Victor Fersht;
• Financial Director: Mr. Victor Dukhovny;
• Standing members: Mr. Kidane Alemayehu, Hui Chi Ming, Li Zhe, Jiang Mingjun, James Powell.
  The board is open to new partners.

The editorial board will be made up of four members, two members representing UN-HABITAT and two members representing Governments of the countries participating in this project. The organizational board will be located in Vienna, Austria

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Best Practices Feature
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Brownfield Remediation of the Tangshan Southern Coal Mining Area – Award-winning practice 2004

Tangshan, also known as T'ang-shan City, is located in Northern China, in Hebei Province. It is a major industrial city situated in the K'ailuan coalfield near Beijing. Tangshan (population: 1,279,200 in 2001) developed as an important center of heavy industry with locally mined coal used to generate electricity; industries include steel, machinery, motor vehicles, and cement. Thirty years of exploitation of Tangshan’s natural coal reserves had left the surrounding areas of Tangshan in a devastated state. The most bleak and depressed area stretched 1,300 hectares to the south of the city center, with growing mountains of rubbish and flowing waste. This old and abandoned open-pit mine became a serious source of pollution and environmental degradation as mountains of rubbish and coal-mining waste attracted flies and vermin. Loose dust particles would become windblown during the dry summer season, turning the sky bleak and infiltrating each and every corner of the city.

This led to a decision by the Municipal Government to establish the “Southern Reforestation Construction Headquarters Office” which was charged with the task of coordinating a comprehensive remediation plan. Specific objectives included, clearing-up 1.3 million cubic meters of rubbish made up of waste coal mining material, demolishing 240,000 square meters of old industrial structures that were no longer in use.

While the Municipal Government of Tangshan assumed the leadership role in the design, implementation and coordination of the remediation plan, they involved numerous actors and stakeholders, experts, planners and industry executives. An awareness campaign was launched with the use of TV, radio, posters, exhibitions and town hall meetings where all actors and stakeholders were able to exchange ideas on various aspects of the plan and the merits of its component projects. Multi-stakeholder management and supervision committees were also established to ensure the proper and transparent use of resources including land and funds, inspection of works, and quality and cost control.

Reforestation involved planting 1.38 million trees and 240,000 square meters of shrubs and to form 607 hectares of green space, the diversion of wastewater from 250 pits through a network of 5,313 meters of collector pipes to bring the wastewater to the sewage treatment plant for the safe disposal of sewage. The creation of a leisure park complete with entertainment and leisure facilities such as boats, pavilions, walk ways and paths and traditional Chinese garden architecture including arched bridges and covered walkways. 65 hectares of stagnant water have been completely cleaned and purified and turned into a lake. The lake is safe for people to swim in and water life has been returned to this body of water, including fish, aquatic and migratory birds and insects.

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B E S T P R A C T I C E S N E W S L E T T E R
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This newsletter is published by the Best Practices and Lessons Learned Unit of the Monitoring and Research Division of UN-Habitat. It is designed to inform and to stimulate exchange between local authorities, civil society organisations, policy makers, researchers and urban practitioners for making our cities and communities more livable. For further information on the BLP, please visit: http://www.sustainabledevelopment.org/blp

If your organisation would like to announce an event, publication or other news, please contact: mailto:bestpractices@unhabitat.org

If you would like to stop receiving this electronic newsletter, please send a short message to: mailto:bestpractices@unhabitat.org
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OUR ADDRESS:
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Best Practices and Policies
Monitoring Systems Branch
Monitoring and Research Division
UN-HABITAT, P.O. Box 30030, Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: (254-20) 624981, Fax: (254-20) 623080
Email: mailto:bestpractices@unhabitat.org