Philippines wins Dubai award on living environment best practices

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines is one of 10 winners of the 11th Cycle of the Dubai International Award for Best Practices to Improve the Living Environment.

During the subcommittee meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives to the United Nations-Habitat on March 5, the UN-Habitat Secretariat announced the 10 winning initiatives under five different categories that were selected out of 524 entries from 89 countries.

The Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) of the Philippines won in the category of University Research Award on Legislation, Rules, Regulations and Governance Systems.

Its initiative titled “Making land-use climate-sensitive: A project to increase resilience of cities against floods by integrating climate change into land-use planning” was selected as a best practice for improving the living environment under the theme of urban legislation and governance.

The winners will be invited to the awarding ceremony hosted by Dubai municipality to celebrate and share their lesson and successes with a wider audience.

The 2017 award comes at a critical time following the adoption of the New Urban Agenda in October 2016, which provides a distinct opportunity to showcase effective interventions for improving the lives of urban residents around the globe in line with the Sustainable Development Goal 11.

Working closely with UN-Habitat, the award represents the importance of strong and coherent partnerships in implementing the New Urban Agenda and SDG 11, and delivering socially, economically and environmentally sustainable cities for all.