20 February 2018 - UN-Habitat and Dubai Municipality are pleased to jointly announce the winners of the 2017 edition of the Dubai International Award for Best Practices. The Award recognizes outstanding initiatives that are making valuable contribution to sustainable urban development along the priority areas of the New Urban Agenda. There are a total of 10 winners in 5 categories.

Through a long-standing and successful partnership, the Award is completing its 11th cycle.  A total of 524 entries from 89 countries were received for the Award in 2017. This represents an increase of 56 per cent compared to the number of applications for the last round of the Award in 2014.

The winning initiatives of the 11th cycle of the Dubai International Award for Best Practices are as follows:

  1. Best Practice Award for National Urban Policies


We are Medina Learning from Jnane Aztout - Morocco

2. Best Practice Award for Participatory Slum Upgrading


Empower, an Integrated Development Approach to Informal Settlement Upgrading – Switzerland

3. Best Practice Transfer Award in Local Implementation – Urban redevelopment, and redesign of urban spaces


Courtyard System for Management of Public Spaces - Kenya 

  1. Best Practice Transfer Award in Monitoring Mechanisms for the New Urban Agenda and the Urban SDGs


Monitoring urban prosperity and sustainability in 153 municipalities in Mexico - Mexico

  1. Private Sector Award for contribution to territorial planning, urban planning and design


Using Safetipin to Build Safer and Inclusive Public spaces – India


Three Public Spaces to enhance community resilience - Haiti

  1. Personal Award – for contribution to urban economy and municipal finance

Clean City by Green Economy - Kenya

Mr. Sam Ngumba

Kappo - Cyclists Analytics for Smart Cities - Chile

Mr. Ivan Paez

 7. University Research Award on Legislation, Rules, Regulations & Governance Systems


Reforming Urban Laws in Africa: A practical guide – South Africa


Making land-use climate-sensitive: A project to increase resilience of cities against floods by integrating climate change into land-use planning – Philippines

The winners represent different sectors in national and regional governments; local authorities and their associations; non-governmental organizations; community-based organizations; research and academic institutions; public and private foundations; and individuals. The Award winners will be invited to an Award Ceremony event hosted by Dubai Municipality in Dubai to celebrate and share their lesson and successes with a wider audience.