Best Practice

The city of Bugulma in the Tartarstan Republic of western Russia gets the Habitat Scroll of Honour Award for transforming its contaminated water system into cheaper, safer water for its citizens. Founded in 1736, the city at the confluence of the Bugulminka and Stepnoy Zay rivers, is the centre of petroleum mining in Tatarstan. Other economic activities in the city include machinery production, the processing of agricultural products, and construction, all of which contributed to pollution of the river. Such was the toxicity, that many people became ill.

The ancient canal city of Shaoxing in Zhejiang Province, eastern China, gets the Habitat Scroll of Honour Award for preserving a unique cultural and historical heritage at a time of rapid urbanization. The city which dates back to 490 BC, is known variously as the City of Waters, the City of Bridges, the City of Calligraphy, the City of Tea, and the City of Scholars. Despite rapid urbanization, the urban conservation programme has enabled this city to present itself as an elegant, peaceful and cultured place with a decent quality of life.

Jan Peterson is awarded the 2009 Scroll of Honour Award for championing the rights of grassroots women and their movements for better human settlements. Jan was awarded because of her four decades’ commitment to improving grassroots women’s lives globally. She is a founder of three organizations – the National Congress of Neighbourhood Women, GROOTS International, and the Huairou Commission. Through the latter, Jan has developed a network of networks bringing together women groups in 45 countries.

The Uganda Women’s Efforts to Save Children (UWESO) is awarded the 2009 Scroll of Honour Award for providing water, health and sanitation to orphans and vulnerable children. UWESO was chosen for its outstanding work with orphans and vulnerable children. The organisation was established in 1986 to respond to the needs of the children orphaned by the civil strife in the early 1980s and the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Over the years, the organization has evolved into a broad based child rights organization.

The Alexandra Urban Renewal Project is awarded the 2009 Scroll of Honour Award for helping thousands of poor people move into better homes and boosting health, water and electricity services. This renewal project has seen some 7,000 families relocated from the banks of a polluted local river to better settlements. Urban greening was incorporated in the project which led to development of parks and recreation areas. The project also saw the development of new housing, new schools and the refurbishment of many facilities.

Peter Oberlander, a founding father of UN-HABITAT, is awarded the 2009 Scroll of Honour Award for a lifetime of promoting the urban agenda around the world. Awarded posthumously, Peter Oberlander was a keen supporter of UN-HABITAT with a passion for urbanisation and its unstoppable growth. He is one of the founding fathers of the agency and founder of the School of Community and Regional Planning as well as the Centre for Human Settlements at the University of British Columbia.

Rizhao Municipal Government is awarded the 2009 Scroll of Honour Award for transforming their city into a green home with new housing and infrastructure. Well executed urban planning is what caught the judges’ eyes in this entry. Under the banner Planning an Ecological City and Building a Livable Home, the municipal government embarked on major improvements starting with infrastructure which saw improvements on roads, parks, town squares, water supplies, drainage, sewage treatment as well as garbage disposal facilities.