The Best Practices and Local Leadership Programme - BLP - represents the continuation of one of the success stories of the Habitat II preparatory process: the Best Practices Initiative. The BLP is also one of the two principle UNCHS programmes charged with monitoring the implementation of the Habitat Agenda under the umbrella of the Global Urban Observatory.

Conceived as a search for solutions to common social, economic and environmental problems of an urbanizing world, Best Practices caught the imagination of all participants in the Habitat II process. The international community adopted a single definition of a best practices based on the three criteria of partnership, impact and sustainability and also endorsed a unified reporting format for documenting the experiences. The Dubai International Conference on Best Practices (19-22 November 1995), in the Dubai Declaration, elaborated several additional considerations for a "Best Practice":

* leadership in inspiring action and change;

* promotion of accountability and transparency;

* community empowerment;

* responsiveness to social and cultural diversity;

* potential for transferability;

* appropriateness to local conditions;

* gender equity and equality and social inclusion.

By the official deadline, over 600 submissions from 80 countries had been received. In response, UNCHS and the Together Foundations developed a Best Practices database that allows users to search for information by theme, region, type of organisation, scale and using keywords. Over 350 submissions were included in the database in time for the Habitat II Conference.

At the City Summit, 12 outstanding initiatives received "Awards for Excellence in Improving the Living Environment" sponsored by Tokyo and Dubai Municipalities. The 12 were selected through a two-stage process. First, a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) comprised of sectoral experts reviewed more than six-hundred submissions and identified 104 of them as "Best Practices". Second, based on a short-list of 43 initiatives identified by the TAC an independent international jury selected 12 outstanding initiatives to receive the Awards for Excellence. Both the Award recipients and the 104 Best Practices can be found on the Best Practices database, available on the Internet - http://www.bestpractices.org - on CD-ROM and on computer diskette.

The success of the Best Practice Initiative for Habitat II has led to its incorporation within UNCHS (Habitat) as the Best Practices and Local Leadership Programme (BLP). A decentralized partnership programme, the BLP is comprised of leading research and capacity building organisations around the world, including:

* Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand;

* Brazilian Institute for Municipal Administration, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil;

* Centre for Environment and Development in the Arab Region and Europe, Cairo, Egypt;

* Dubai Municipality, Dubai, United Arab Emirates;

* Enda Tiers Monde, Dakar, Senegal;

* Harvard University, Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, USA;

* Huairou Commission, New York, USA;

* Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies, Rotterdam, The Netherlands;

* International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, Toronto, Canada;

* Joslyn Castle Institute for Sustainable Communities, Nebraska, USA;

* Pratt Institute Centre for Community and Environmental Development, New York, USA;

* Programme d'Economie Environnementale Urbaine et Populaire, Paris, France;

* Together Foundation, New York, USA;

Representatives from these organisations met in February 1997 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands to define the post-Habitat II strategy for Best Practices. Among the key recommendations of this group were the following:

The BLP uses the incentive of the biennial "Awards for Excellence" to continue to expand global knowledge and capacity to identify, analyze and disseminate practical and innovative solutions being implemented around the world. At the same time, however, the Awards are simply a means to an end: the programme's principle focus is the exchange and transfer of Best Practices knowledge, experience and expertise.

Efforts will be concentrated on improving the quality of existing and new submissions and in extracting lessons learned. Each BLP partner will be involved in the analysis and improvement of existing submissions and in the ongoing identification and verification of new submissions. Additionally, feedback from users of the Best Practices database will be actively pursued.

The next step in the evolution of the BLP is to engage in the transfer of the lessons-learned from Best Practices to those countries and organisations expressing a demand for this information.

Gaps in the existing network were identified for the Arab States, Central and Eastern Europe and South Asia. Additionally, gaps in such thematic areas as transport and energy will be addressed.

A second series of Awards were presented in October 1998, thanks to the generous support of Dubai Municipality. Each Award consisted of a US $30,000 prize, a trophy and a commerative certificate. More detailed information is available in the booklet, "1998 Awards for Excellence: Guide to Submitting Best Practices in Improving the Living Environment".

Best Practices and Local Leadership Programme UNCHS (Habitat) - P.O. Box 30030 - Nairobi, Kenya

Tel: (254-2) 624328 / Fax: (254-2) 624266/624267

Email: bestpractices@unchs.org