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Gender Friendly Sustainable Cities in Asia and the Pacific


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2007 Gender and Rights-Responsive Sustainable Cities Award Overview

Mainstreaming gender and building rights-responsive sustainable cities requires contributions from multiple stakeholders in any given community. The 2007 Award "Gender and Rights-Responsive Sustainable Cities" is presented to those civil society organizations and individuals who have demonstrated excellence and innovation in initiatives which improve rights-responsiveness and gender sensitivity in their community. The 2007 Awards, in cooperation with a distinguished panel of nine jurors, has evaluated applicants and selected five awardees for Excellence and Innovation.

Nine juries evaluated the ten full applications, submitted by civil society organizations and individuals in Asia and the Pacific. With jury evaluations tabulated, we found that two of the civil society organizations were rated within a fraction of a point from one another, and decided consequently to award them both with the Civil Society Award for Innovation.

We are hereby pleased to announce that the 2007 "Gender and Rights-Responsive Sustainable Cities in Asia and the Pacific" award is conferred to the following:

Civil Society Award for Excellence:
Sri Lanka Women's Development Cooperative Limited, Sri Lanka
Civil Society Award for Innovation:
Association for Community Development, Bangladesh
Civil Society Award for Innovation:
Fund for the Encouragement of Self-Reliance, Vietnam
Individual Award for Excellence:
Helen Hakena, Papua New Guinea
Individual Award for Innovation:
Salima Sarwar, Bangladesh

On 6-7 March, 2008, the Individual Awardees and Representatives of the Awarded Organizations will be invited to attend the award ceremony, forum and local-to-local dialogue in Colombo, Sri Lanka. These events will provide the opportunities to acknowledge each awardee, and for each to present their activities and to share directly with other grassroots leaders.

2007 Gender and Rights-Responsive Sustainable Cities Award Background

In 2003, the Nairobi Expert Group Meeting on Gender and Womens Issues in Human Settlements considered the UN-HABITAT Latin America and Caribbean regional gender awards as a best practice. Accordingly, in 2004, the UN-HABITAT Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific launched its first awards process for Women-Friendly Cities to replicate this best practice across regions. Building on the gains of the 2004 Awards in Asia and the Pacific, the process was expanded upon by the creation of a comprehensive program for 2007.

In recognition of substantial efforts being made throughout Asia and the Pacific at this time, and in keeping with the call to enhance good urban governance while replicating best practices, the 2007 Awards Programme was launched at an Expert Group Meeting commemorating the 10th Anniversary of the UN-HABITAT Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, in Fukuoka Japan on September 4, 2007.

The 2007 Gender and Rights-Responsive Sustainable Cities in Asia and the Pacific Award will recognize excellence and innovation in community-based initiatives sustained by city authorities, civil society organizations and individual leaders in the Asia-Pacific region. Detailed information about the awards process, eligibility and application submissions is available on this website, or by contacting the programme coordinator at the Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific.

This programme has been funded by the Government of Norway.

2007 Gender and Rights-Responsive Sustainable Cities Award Competition

The competition aims at making visible the contribution of local governments, civil society and individual actors to the development of policies, programmes and innovative efforts towards the creation of Rights-Responsive Sustainable Cities in Asia and the Pacific. The theme for the 2007 Awards is "Mainstreaming Gender and Human Rights in Post-Disaster, Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Disaster Preparedness". The regional awards in 2007 will identify three innovative practices and three excellent practices, one each from the categories of individuals, cities, and civil society; accordingly, six awards will be given in total.

The three awardees for excellence, one each from the categories of in individuals, cities, and civil society, will receive a cash prize and participate in the award ceremony related to the celebration of International Women’s Day in Fukuoka, Japan. The three awardees for innovation, one each from the categories of in individuals, cities, and civil society, will receive a cash prize and acknowledgement of their success.

The Award Objectives and Categories

The Award Process is a learning experience and a form of benchmarking by encouraging the participation of cities, civil society organizations and individuals involved in post-disaster, post-conflict reconstruction and disaster preparedness, to enhance documentation and internal recognition of efforts. Further, the award competition is an advocacy strategy that promotes the awareness and application of gender and human rights principles in urban governance. It acts as an incentive for other cities and organizations to mainstream gender and human rights in their policies and programmes, while empirically demonstrating the tangible benefits of gender mainstreaming. It additionally promotes strategic links between women’s organizations, civil society organizations, local governments, and individual leaders; and contributes to the establishment of a unique documentation of participating cities.

In 2007, the award will recognize innovation and excellence in "Mainstreaming Gender and Human Rights in Post-Disaster, Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Disaster Preparedness".

A total of 6 awardees will be chosen: a set of three winners on 'innovation' and another set on 'excellence' each at all three levels: the individual, city and civil society organization.

Complete, detailed eligibility criteria is available for download.


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