AFTER VIENNA: THE FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF BEST PRACTICES

Habitat II in Istanbul marked the first opportunity to showcase Best Practices. In 1996 the first TAC set a high standard with excellent examples of laudable initiatives from all around world. Outside the spotlight of a UN conference, this second round of submissions and the selection of the Dubai Awards, firmly establishes the international network and process of the Best Practices partnership initiative. In 1998, through the efforts of the BLP partnership network, we are able to enter the second hundred Best Practices into the global database, to begin the creation of a Laureate list as well as a list of updates on how a significant number of practices submitted in 1996 continue to perform. We have come a long way from the simple idea of sharing best practices and solutions among communities and established a sustainable network for the transfer of and learning from experience. We realise that we have a long road of learning, training, networking and capacity building ahead of us to meet the aim of improving sustainable human and settlement development. We still need to strengthen awareness building, the promotion of lessons learned and to strengthen the capacity of community, institutional and civic organisations to make use of best practice knowledge, expertise and experience. In addition to the tools already developed such as the Best Practices database on CD-ROM and the Internet, we strongly recommend the use of exhibit displays, audio visuals and ad hoc training and transfer workshops.

Building on the conviction of the first TAC regarding this process we endorse the strategy adopted by the BLP, its Steering Committee and its partners of further decentralising the process of identifying, selecting, disseminating and analysing practices through a network of regional and thematic nodes and institutions. In the future, the Best Practices network of partner institutions could play an even more important role in providing the feedback to submitters before the practice is presented to the TAC. The validation sheet prepared for each submission may provide a summary and first assessment regarding the submissions’ compliance with the nomination criteria by the concerned regional and thematic institutions as a starting point for the work of the TAC.

The TAC suggests the widespread adoption of national and sub-regional pre-selection processes as an integral part of the broad-based, participatory mechanisms recommended by the Habitat Agenda for implementing national and local plans of action. We also recommend the widespread use of a common methodology and a greater time period between the close of submission and the TAC meeting. Such measures will provide the Secretariat and the validating partners adequate time to verify the process and format of the submissions and, where necessary, to provide timely feedback to the submitters as part of the capacity-building objectives of the BLP and of the Dubai International Award.

We recognise that this TAC meeting was spared the task of having to process hundreds of new submissions upon arrival in Vienna as was the case in Rotterdam in 1996. We also note with appreciation to the Secretariat that most of the submissions were processed and sent electronically thus making our own effort more sustainable.