The Unit evaluated 28 city programs, following UN-Habitat’s programme goals:

1. To develop and maintain a knowledge base on best practices in improving the living environment including their corresponding sources of knowledge, experience and expertise;
2. To promote the dissemination, sharing and exchange of lessons learned from the above-mentioned best practices and others by and amongst all key groups of actors and stakeholders in the human settlement and development process;
3. To facilitate the transfer of the knowledge, experience and expertise associated with best practices in improving the living environment through new and improved means of cooperation on a north-north, north-south and south-south basis including decentralized forms of cooperation;
4. To assist scholars and practitioners in their investigation of innovative approaches to urban development.

[Excerpt, “Guide to Documenting and Learning from Best Practices,” 1996. Introduction, page 6]

“The Best Practices Initiative began as a world-wide search for human settlements success stories. An official part of the preparatory process for The City Summit – the second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) – held in Istanbul, Turkey, in June 1996. Best Practices Initiative generated over 600 submissions from 80 countries by the official deadline. These initiatives are testimonials to human ingenuity in the face of the challenges of an urbanizing world.”

“A two-stage, independent selection process produced a list of 104 Best Practices and highlighted 12 initiatives to receive the Tokyo and Dubai Awards for Excellence in Improving the Living Environment. The twelve Award recipients and many other initiatives were also on display at the Best Practices Exhibition, the largest single-theme exposition ever organised by the United Nations. The enthusiasm and interest generated by the Best Practices Initiative has led to its incorporation as an ongoing programme of UNCHS (Habitat): the Best Practices and Local Leadership Programme (BLP). The BLP will operate as a network of leading capacity-building institutions from around the world. Mandated to support the implementation of the Habitat Agenda – the Global Plan of Action adopted at Habitat II – through the continued sharing and transfer of Best Practices knowledge, experience and expertise, the BLP is launching a second call for submissions, culminating in a second round of Awards for Excellence in Improving the Living Environment in October 1998.”

“The purpose of this guide is to provide a framework for identifying, documenting and learning from BEST PRACTICES. In addition, this guide explains how individuals, groups and organizations can participate in a continuous exchange of know-how, experience and expertise in sustainable human settlements development.”

Galleries 6-7 – Egypt: Cairo and Helwan, 1986, 1990

Gallery 8 – Kenya: Mombassa and Nairobi, 1987

Gallery 14 – Turkey: Tarsus, Adana, Mersin, Iskenderun, Istanbul, and Batikent, 1987

Gallery 16 – Venezuela: Caracas, 1989