Sia Partners returns for Dubai sustainable development award
Entries are currently open for the latest cycle of the Dubai International Best Practices Award For Sustainable Development – with management consultancy Sia Partners once again providing support.
Now into its 13th cycle, the award aims to recognise and support the cross-border sharing of innovative best practices in sustainable urban development across a number of categories, with $1 million to be shared among the winners.
Held in partnership with UN-Habitat and the Dubai Municipality, management consulting firm Sia Partners is back to support the competition.
“If we want to continue growing as a species, we humans have the responsibility to do it in a sustainable manner. This responsibility is not only to our blue planet, but to our children, grandchildren and the many generations that will come after we are gone,” commented Carlos Guevara, who leads the public sector transformation business of Sia Partners in the Middle East. “Super proud to partner once again with Dubai Municipality on this.”
Established in 1995 by the late Sheikh Maktoum Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the award is open to private and public sector organisations including local and national governments, NGOs, academic institutes, and individual researchers and teams, and covers five categories; urban regeneration and public spaces; urban food systems, infrastructure planning and management, innovative and iconic buildings, and addressing climate change and pollution reduction.
The awards’ most recent cycle in 2020 – which was also supported by Sia Partners – received almost 3,000 entries from around the world, including for the winning projects and initiatives in Singapore, Italy, Indonesia, India, and Thailand. The climate change award for example went to Florence-based project Treedom, which allows farmers in developing economies to plant trees on behalf of donors, who can then follow the progress of the tree online.
“We want to attain quality achievements in the field of urban planning and build a sector that contributes to developing the community, building smart cities and establishing a framework to improve the quality of life for Dubai’s people,” said Dubai ruler and UAE prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum upon launching the previous awards cycle, which honoured its selected recipients during Expo 2020 Dubai.
Meanwhile, submissions for the current cycle are due before the end of August, with the winners to be announced at next year’s World Government Summit starting in February.
Speaking on its launch, UN‐Habitat executive director Maimunah Mohd Sharif said she strongly valued the 25-plus years of cooperation with Dubai Municipality and the contribution “the Dubai Award has made to amplify the transformative potential of sustainable urban development.”