The first cycle of the Global Award for Sustainable Development in Cities (Shanghai Award) Call for Applications Rules and Guidelines
The Global Award for Sustainable Development in Cities (Shanghai Award) aims to accelerate the implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2030 Agenda) and New Urban Agenda (NUA). It focuses on advancing Sustainable Development Goal 11, promoting the localization of SDGs, echoing on the Global Development Initiative (GDI), and incentivizing cities to find systematic solutions for sustainable urban development. In addition, the award will help build the platform for advancing UN-Habitat’s strategic plan and flagship programmes and the Global Urban Monitoring Framework.
The establishment of the Global Award for Sustainable Development in Cities (Shanghai Award) was officially announced by the Executive Director of UN-Habitat at the first session of the 2022 Executive Board of UN-Habitat on 30 March 2022. The call for applications of the first cycle of the award was formally publicized on 27 June 2022 during the 11th World Urban Forum (WUF) held in Poland.
Call for Applications of the first cycle of the award is now open until 30 June 2023.
I. Scope and Theme
The award is open to cities all around the world to recognise and honour their progress and achievements in implementing the SDGs and the NUA at the city level since 2016 when the implementation of the 2030 Agenda was formally initiated.
With only eight years left to 2030, the world is poised at a critical juncture in which cities are recovering from major crises, and the global economy is rebounding, the theme of the first cycle of the award is "Building Sustainable Urban Future for All". Cities around the world striving for sustainable development are encouraged to apply to join the global discussion on sustainable urban development solutions.
Cities that have made significant progress in one or more of the following areas are particularly encouraged and welcome to apply:
Area 1: Economic vitality and urban prosperity
Including but not limited to: leveraging the agglomeration effects of urbanization through good urban planning, including increased productivity, competitiveness and innovation; promoting urban economic diversification and local economic prosperity; exploring the potential for green infrastructure integration and green economy development; promoting best practices to capture and share the increase in land and property value generated as a result of urban development processes, infrastructure projects and public investments; facilitating sustainable urban investment and municipal financing, etc.
Area 2: Green urban development
Including but not limited to: protecting the well-being and quality of life of all people through environmentally sound urban, territorial and community planning, infrastructure and basic services delivery; promoting the sustainable management of natural resources and improving ecosystem services in urban areas; provisioning networks of safe, accessible, green, inclusive public spaces; promoting green, low-carbon buildings; reducing the use of non-renewable resources, greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution; improving public transport and mobility services, and promoting technological innovation in public transportation systems, and pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure, etc.
Area 3: Urban safety and resilience
Including but not limited to: adopting urban layouts and solutions adapted to nature, building cities and settlements that use resources efficiently, mitigate and adapt to climate change, and are disaster-resilient; building resilient urban infrastructure systems, applying disaster risk monitoring technologies; ensuring equal access to and use of safe and affordable drinking water; improving wastewater, stormwater and solid waste management to increase safety in the event of natural disasters; and increase the preparedness of social infrastructure and health care services for effective pandemic responses, etc.
Area 4: Capacity building for sustainable urban development
Including but not limited to: strengthening the collective urban and community governance by all relevant parties; enhancing the sustainability of cities, communities, buildings and infrastructure with attention and protection for the poor and people in vulnerable situations (women, children, the elderly and disabled people, etc.); building databases to improve urban sustainability assessments; applying and promoting green and smart city technologies; supporting the establishment of positive economic, social and environmental linkages between urban, peri-urban and rural areas through urban planning; and promoting improvements in sustainable urban financing and effective governance through policy, legislative and institutional innovations and broad public participation.
Cities [1] and municipalities around the world are eligible to be applicants for the first cycle of the award. Cities demonstrating the following are especially welcome to apply:
- Outstanding performance in social, economic and environmental aspects of sustainable urban development since 2016.
- Remarkable progress and innovation in sustainable urban development since 2016, with significant potential for further growth and development.
- A commitment to further realizing and advancing the ambitious goal of sustainable urban development.
- Best practices in sustainable urban development which can be promoted around the world to inspire and motivate other cities to jointly implement sustainable development actions.
III. Prize and awards
The first cycle of the award will be granted to no more than five cities, and special awards will be granted as appropriate. An award ceremony will be held at the major international platform and winners of the first cycle will be presented with a certificate, a plaque, and trophy.
The outstanding practices and achievements in sustainable urban development from the winning cities will be added to the best practices database of the New Urban Agenda platform, which will further showcase and enhance the visibility of the cities’ efforts in sustainable urban and human settlement development. The winning cities will also be invited to attend important international events such as the WUF, and the Observance of World Cities Day, among others, gaining opportunities to exchange best practices with other cities, boost potential investment, and create new opportunities for local economic development.
IV. Application
The application can be filled in and submitted through the website at https://shanghaiaward.org, where more information, guidance and resources for the application process are also available. Cities are encouraged to align the application with their Voluntary Local Reviews (VLR).
(2) Application materials
The application includes two approaches: self-application and application with nomination. The Application Form can be completed at the online application portal in the award website, where the applicants can also upload the supporting materials. The application can be revised at any time before the Call for Applications closes. Requirements for the application are as follows:
a. Self-application:
All applicant cities/municipalities are required to submit an official Application Letter to confirm that the city/municipality decides to apply to the first cycle of the Award. The Application Letter must include the official letterhead and an official stamp/signature of the mayor (or the equivalent) of the applicant city/municipality. A template for the Application Letter is in annexes of this Call and can also be downloaded in the online application portal.
b. Application with nomination:
Member States of the United Nations, UN agencies other than UN-Habitat, organisations and institutions that have consultative status at the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) or that have been specially invited by UN-Habitat can nominate. An official Nomination Letter and a Confirmation Letter by the city/municipality are needed. The nominator needs to write an official Nomination Letter, with official letterhead and the stamp of the nominator, to state that they nominate the city/municipality concerned to apply to the first cycle of the Award and explain why they make the nomination. The Confirmation Letter must include the official letterhead and an official stamp/signature of the mayor (or the equivalent) of the applicant city/municipality and confirm that they agree to be nominated and apply to the Award.
(3) Language of the application:
English
(4) Terms and conditions
1) The applicant city/municipality is responsible for completing and submitting the application following the Call for Applications Rules and Guidelines.
2) The applicant city/municipality is responsible for the authenticity and legality of the submitted materials.
3) Applications will be disqualified in the following situations:
a. Failure to observe the Call for Applications Rules and Guidelines;
b. Presenting misleading and false information regarding the supporting documents;
c. Inability to provide sufficient information for the assessment of the application;
d. Unethical behaviour, including undue pressure on any person involved in the evaluation and selection process.
4) Incomplete applications or late submissions will not be considered. The task force for the award may request for supplementary materials from applications on the condition that the original application was completed according to the Rules and Guidelines and the timeline, and that additional information is helpful for further assessments of the application against the core selection criteria.
5) Questions marked with an * are required to answer, and the rest are optional. Please note that the applicant must answer all required questions. Incomplete application will lead to disqualification of the application. Applicants fail to provide the required quantitative indicators in the questions should provide a brief description related to the conditions.
6) You are encouraged to provide supporting materials with your submission, for example, photographs, videos, media reports, promotional materials, procedural documents, supporting bylaws or city regulations and policies (brief), or working standards, etc. These are not compulsory but will help to strengthen your application.
7) The applications can be revised before the Call for Applications closes. Once the Call for Applications is closed, the materials submitted will not be returned. The applicant should back up the original documents as needed.
8) Where the Application Letter from the applicant city/municipality is submitted, all materials in the applications will be available for international exhibition, demonstration, publication and media coverage. The award task force will cite the source of the information while using it but will not be required to seek further permission for any such use.
9) Where the submission of an application is made by someone assigned by the applicant city/municipality, it is assumed that they have been given permissions for the submission and the terms indicated in points (8) above.
10) The prize for the winning application will be awarded to the city/municipality named in the application form.
V. Selection criteria
The applications will be assessed according to the four core criteria.
(1) Impact: The achievements, progress, and proven impact in implementing the 2030 Agenda and the NUA.
(2) Sustainability: The strategies, plans and actions that underpin the long-term implementation of the SDGs and NUA in the city.
(3) Innovation: The innovative approaches, methods, practices, technologies or instruments to enable the realisation of the SDGs and the NUA.
(4) Adaptability: The extent to which the city's experience can be replicated, adopted or scaled up by other cities or in similar scenarios.
On top of the core criteria, the applicants will be given bonus points if they have accomplishments in the areas that are closely related to the approaches that UN-Habitat promotes for realising SDGs.
An International Jury will be established as the core assessment body of the award. The International Jury will give its review report and the recommendations for winners.
UN-Habitat will confirm the list of winning cities based on the Jury Review Report after consulting with internal and external stakeholders.
The “Global Award for Sustainable Development in Cities (Shanghai Award)” is jointly established by UN-Habitat and Shanghai Municipality. Please visit the award official website: https://shanghaiaward.org for this Application Rules and Guidelines (in six UN official languages). Should you have any questions or encounter any problems during the application process, you can send your inquiries to the award task force at siqi.chen@un.org and outreach@shanghaiaward.org.
The award task force reserves the rights of final interpretation for the Global Award for Sustainable Development in Cities (Shanghai Award) Call for Applications Rules and Guidelines of the first cycle.
[1] Cities can here be defined by two components; firstly their urban extent which represents the total built-up area or the continuous area occupied by buildings or other impervious surfaces, and secondly by urbanized open space which comprises of unbuilt-up areas situated within built-up areas, or within their immediate vicinity (e.g. parks, cleared land, forest or other similar typologies).