DR. Olusegun Mimiko, governor of Ondo State in Nigeria, has been announced as the winner of the United Nations 2012 Habitat Scroll of Honor award in recognition of his contributions to the development of sustainable human settlements in the state.
In a letter which announced Mimiko as the winner of the award, the United Nations through its Coordinator on UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour, Ana B Moreno, said the choice of the governor was the unanimous decision of an international jury.
“Dr. Mimiko was selected among many nominees for the most coveted award in the human settlement sector,” read the announcement.
“The UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour is the most prestigious human settlement award in the world which aims to acknowledge initiatives which have made outstanding contributions in various fields such as shelter provision, leadership in developing and improving the human settlements and general enhancement in overall quality of urban life.
“Winners of the award were selected from across the world by an international jury of development experts on human settlements and urban development. In selecting the 2012 winners of the award, the jury looked for achievements and best practices in innovation, impact and sustainability in key human settlement development areas related to this year’s theme for the World Habitat Day which is Changing Cities, Building Opportunities.
“The areas considered for the award according to the statement include, housing and slum upgrading, Urban planning and design, Urban economy, Infrastructure rehabilitation and risk reduction.
“Other areas considered by the World body are urban land, legislation and governance, urban basic services, and urban research and capacity development,” the statement added.
The award ceremony is slated to hold on the 6th of September in Naples, Italy during the 6th edition of the World Urban Forum.
The award is organized by the UN-Habitat, the Government of Italy, the Campania Region and City of Naples.
The theme of this year’s meeting is “The Urban Future” and over 5,000 participants from 114 countries have already registered for the premier conference on cities and urban issues.
As part of guidelines for submission of nominations for the award, a maximum of five wining initiatives were selected from all over the world.
The World Urban Forum is a bi-annual conference of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme in partnership with national, regional and city governments to examine critical issues facing the world today in the areas of urbanization and its impact on communities, cities, economies, climate change and policies.
The conference is usually an assembly of governments, global experts in urban development, professionals in the built environment, development partners, stakeholders and critical interest groups. The 5th edition of the global conference was held in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil in 2010.
More than 10,000 participants attended the event including heads of
governments.
Mimiko, a medical practitioner by training, has been the recipient of wide-ranging encomiums for his role as governor of Ondo State in the last three and half years, the latest of which is the highly regarded Habitat Scroll of Honor.