Egypt to present Shanghai Award

The second Global Award for Sustainable Development in Cities, or the Shanghai Award, will be presented abroad for the first time in Alexandria, Egypt, to five international cities on World Cities Day, which falls on Oct 31.

The award aims to further promote the concept that "cities should be built by the people and for the people", which was put forward by President Xi Jinping in 2019, officials from the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Housing, Urban-rural Development and Management said at a news briefing on Tuesday.

Five cities will be recognized for the achievements and innovations they have made while implementing the goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the New Urban Agenda, said Liu Qianwei, chief engineer with the commission.

Economic vitality, urban prosperity, ecological construction, green development, urban safety, resilience development and capacity building for sustainable development were among the major criteria considered for prospective winners of the award, jointly presented by the UN Human Settlements Programme, or UN-Habitat, and the Shanghai government.

Last year, Brisbane, Australia; Fuzhou, Fujian province in China; George Town, Malaysia; Kampala, Uganda; and Salvador, Brazil, won the inaugural Shanghai Award.

The English version of the 2024 Shanghai Manual, which aims to provide models of urban development for cities around the world, will also be released at the event in Alexandria.

Eighteen cases from 12 countries and regions, covering urban renewal, biodiversity conservation, low-carbon development, information services, and technology and digital innovation, are outlined in the manual.

One case is Marrakech, Morocco, where residents used to depend heavily on motor vehicles, resulting in severe air pollution.

In 2016, Cantal Bakker, an entrepreneur from the Netherlands, launched the project "Pikala Bikes" in the city, which facilitates building bike lanes and parking racks to promote bicycle riding, teaches youths about road safety and bicycle mechanics, and improves mobility and the quality of life for women and children by teaching them to ride bikes.

The project has helped create job opportunities, and has contributed to environmental protection and improving people's quality of life. It is being expanded to other cities in the country.

This year's cases also include some from Chinese cities — including Nanning in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, Kunming in Yunnan province and Chengdu in Sichuan province — that have made strides in encouraging local communities to be more inclusive, improve efforts to save energy and reduce emissions, and be more resilient in fighting flooding.

One case is Shanghai's downtown Xuhui district, which solicited and incorporated ideas from the public while building 30 pocket parks — high-quality green, public spaces at residents' doorsteps — in recent years.

Ren Jie, director of the Xuhui district greening management center, said one case was Leshan Park, which received a makeover in 2021 from a green space that had been in disrepair for years. It is located in the middle of a densely populated apartment complex, home to nearly 20,000 residents.

"Through consultations with residents, we learned what they expected most from the park, such as a jogging path and exercise and fun facilities for children and the elderly, and what they least expected, including dog waste and noise from square dancing. We took their advice about the park design," Ren said.

"Also, we paid attention to details to meet the diversified needs of children and the elderly. For example, people of different ages can find seats of different heights and facing different directions, in case some like to stay in the sunshine and some don't," she said, adding that Shanghai had set a target to build 300 pocket parks by the end of 2025.

The manual this year is its 10th edition. Altogether, the books detail 220 cases from more than 50 countries.