The Housing & Development Board (HDB) has been conferred the 2010 UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour Award.
The award, launched by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme in 1989, is currently the most prestigious human settlements award in the world.
The aim of the award is to acknowledge initiatives which have made outstanding contributions such as shelter provision, leadership in post conflict reconstruction, developing and improving human settlements and the quality of urban life.
In announcing the winners of the award, UN-Habitat noted that HDB “provided one of Asia’s and the world’s greenest, cleanest and most socially conscious housing programmes”.
It also acknowledged HDB’s pivotal role in housing 80 per cent of Singapore’s population and having played an integral part in nation building.
It credits Singapore and HDB for thinking of the needs of various sectors of society and developing housing options to cater to their needs for over half a century.
National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan in congratulating HDB said this is an international recognition of the housing board’s achievements in housing a nation.
The award will be presented to the winners during the Global Observance of World Habitat Day on October 4, in Shanghai.
HDB, which also won the UN Public Service award in 2008, will be receiving the United Nations-Habitat Scroll of Honour award together with five other winners.
They include Austria’s Vienna Sustainable Urban Renewal Programme, China’s Kunshan Municipal People’s Government, Colombia’s City of Medellín, Morocco’s Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, and South Africa’s Johannesburg Social Housing Company.
Source : Channel NewsAsia – 22 Sep 2010