Remarks by

Dr. Arab Hoballah, Chair of the New SCAHSA Jury, Senior Sustainability Expert, former Chief, Sustainable Consumption and Production, UNEP

at New Sustainable Cities and Human Settlements Awards Ceremony 2025

World Meteorological Organization Headquarters,

Geneva, 5 November 2025

We just celebrated 20 years of the Global Forum for Human Settlements. GFHS went through all the challenges of a newborn, a child, a youth, a teenager before becoming an adult. But as for humans, each period has its challenges and opportunities. Since GFHS was born 20 years ago and today, the world has evolved a lot, the world is getting more urbanized and with it all the advantages but also problems of urbanization, cities and communities. And the GFHS has also evolved, adjusting to the emerging needs, with relevant policies, programmes of actions and tools to cope with new challenges and opportunities.

And naturally, the Awards process has also been adjusted to these emerging and new needs, understanding better the development of the cities and related requirements to become more inclusive and more resilient in the transition to sustainability. And this will be reflected in the cities and human settlements that we will recognise and honor today, with achievements aligned with the main issues we discussed in this forum, gravitating around innovation, collaboration, partnership and leadership, as well as science, technology and resilience, bridging science and policy for more realistic transformative actions, valuing collective efforts and multi-stakeholders collaboration for more impactful actions, with adequate enabling environment, incentives and awareness raising.  

This year's awards achieved record highs in both application quality and laureate influence. Compared with the past five years, there was a notable increase in applications and award recipients from cities and local governments. Notably, all four Chinese municipalities directly under the Central Government as well as innovative economic powerhouses like Shenzhen and Suzhou submitted flagship projects for the competition.

Reportedly, GFHS Secretariat received over 400 applications this year. After rigorous evaluation by the Jury, 36 finalists spanning 10 categories were selected, with 19 ultimately to be awarded the top honors.

Again, congratulations to the GFHS in its 20th anniversary, congratulations to Lyu Haifeng, Christine He and their Team for their sustained efforts, year after year, despite various current and emerging challenges.

Let us now recognise and celebrate the Awardees of this year.