. Urban October, celebrated by UN-Habitat every year, is a time for raising awareness, promoting participation, generating knowledge, and engaging the international community on sustainable urban development. Every October, UN-Habitat and partners organize a month of activities, events and discussions on urban sustainability. This year, Urban October activities will begin with World Habitat Day on 5 October. The purpose of World Habitat Day is to reflect on the state of our towns and cities, and on the basic right of all to adequate shelter. It is also intended to remind the world that we all have the power and the responsibility to shape the future of our cities and towns.
World Habitat Day was established in 1985 by the United Nations General Assembly by UN Resolution 40/202 and was first celebrated in 1986. It takes place on the first Monday of October. The theme of this year’s World Habitat Day 2020 is Housing for All: A better Urban Future.
This year, UN-Habitat Lebanon will organize a number of activities during the month of Urban October, one of which is a video competition around the theme of “What Does a Home Mean to You?” This call for video submissions is open to all residents of Lebanon.
The objective of the video competition is to raise awareness and shed light on the importance of housing and the challenges faced in ensuring adequate housing for all in Lebanon. More specifically, the theme of the competition can be explored in the context of four main categories:
- The challenging recovery and reconstruction following devastating Beirut Port explosions
- The general housing situation in Lebanon
- COVID-19
- The ongoing socio-economic crisis
Theme: What Does a Home Mean to You?
The concept of a home can be tied to many factors including family, livelihood, shelter, homelessness, poverty, belonging, friends, displacement, migration and more. To some it is intrinsically tied to a feeling of belonging.
In the words of the Executive Director of UN-Habitat, Maimunah Mohd Sharif on the 75th Anniversary of the United Nations “Our fate is inextricably bound up with the places we call home — be it an informal settlement, a village or a city.”
In the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, Sustainable Development Goal 11 advocates to “Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable” and Target 11.1 aims “By 2030, ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services and upgrade slums”.
In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), Article 25.1 states that: “Article 25.1 states that: “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.”
Housing and “home” has been enshrined in several other International Standards.
Video Criteria
- Video should be between 60 to 120 seconds in length and horizontal in format
- Video can be live action, stop-motion, or animated
- Video must use all original content
- Video in Arabic must include English subtitles and vice versa (captions can be submitted in Word format)
- Video can be submitted by individuals or groups, of any age
- Video content must focus on Lebanon
- Video must be relevant to aforementioned theme and four subcategories
Videos should be submitted exclusively to unhabitat-lebanon@un.org via WeTransfer
Timeline
- 05 October: Call for submissions opens
- 18 October: Submission deadline
- 19 October: Videos posted on UN-Habitat Lebanon Instagram, Facebook and Twitter
- 28 October: Liking tally is closed on social media platforms
- 29 October: Selection Committee deliberation composed of UN-Habitat experts
- 31 October: Results announced
Scoring
The video submissions will be judged according to the following criteria
- Adherence to the video criteria above (failure to do so = disqualification)
- Relevance to theme and sub-themes (25% of final score)
- Originality (25% of final score)
- Overall quality (25% of final score)
- Number of likes on social media (25% of final score)
The top three winners will be determined by which videos have the highest score based on the above criteria.
Prizes
The top 3 placed winners (first, second and third) will win the following:
- First prize: Professional Camera
- Second prize: Smartphone
- Third prize: UN-Habitat Lebanon promotional items
