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FCM International Awards

The FCM International Awards for Outstanding International Volunteer Contribution recognize the outstanding contribution to international cooperation made by Canadian municipalities and individuals. These volunteers have brought about significant improvements to municipal government, management and service delivery, strengthening Canada´s image abroad as a country committed to international cooperation.

2011 Recipients

Luc Desbiens

City of Saguenay, Quebec

Luc Desbiens has demonstrated an inspiring spirit of voluntarism in his work for over six years on an international partnership project between the City of Saguenay and the City of Nam Dinh in Vietnam. He and his colleagues helped Nam Dinh´s municipal officers to improve the City´s land information management and taxation systems. For the past two years, Mr. Desbiens has led the effort to replicate this successful initiative through a network of three Vietnamese cities. He has also supported the Association of Cities of Vietnam in advocating reforms to give municipalities greater autonomy. His initiative shows how a project with limited resources can make a real strategic contribution toward empowering municipal partners. Luc Desbiens

City of Ottawa, Ontario

The partnership project between the City of Ottawa and the District of Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem (KEEA) in Ghana developed a community health project emphasizing the importance of hand washing in preventing diseases such as respiratory infections and diarrhoea. The City´s "Be a Germ Stopper!" program aimed to educate elementary school teachers, students and their parents about the correct way to wash their hands and cover coughs and sneezes with a tissue or the upper arm. The partners implemented the program in four pilot schools, providing a training-of-trainers program to 25 municipal workers. These workers in turn trained 57 elementary school teachers in the District. An added plus is that the project has resulted in an increased collaboration between the District´s health and education sectors.
Page Updated: 15/03/2012