Cities
Cities are the focus of population, business activity, economic wealth, government, academia, infrastructure and civil society. They represent an extraordinary array of human, material and financial resources that can be used to translate the Global Compact's ten principles into concrete and positive urban outcomes.
There a range of ways in which cities can participate in the Global Compact:
1. They can act as catalysts and encourage the businesses with whom they engage or that are located within their city to participate in the Global Compact.
2. They can express their support for the principles and work towards their implementation within their own organizations and sphere of influence, and can communicate their progress to their stakeholders (Communications on progress are currently optional for non corporate participants).
3. They can engage in the Global Compact Cities Programme. Launched in 2003, the Cities Programme seeks to improve the quality of urban life through the effective use of local cross-sector partnerships between business, government and civil society. The Programme is based on the premise that cross-sector partnerships, combining the ideas, knowledge, experience, wisdom and resources inherent within business, government and civil society, have a powerful, unique and unlimited capacity to develop innovative solutions to even the most intractable environmental, social or economic urban problems.
The Cities Programme provides a concrete tool, in the form of the Melbourne Model™, to assist in the development and implementation of these cross-sector partnerships. The Melbourne Model encourages:
a) local capacity-building;
b) the involvement of non-traditional
stakeholders (getting the ‘best’ people around the table instead of the ‘usual’
people); and
c) a key role for the private
sector in the provision of ideas, knowledge, experience and resources to help
resolve systemic urban issues.
(last updated 08/09/06)
