UNGCCP

The city of Jamshedpur, developed and managed by Tata Steel, has been chosen as the first South Asian city to join the select band of six cities in the world for the United Nations

Global Compact Cities Pilot programme (UNGCCP)

The United Nations Global Compact Cities Pilot Programme has two main objectives: to mainstream nine principles of Global Compact, now ten with the addition of ‘Combating Corruption in all its form’ and to handle pressing urban problems like shortage of potable water, crumbling infrastructure, shortage of food and housing, detonating health services etc. The Ten Principles of Global Compact widely covers the issues related to Human Right, Labour Standards and the Environment. The other five cities are Melbourne (Australia), Porto Algegre (Brazil), Tianjin (PRC), Nairobi (Kenya) and San Francisco (USA).

Under the programme each of the these six cities will be required to join hands with the ‘neutral’ agency and conduct a project of benefit to their city using the Melbourne Model project coordination and facilitation methodology, which was launched in December 2003 at Brazil by Mr. George Kell, Executive Director of the Global Compact. The objective of each project is to develop innovative solutions to address some intractabl e social, economic and environmental issues in the urban context through working partnerships between the government, business and civil society. The Secretariat of the UN Global Compact Cities Pilot Programme at Melbourne is headed by Mr. David Teller as Dy. Director.

Jamshedpur has been selected after weighing other• options in India to join the select group. Mr. David Teller after seeing the success of the programme in the five cities approached Tata Council for Community Initiative (TCCI) searching for some cities from India to join this programme. Mr. Anant Nadkarni who is the anchor person for Tata in the UN Global Compact suggested Bangalore and Jamshedpur. Tata Group has been the member of Global Compact and were the first private institution from India to be a member of this International Body.

Mr. David Teller finally selected Jamshedpur because of its long standing approach to systematic urban development. Tata Steel’s approach to Corporate Social Responsibility was the added advantage in its selection. The UN Global Compact Cities Programme is to run from 2004 to 2006 and will be coordinated by a “Committee for Jamshedpur” with Mr.Arun Narayan Singh, Dy. Managing Director (Corporate Services) as the process owner and Mr.Anant Nadkarni of TCCI as the anchorperson.