About Us

The UN Global Compact Cities Programme (the Cities Programme) is an urban-focused component of the UN Global Compact.

Based on the premise that any city, anywhere, contains the capacity to resolve the issues it faces, the Cities Programme offers a framework for building constructive, all-sector task forces between business, government and civil society, to produce practical responses in areas where single-sector initiatives have previously failed.

The development of new, progressive methodologies such as the Cities Programme has become increasingly critical in the twenty-first century as urban populations outnumber rural growth for the first time and new, complex challenges emerge. Combining the ideas, knowledge, experience and resources inherent within all three sectors offers a powerful, unique and unlimited capacity to effect change and address these challenges in areas such as waste management, water and sanitation, poverty alleviation, traffic safety and housing re-developments.

Governance structure

The Cities Programme is a global initiative. It is governed by the International Secretariat based at Global Cities Institute at RMIT University. It comprises an Executive team (which includes representation from Global Compact Office, New York) and a high level Advisory Council. Our Organizational Chart highlights the direct relationships between the engaged cities and our networks at a local, regional and global scale.
Find out details of the relationships between different levels of governance

Attributes

The Cities Programme provides opportunity for city’s to display specific attributes at different levels of engagement. Attributes include Sustainability; Resilience; Leadership; Commitment; Governance; Diversity and Adaptability. An Innovating City, (the highest level of engagement) is aware and displays the full set of attributes in their project-based work.
Find out about how these attributes apply to a city’s engagement

Benefits

The Cities Programme provides new perspective to city leaders who are tackling a complexity of urban issues. Supported by the research work derived from Global Cities Research Institute at RMIT University, the Cities Programme offers cities opportunity to adopt a holistic approach that includes a self assessment which identifies a city’s awareness and understanding of the issue overtime.
Benefits of the Cities Programme

Requirements

There are different requirements for different levels of engagement.
More about requirements…

Commitments

A city commits to undertaking a specific project that demonstrates their commitment to the ten principles of the Global Compact and the Cities Programme.
More about commitments