Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy (GCoM) South Asia helpdesk: Support Services for the Covenant of Mayors and International Urban Cooperation

The Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy (GCoM) South Asia helpdesk was hosted by the ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability, South Asia. The helpdesk provided administrative, logistical, and technical support to signatory cities, as well as those cities interested in joining the initiative and other stakeholders.

Main expected outcomes

The project is completed and delivered following:

• Operation of the helpdesk for Global Covenant of Mayors signatories in India and South Asia; Manage dedicated email address; Manage dedicated phone number
• Provided first-line administrative and technical support to Covenant of mayors signatories (from adhesion to submission of their action plan and progress reporting)
• Ensured coherence with Central helpdesk procedures and tools through participation to training and capacity building webinars organized; Development of standard emails, automatic notifications aligned to country context and language
• Adjusted existing Helpdesk materials to the regional context, in cooperation with relevant stakeholders.
• Managed databases (signatories, action plans, benchmarks of excellence)
• Identified best practice examples and provide recommendations to IUC coordination Unit and IUC India team for improvement of materials, methodology or templates that emerge from the most frequent requests.
• Supported the adaptation of the Common Reporting framework and of the relevant guidelines to the Indian context.