Trupti Jain appointed Executive Director of Gujarat Urban Governance Body
Executive Director
CMAG,
Email: trbjain@yahoo.com
LEAD India Fellow, Trupti Jain has been appointed the Executive Director of City Managers’ Association, Gujarat (CMAG), www.cmag-india.com). CMAG works to strengthen urban local bodies so they can function effectively as centres of opportunity, leadership and governance.
The training Trupti received through the LEAD India Fellowship Programme was instrumental to her new focus on urban governance and poverty.
“Having put the past 14 years into grassroots development…. I had convinced myself that it was the rural sector which needed maximum attention. I was glad to be corrected. Having joined the LEAD India Cohort 12 Fellowship programme, I was exposed to the multitude of urban developmental issues and their co-linearity with gender rights and governance. The LEAD sessions with multi-disciplinary experts, inspired me to start my thinking process on urban governance and sustainable development.”
Trupti now believes that the future growth of Gujarat and, by extension, India, depends largely on how quickly the smaller towns and cities embrace an inclusive development path. CMAG has a valuable role to play in developing the capacity of urban leaders from smaller towns to design development plans with a special focus on urban poor and informal services sector issues. In addition, it can help support implementation by generating sufficient political will at state level, providing an impartial platform for stakeholder views, and helping progress towards the achievement of development targets such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s).
Initiated in 1997 with the support of the International City/County Management Association, (ICMA) and USAID, CMAG is recognized as a pioneering institution in Asia and this model has been replicated in 13 other Indian states. Its influence is immense as it covers seven municipal corporations, six urban development authorities and 161 municipalities - 38% of the Gujarat State’s population of sixty million. Trupti hopes to build on this reputation for innovation by helping urban bodies move towards excellence in local governance and improvements in citizens’ quality of life.
Trupti is looking forward to drawing on the expertise and experience of the global LEAD network to help the CMAG team achieve their aims.