UCLG-MEWA participated in the Urban Climate Forum 2026, held in Jakarta, Indonesia, on 16–17 September 2026. The Forum was organized by United Cities and Local Governments Asia-Pacific (UCLG ASPAC) in collaboration with Urban-Act Project consortium partners. Bringing together around 200 participants from national and local governments, development partners, city networks, academia, and the private sector, the Forum served as a platform to advance urban climate agendas and strengthen multi-level governance across Indonesia and the wider Asia-Pacific region.
The delegation of the United Cities and Local Governments Middle East and West Asia Section (UCLG-MEWA) was represented by Dr. Mehmet Duman, Secretary General, and Kübra Esen, Policy Assistant.
Day 1: Forum Opening and High-Level Dialogues
The Forum opened with welcome remarks by Dr. Ir. Bernadia Irawati Tjandradewi, Secretary General of UCLG ASPAC, followed by the launch of the Asia-Pacific Local Government (APLG) Learning Platform, and keynote addresses by senior officials of the Government of Indonesia. In his closing address of the morning session, Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono, Coordinating Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development, drew attention to the flooding risks facing Indonesia’s coastal regions, calling for infrastructure built not only on a greater scale but also with stronger resilience to disasters. Two High-Level Dialogues followed on mobility governance and on strengthening urban climate action, bringing together national officials, provincial governors, and city mayors.
In the afternoon, the UCLG-MEWA delegation attended the parallel session “Low Carbon Emission City: Energy Transition and Urban Mobility,” which explored sustainable urban mobility and the energy transition through policy dialogue and city-to-city learning.
Day 2: Representing UCLG-MEWA at the APLG Meeting
As a member of the Asia-Pacific Local Government Coordinating Body (APLG), UCLG-MEWA’s engagement in the Forum centered on the APLG Meeting held on 17 September, which brought together APLG member networks and international partners to discuss the governance, Code of Conduct, and operational arrangements of the proposed APLG Learning Platform.
In his intervention, Dr. Duman introduced UCLG-MEWA as the unified voice of hundreds of cities, municipalities, and local government associations across 16 countries of the Middle East and West Asia, describing the organization’s role as a bridge connecting municipal priorities with global policy frameworks. He framed learning not as the simple transfer of knowledge but as the adaptation of global knowledge to local realities, presenting UCLG-MEWA’s learning ecosystem of training, workshops, online courses, peer exchanges, and publications covering SDG localization, climate change, urban resilience, disaster risk reduction, and migration.
As concrete examples, Dr. Duman cited the adaptation of UCLG and UN disaster risk reduction modules to the MEWA context, later published as the Resilience Case Studies from the MEWA Region; the Arab Mayors Academy, developed in partnership with UNESCWA and UN-Habitat; and the UCLG-MEWA Local Academy, established to provide learning opportunities to member cities. He closed by reaffirming UCLG-MEWA’s support for the APLG initiative and its learning platform, and for stronger cross-regional linkages that allow regions to learn not only about global agendas but about how they are implemented locally.
Through its participation in the Urban Climate Forum 2026, UCLG-MEWA reaffirmed its commitment to adapting global knowledge to local realities and strengthening cross-regional cooperation among local government networks to support climate-resilient, sustainable urban development.