The Secretary Generals of the UCLG’s sections gathered virtually in a meeting on 29 April 2021. UCLG-MEWA Secretary-General Mehmet Duman stated that they attach great importance to the development of the Voluntary Local Reviews (VLRs) in the MEWA region.
“Sultanbeyli Municipality in Turkey was the first local government of the MEWA region to launch VLR preparations” said Mehmet Duman, and added that UCLG-MEWA are currently working on the VLRs with Izmir Metropolitan Municipality and Karatay Municipality.
Duman pointed out that this year is of particular importance for the MEWA region since it will be hosting 2 major events that are on the UCLG agenda, which are: The Second World Forum of Intermediary Cities (I-Cities) to be hosted by Konya Metropolitan Municipality and UCLG 4th Culture Summit to be hosted by Izmir Metropolitan Municipality.
“The Global Task Force on Migration also continues its work uninterruptedly,” said Duman, adding that UCLG-MEWA and GTFM Steering Committee are conducting quarterly meetings with the task force members in order to follow up on the commitments of the 2019 Gaziantep Declaration.
He talked about the preparations to launch a Training Program on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Resilience Building and added that UCLG-MEWA will organize two workshops, namely the Workshop on Intangible Cultural Heritage to be held in Balıkesir, Turkey, and the Workshop on Accessible Tourism to be held in Kyrenia, TRNC by UCLG-MEWA Committee on Culture and Tourism in the next fall.