Organized by the Union of Municipalities of Türkiye (UMT), the 6th International Resilience Congress was held in the UMT headquarters in Ankara on December 16-18.
The theme of this year’s meeting was “Sustainable Resilient Future.” The discussions focused on disaster-resilient cities, aiming to advance the multi-stakeholder debate and ensure coherence with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030) and relevant documents.
The congress was a blend of Academia and Local Governance, where professionals, local government representatives, academics, students, research scholars, and hundreds of others participated in a total of 45 sessions that were conducted in in-person and hybrid modes.
UCLG-MEWA was represented by Research Officer Junaid Rafiq at the 20th session of the congress titled “Lessons Learned from Disaster Experience.” The panel discussion was moderated by Dr. Meltem Şenol Balaban, Urban Planner and Academician at Middle East Technical University, where H.E. Rodrigo Arcos, Ambassador of Chile to the Republic of Türkiye, Ms. Belinda Gottardi, City Councilor at Castel Maggiore, Representative from Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR), Mr. Ryoichiro HOSHINO, Second Secretary at Embassy of Japan in Türkiye, Ministry of Foreign Affairs also shared their experiences and lessons learned from disasters.
During the discussion, Junaid Rafiq presented the Resilient MEWA vision and highlighted the need for Resilient Cities in the face of disasters and the role UCLG-MEWA plays in the areas of Capacity Building for cities and building a Resilient Roadmap for Disaster Risk Reduction.
He highlighted the type of disasters prominent in the MEWA Region and the need for emergency response. He also emphasized the importance of international engagements and partnerships in achieving a sustainable and resilient urban future for the MEWA Region.