The “Pilot Project On Mapping the Sustainable Development Goals in Türkye” was carried out by UCLG-MEWA in 2018-2019 in Türkiye. This project aims to raise awareness and encourage the localization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by the United Nations in 2015 and which will be on the agenda of all humanity until 2030.  The project also aims to ensure the local contribution to the reporting activities for the SDGs at the national level in Türkiye. The project was funded by the World Academy of Local Government and Democracy (WALD) in cooperation with Çanakkale Municipality, Eyyübiye Municipality, Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality, Gebze Municipality, Karesi Municipality, Mersin Metropolitan Municipality, Mezitli Municipality, Nilüfer Municipality, Ordu Metropolitan Municipality, Pendik Municipality, Sancaktepe Municipality, Seferihisar Municipality, Selçuklu Municipality, Şişli Municipality and Zeytinburnu Municipality, which were members of the UCLG-MEWA Committee on Local Governance at that time. For each municipality participating in the project, two-day workshops were organized with the participation of municipal staff and stakeholders where the alignment of the projects and activities of the municipality with the SDGs were carried out. Within the scope of the project, a total of 2223 projects and activities were evaluated and aligned with the SDGs.

The final report of the project can be found here.

Sustainable Urban Transport Network Project, implemented within the scope of the Civil Society Tool, Media-Civil Society Networks and Platforms Support Program funded by the European Union, started in February 2020. The project, which will take four years, is planned to be completed in January 2024. The project is being implemented under the coordination of WRI and in cooperation with UCLG-MEWA, YADA and Aktif Yaşam Organization.

The four-year project, which began in February 2020, aims to be an effective, sustainable urban transport network involving a wide diversity of stakeholders that can result in greater impacts on policy-making, democratic governance, and social change to enable a more democratic civil society in Türkiye . KAVŞAK Network , which was established in the scope of the project activities, aims for capacity building on sustainable urban transport, providing opportunities regarding improving the national and international cooperation and increasing the participation in decision making mechanisms.  Within the scope of Network,  e-learning modules on 10 different subject are prepared and shared through the KAVŞAK website in the webinar format.  Mutual learning and capacity building opportunities are instigating by organizing technical field trips to international authorities as well as supporting the NGOs’ small scale projects who are working on urban tranport.

You can be a part of KAVŞAK Network by filling this form.

UCLG-MEWA and the Association for Supporting of Women Candidates (KA.DER) carried out the “Monitoring Equality in Municipalities” Project with the aim of monitoring and ensuring the institutionalization of equality in municipalities that have signed the UCLG-MEWA Committee on Gender Equality’s Commitment to the Localization of SDG 5 or KA.DER’s Women-Friendly City Commitment.

This project was carried out in the municipalities that have signed one of the aforementioned commitments namely, Izmir Metropolitan Municipality, Kütahya Municipality, Eyyübiye Municipality, Mersin Metropolitan Municipality, Çukurova Municipality, Beylikdüzü Municipality, Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, and Ordu Metropolitan Municipality.

Two surveys were conducted with the municipalities involved in the project, at an interval of six months. In addition, in-depth interviews were carried out by visiting the municipalities in the period between the two surveys. The interviews included  municipal staffers who are responsible for carrying out women-related activities in the municipality. The commitment of the municipality was evaluated through the survey questions in line with the municipalities’ activities. The project, which started in 2020 and was postponed due to the pandemic, ended with the launch of the final report of the UCLG-MEWA Committee on Gender Equality within the scope of the 2022-2025 Presidential Council Meeting held in Kyrenia, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus on 5 August 2022.

The final report of the project can be found here.

In 2016, the Compact of Mayors and the European Union’s Covenant of Mayors merged together to operate under the name of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy(GCoM).  Every year, GCoM organizes advocacy and capacity building activities for local governments with its stakeholders to support local efforts to address the global issue of climate crisis.

Although climate change concerns the entire world, it affects each region differently. Hence, GCoM is actively working in six different regions.  These regions are namely; North America, the Middle East and Western Asia, Eurasia, Latin America, Africa, and the Asia Pacific regions. Setting different priorities for these six regions, GCoM started the Global-Regional Coordination Project by coming together with ICLEI and UCLG to achieve better coordination and more transparent information flow. The project is carried out with the mobilization of the regional offices of both ICLEI and UCLG. Fields of Activities identified to achieve project priorities include capacity building activities, climate change mitigation and adaption, green finance and budgeting, the enhanced collaboration and multi-level coordination.

The project, which UCLG-MEWA is a part of, started in June 2020 and completed its second phase as of March 2022. All the activities are planned and implemented in consideration of the regional priorities both in the first phase and the second phase. UCLG-MEWA implements the activities in  close cooperation with EU4Energy and ClimaMed.  In 2022, the Global-Regional Coordination Project prioritizes capacity building activities for Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans as well as Energy Poverty Pillar and continues its work on the local dissemination of the Multi-Level Climate Action Playbook.

For further information on GCoM click here, To become a signatory of GCoM and benefit from the capacity building activities click here.