International Forum on Local Solutions to Migration and Displacement, currently being co-organized by United Cities and Local Governments Middle East and West Asia section (UCLG-MEWA), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality (Turkey) and World Academy for Local Authorities and Democracy (WALD), will be held in Gaziantep, Turkey from 26 to 27 November 2019. Supported by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the UN Migration Agency (IOM), the Forum will give cities and local development partners the opportunity to exchange good practices in dealing with migration and displacement.
Assessments made at the ‘Migration, Displacement and Community Resilience Conference’ held in Belgrade, Serbia from 4 to 5 October 2016 provides the backdrop for the Forum’s agenda. The attendance of Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality in the conference, which gathered 16 municipalities from 8 countries including Turkey, as the host municipality of the Forum was of particular importance in terms of accelerating the process.
Home to 500,000 refugees in temporary protection status, Gaziantep will surely be a meaningful meeting point for the experts working in the field of migration. The Forum aims to facilitate city-level partnerships and to empower the existing networks of relevant local development partners responding to migration and refugees.
This significant gathering will take place under the main themes of localization of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), creation of employment and cooperation with the private sector, sustainable cities and environment, multi-level governance, civil society, gender equality and social cohesion, new technologies and information management, and collaboration between local governments. One of the key outcomes of the Forum will be adoption of the 2019 Gaziantep Declaration which includes good practices on the implementation of global and regional principles to provide local solutions to migration and displacement.
We warmly invite you to join us and participate in the International Forum on Local Solutions to Migration and Displacement. For further information, you can visit the forum website: https://www.municipalforum2019.org/