UCLG-MEWA organized the presidency meeting of the UCLG-MEWA Committee on City Diplomacy and Local Governance on 23 January 2023. The online Meeting was co-hosted by UCLG-MEWA and the Union of Municipalities of Türkiye (UMT).
The Presidency Meeting of the UCLG-MEWA Committee on City Diplomacy and Local Governance was attended by Dr. Mehmet DUMAN, UCLG-MEWA Secretary General, Abdul Karim ZUBAIDI, Mayor of Salfeet, Palestine, and President of the Association of Palestinian Local Authorities (APLA), Mahmut ÖZÇINAR, Mayor of Güzelyurt and President of Union of Turkish Municipalities of Cyprus (KTBB), Kayhan ÖZÜM, Deputy Secretary General of UMT, Abdallah ANATI, Executive Director of APLA, Roya LEILI, Officer at Asian Mayors Forum (AMF), Masum SUN, Foreign Relations Regional Manager at Ankara Metropolitan Municipality, Türkiye.
The Presidency of the Committee is led by the Association of Palestinian Local Authorities (APLA). Dr. Mehmet DUMAN congratulated Abdul Karim ZUBAIDI for his election as the President of APLA and welcomed him at his first Presidency Meeting of the UCLG-MEWA Committee on City Diplomacy and Local Governance.
Abdul Karim ZUBAIDI chaired the Meeting, where he emphasized the important role the Committee plays in strengthening the development capabilities of local communities through strengthening the relations between cities. The Meeting was moderated by Abdallah Anati, where the Committee’s activities for 2019-2022 and the roadmap for 2022-2025 were highlighted. The focal point of the UCLG-MEWA Committee on City Diplomacy and Local Governance, Muhammed Furkan ÇALIŞAN, presented a PPT designed to display the covered goals and objectives of the Committee. Murat KODAZ, UCLG-MEWA General Coordinator, and Reem ABUSAMRA, UCLG-MEWA Deputy Coordinator in the International Relations Department, contributed significantly to the Policy Paper of the Committee and Stakeholder Ecosystem, respectively.
The speakers at the Meeting also discussed the Committee’s work in areas such as the localization of SDGs, VLRs, City Councils, and Decentralized Cooperation agenda, increasing cooperation between local government unions such as UMT, APLA, and KTBB, and between Unions and UCLG-MEWA.
The Meeting was supported technically by Junaid RAFIQ, Communication Officer at the UCLG-MEWA Communication and IT Department.