The second edition of UCLG-Kazan Cities’ International Activity Award, which covers the cities in the Eurasia and MEWA Region of UCLG-Eurasia, was held during the UCLG Retreat in Tangier, Morocco on February 28, 2020.
Out of many cities from the MEWA Region which participated in the research, our two members Izmir Metropolitan Municipality from Turkey and Beit Jala Municipality from Palestine were granted a Diploma Award in the categories of metropolitan and small cities respectively. The city of Bishkek from the Kyrgyz Republic ranked first in the research with the highest total score. In this context, Bishkek was awarded $ 10,000 prize money by UCLG-Eurasia.
The first edition of the Research on Rating of Cities’ International Activity was launched in August 2014 for UCLG-Eurasia cities. The aim of this research was to analyze the work of local governments regarding the international development of cities. 80 Eurasian cities participated in the research, and the city of Khabarovsk, Russia received the award. The award was presented to the Russian city at the UCLG World Council, held in China on 6-9 December 2017.
The same study was aimed to be carried out for UCLG-MEWA members as well, and 14 members of UCLG-MEWA participated in the survey. The data obtained through the survey was compiled with the calculation methodology created by UCLG-Eurasia, and cities were classified under such categories as small cities, medium-sized cities, large cities and metropolitans. Many UCLG-MEWA members, namely Izmir Metropolitan Municipality, Ankara Metropolitan Municipality, Gebze Municipality, Balıkesir Metropolitan Municipality, Bursa Metropolitan Municipality, Çanakkale Municipality, Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality, Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality, Mersin Metropolitan Municipality, Mezitli Municipality, Şanlıurfa Metropolitan Municipality, Pendik Municipality, Sancaktepe Municipality and Beit Jala Municipality participated in this research, which is a product of one-year work.