United Cities and Local Governments Middle East and West Asia Sections organized a Training Program on Monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) on 8-9 April 2021 under the auspices of Karatay Municipality (Konya, Turkey), one of the municipalities that are preparing a report to be submitted to the HLPF 2021.
The training program, organized to increase the knowledge and awareness of municipal staff about the 2030 Agenda and particularly the Voluntary Local Reviews (VLRs), started with the opening session. UCLG-MEWA Secretary-General Mehmet Duman was the first speaker to take the floor and expressed UCLG-MEWA’s desire to continue supporting local development with this training. During his speech, he touched upon the inevitable phenomenon of urban development and the importance of setting it on the right course.
He also pointed out that UCLG-MEWA’s mission is to be the voice of local governments in the preparatory processes of policy and vision documents at the international level, make sure to convey the documents to the local level, and, more importantly, consider the local level and local communities as the field of application of these theoretical frameworks. He further added that the training will be the starting point for the preparation of the Voluntary Local Review of Karatay, which will be one of the first local reviews of the MEWA region.
Hasan Kılca, Mayor of Karatay in Konya, delivered his opening remarks and said that the training to be given within the scope of the 2030 Agenda will return to Karatay city as quality, new services, and investments. He also underlined their membership to UCLG-MEWA and said that immediately after his election as mayor, they started to reorganize their structure according to the United Nations Development Goals. Mayor Kılca also mentioned that they consider the “2030 Agenda of cities” crucial in terms of the Voluntary Local Review of Karatay and expressed his belief that the training would contribute to this goal.
After the opening speeches, the two-day training program started. The training was launched with a presentation on UN Sustainable Development Goals, their background, purpose, and objectives. Following the presentation, an interactive group activity took place with the participation of managers and department representatives of Karatay Municipality. The first day of the training concluded with the sessions on the Localization and the Monitoring Mechanisms of the 2030 Agenda, the Methodology of the Alignment of the SDGs with Municipal Activities, and the Alignment of the SDGs with Municipal Activities.
The program came to an end on the second day with the Alignment of the SDGs with Municipal Activities and a briefing about Karatay’s VLR.
