On 11-13 March 2017, UCLG-MEWA and Nablus Municipality with the support of the Union of Turkish Municipalities and IETT organized together the UCLG-MEWA Executive Bureau meeting, the UCLG-MEWA Committee on Cooperation Development and City Diplomacy meeting and the UCLG-MEWA Committee on Urban Mobility meeting in Nablus, Palestine.
The first day started by an opening session with the speeches of Mr. Sameeh TUBAILA, Mayor of Nablus, Mr. Mehmet DUMAN, the UCLG-MEWA Secretary General, Mr. Cevdet GÜNGÖR, Head of IETT Customer Services and Corporate Communication Department, Mr. Recep ŞAHİN, Deputy Secretary General of TBB, Mr. Musa HADID, Mayor of Ramallah and President of the Association of Palestinian Local Authorities (APLA), Ambassador Hüsnü Gürcan TÜRKOĞLU, Consul General of Turkey in Jerusalem and Mr. Hussein AL-A’RAJ, the Minister of Palestinian Local Governments, with a family picture in the end of the session.
The president of APLA, Mr, HADID, who is also the UCLG-MEWA Co-President chaired the Executive Bureau meeting. During the session, the 2016 Financial Management Committee Report has been validated by the members, a short presentation on the Sustainable Development Goals has been done and the representative of Ankara Metropolitan Municipality proposed to host the next UCLG-MEWA Executive Bureau and Council Joint Meeting in his city for 2018.
In the UCLG-MEWA Committee on Development Cooperation and City Diplomacy meeting, the Deputy Secretary General of TBB, Mr. Recep ŞAHIN, chaired the administrative work of the committee. Besides, Mr. Ramazan KABASAKAL, Head of International Relations Department in Ankara Metropolitan Municipality, Mr. Abdülmelik ÖTEGEN, Deputy Secretary General in Konya Metropolitan Municipality, representatives of TIKA, KIZILAY and APLA discussed about the roadmap for multi-stakeholders cooperation. Halhul, Salfeet, Ramallah, Nablus, Dura, Gaza and Betunia Municipalities requested the membership in the Committee.
In the end of the first day, the participants made a technical visit in the public transport stations in Nablus.
During the UCLG-MEWA Committee on Urban Mobility meeting, the administrative work of the committee has been chaired by the head of IETT Customer Services and Corporate Communication Department, Mr. Cevdet GÜNGÖR, Mrs. Rania DOLEH, the Head of Road and Traffic Department in Nablus Municipality and Mr. Hasan KÖMÜRCÜ, the Head of Transportation Department in Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality. They made the review of the membership in the committee and presented the Program of Activities.
Following that, Balamir GÜNDOĞDU, Electricity, Gas and Bus Operations (EGO) General Director in Ankara and Yaşar İNCİKLİ, Head of IT Department in Konya Metropolitan Municipality from Turkey presented their projects and best practices.
The training sessions started with the intervention of IETT experts and the presentation of the best practices by the discussants on “Planning of Public Transport”, “WRI Safety Lab Project IETT Case“ and the “IETT Index Case Study”. Then participants exchanged their views and presented the challenges met in their projects. Discussants made some propositions of solutions to support them in achieving and implementing their projects.
Finally, the UCLG-MEWA delegation went to Jerusalem to visit the holy city.