Mehmet Duman, UCLG-MEWA Secretary General, participated in “Our City Our Responsibility Conference” on empowering sustainability partners in developing cities, held on 12-13 September 2018 in Salalah, Oman, and organized by Dhofar Municipality, Arab Planning Institute and the First Care for Organizing Conferences and Seminars in Oman, together with Arap Towns Organization (ATO) and UCLG-MEWA, as strategic partners.
The Conference called for a remarkable progress in population growth rates, different aspects of urban development, the effects of global climate change, and political, economic and social crises on unemployment, poverty, resource scarcity, energy and water crises and paved the way for discussions on alternatives.
The adoption of the Cities Sustainability Strategy is a foundation for development, cultivation and the cornerstone of a distinctive and solidly-rooted service entity to achieve the integration and excellence of the development work, security and social and economic well-being. Within this framework, the Conference sought to activate the role of comprehensive sustainable development and to build a strategic partnership between the public and private sectors and civil society institutions, to discuss the issues and obstacles of building and developing sustainable cities and effectiveness of municipal councils and local governments, methods of upgrading their performance through the latest experiences, tools and strategies within the legislative, organizational, financial and technological dimensions with the participation of a group of politicians, decision-makers, experts, researchers, academics and economists from the public and private sectors, civil society institutions and development partners.
A number of papers were presented and discussed on themes of the Conference, namely sustainable cities and modern cities, the role of municipal assemblies as the movement generators for sustainability partners and the presentation of many success stories and mechanisms to benefit from them.
The Conference was characterized by the exchange of information and ideas of the most prominent development issues, scientific and practical applications for a wide range of themes related to sustainable development. This considered an innovative cooperation between senior Arab officials, researchers and experts with partners in both public and private sectors and will allow participants to review and discuss their ideas at a Conference on sustainable development.
During the Conference, UCLG-MEWA delegation also visited Salim Aufait Al-Shanfari, Mayor of Dhofar and Chairman of the Municipal Assembly in Oman, and briefed him on the most important events and activities of the organization, as well as inviting the city of Dhofar to membership to attend all activities and to build bridges and strong relationships between cities in the MEWA region.
Mayor Al Shanfari, presented a commemorative plaque to Secretary General Duman, before the souvenir photos that concluded the meeting.