President Şahin: “Domestic and international agenda is quite busy in the new term.”
UCLG-MEWA General Coordination Meeting was held on 19 July 2018, in UCLG-MEWA General Secretariat in Istanbul, Turkey; under the Chairmanship of Fatma Şahin, Mayor of Gaziantep & UCLG-MEWA President & President of Union of Municipalities of Turkey (UMT).
Mehmet Duman, UCLG-MEWA Secretary General, Hayrettin Güngör, UMT Secretary General, the experts from Gaziantep Municipality and UMT, and UCLG-MEWA staff were also present the meeting, in which the ongoing activities of UCLG-MEWA were discussed.
The meeting started with the opening remarks of President Şahin, in which she emphasized that a new term was about to begin, and that there would be a busy domestic and international agenda ahead. Holding the Presidency of both UMT and UCLG-MEWA, President Şahin also stressed the importance of the meeting in terms of deepening the relations between the two organizations.
Following President Şahin, Secretary General Duman, briefed the participants about UCLG-MEWA Pilot Project on Mapping the Sustainable Development Goals in Turkey, and evaluated the outcomes of the activities carried out in the previous term.
Hayrettin Gungör, UMT Secretary General, expressed his thoughts on the possible reflections of the new system on local governments in Turkey, and also shared the details about the legislation.
Preparation process of the 5th Global Observatory on Local Government and Decentralization (GOLD) Report was among the main agenda items discussed in the meeting. Being involved in the works on the MEWA Chapter of the report, Cemal Baş, UMT Economist, also took part in the discussions.
The meeting was concluded after UCLG-MEWA staff briefed the delegation about the activities that have been carried out under different committees and working groups.
Click here for photos from the program.