“Workshop on Strengthening Coordination on Migration Management at Local Level” was carried out on 7th of November 2016 hosted by Şanlıurfa Metropolitan Municipality, Co-President of UCLG MEWA Committee on Social Inclusion.
Approximately 150 participants from 55 organization, particularly AFAD (Disaster & Emergency Management Authority of Turkey) and Kızılay (The Turkish Red Crescent) participated in the activity, which was organized on the occasion of UCLG-MEWA & WALD International Migration Summit.
Short, Middle and Long Term Mutual Work Plans Should Be Done
In the workshop during which the opening speech has been delivered by Mehmet Duman, Secretary General of UCLG-MEWA and Chairman of Executive Board of WALD and Abdülkadir Açar, Secretary General of Şanlıurfa Metropolitan Municipality; Mr. Duman has stated that the mutual working culture in Turkey has not reached intended levels yet; and short, middle and long term mutual work plans needed to be prepared by especially public organizations, local governments and non-governmental organizations through multilateral partnerhips by developing different practices about migration management, and this workshop is the first step of such a preparation.
Besides stating that the principal problems in migration management are arising from unhealthy record and communication gap of different partners, Mr. Duman stressed that the perspective that migration management needs to be solved through international relations caused the blockage of the process.
Migration Phenomenon in Şanlıurfa
After the opening speeches; the following presentations were made in the “Migration Phenomenon in Şanlıurfa” Session, modarated by Hülya Alper, Director of WALD Academy:
- “Woman in Migration Phenomenon” by Ümran Bilim, Chief Advisor of Şanlıurfa Metropolitan Municipality
- “Syrian Refugees in Şanlıurfa, Harmony-Conflict and Expectations” by Mahmut Kaya, assistant professor of Harran University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- ”Vision of Şanlıurfa Metropolitan Municipality in Syrian Crisis” bu Mahmut Kırıkçı, Deputy Secretary General of Şanlıurfa Metropolitan Municipality,
“Multi-Stakeholder Response in Bringing Resilience to Humanitarian Response and Role of Local Governments”
The workshop continued in two sessions, whose facilitation was undertaken by Associate Professor Murat Erdoğan, Director of Hacettepe University Migration and Politics Research Center, Metin Aksoy, Instructor at Selçuk University Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, and Esra Siverekli, Dean of Harran University Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences.
The organizations were presented and experiences of cooperation between organisations that promote the migration works were touched upon during the first session. In the second session, ‘Multi-Stakeholder Response in Bringing Resilience to Humanitarian Response and Role of Local Governments” was carried out. During this session, sugestions were put forward to develop an appropriate environment for works which include local governments and essential concrete steps for applying those suggestions were mentioned.
The workshop that is important in defining the strategies and policies about migration management provided an environment where the discussion and suggestions of such an active and sustainable coordination that will be formed with the partnership of local government- public-nongovernmental organization were presented