LOCALINTERNational is an international program annually organized by Union of Municipalities of Türkiye since 2012 with the aim of providing the participants with theoretical courses, practical examples, field visits and social activities together with trips to various cities in Türkiye.

This year, LOCALINTERNational 2023 will take place between 20 - 27 August with the participation of new graduates and last year students of universities. Our Union looks forward to hosting valuable young participants and to provide them with a beneficial local governance experience.

Click here to view list of participants.

The First Call for Project Ideas for the 2021-2027 period of the  INTERREG IPA Bulgaria - Türkiye CBC  Programme was launched on May 22, 2023.

All institutions and organizations are defined as potential beneficiaries in the programme document are able to submit concept notes of project proposals until July 24, 2023, provided that they comply with the rules set in the Application Guide published with the announcement. Project applications will only be made online via the Joint Electronic Monitoring System (JeMS).

Under the announced first First Call for Project Ideas, public institutions, local authorities, educational institutions, professional organizations and non-profit organizations such as NGOs in the administrative regions of Haskovo, Yambol, and Burgas in Bulgaria, as well as Edirne and Kırklareli provinces in Türkiye, can submit concept notes of project proposals.

In the concept notes for project ideas that contribute to the specific objective territorial strategy of the programme "Increasing the competitiveness of the local economy through sustainable and inclusive economic growth based on digital and green transformation,"  will be accepted. Within this framework, project ideas in the areas such as competitiveness and business environment, digitalization of the local economy and achieving climate neutrality, employability and labor market integration, tourism and ecosystem applications and services for the management of natural values with tourism potential can be presented.

Concept notes for project ideas should be designed with the aim of joint management in a way to provide common solutions to common problems, together with at least one project partner from both countries. Lead partners need to be registered and to operate in the programme area for at least 3 years prior to the application, while other project partners need to be registered and to operate in the programme area for at least 2 years prior to the application.

Potential beneficiaries who can submit project proposals are as follows:

1.  Local organizations of the Central Government (Governorships, District Governorships, Provincial Directorates, Regional Directorates)

2.  Local Authorities (Municipalities, Provincial Special Administrations)

3.  Public Law Institutions (Development Agencies/Administrations/Unions, Chambers, Exchanges, Cooperatives)

4.  Education and Research Institutions (Universities, Research Centers, Institutes, Schools affiliated with the Ministry of National Education)

 5. Non-Profit Organizations (Professional Chambers, Foundations, Associations, other NGOs)

The total budget of the First Call for Project Idea proposals, is 13.4 million euros (including co-financing) with 85% EU contribution and 15% co-financing provided by the two countries.  The minimum amount for the project budget is 500,000 EUR while the maximum amount is 1,000,000 EUR

The implementation period of the projects is expected to be between 12 and 24 months.

Project idea proposals will be submitted with a concept note reflecting the project ideas. After the evaluation of project ideas, successful applicants will be invited to prepare and submit detailed project proposals.

The announcement for the First Call for Project Ideas and the application package can be accessed via this link.

Information events organized by Directorate for EU Affairs, which is the National Authority of the Programme, and the Managing Authority of the Program, can be followed on www.ab.gov.tr and https://cbc.ab.gov.tr/ websites as well as social media accounts of the Directorate.

Local Governments in Disasters and held the first program of the series last month, on April 5, UCLG-MEWA announces the second program of the series.

Titled “Sharing Experiences and Lessons Learnt” and organized in collaboration with UCLG Learning, the second webinar will focus on the best practices of the cities worldwide and peer learning experiences gained by various organizations in times of disasters. Thus, UCLG-MEWA once again offers a platform where local and global figures contribute to the whole context of local governments’ role in disaster management.

With its promising content and diverse range of speakers list, the second webinar will be held on May 4, 2023.

Please find the draft agenda below.

Click here to register.

International Local Authorities Internship Program is an international education program annually organized by Union of Municipalities of Türkiye since 2012 with the aim of providing local governance training to the participants through instructions, practical examples and field visits including social activities and trips to various cities in Türkiye.

LOCALINTERNational has been providing an international training environment to a wide range of participants from all over the world more focused on European, Asian and Middle Eastern countries to learn, socialize and see the good practices along with the examples of municipal work.

As the previous ones the program will facilitate trainings, field visits and social-cultural activities for future local leaders. Union of Municipalities of Türkiye looks forward to hosting valuable young participants and to provide them with a beneficial local governance experience.

All expenses will be covered by the Union of Municipalities of Türkiye.

Program dates: 20-27 August 2023

Click here to apply the program.

The "Silk Road Cities Cooperation Conference" planned to be held in Istanbul on 9-10 February has been canceled due to the earthquake disaster in our country.

Further announcement about the event will be made later.

We offer our condolences to those who lost their lives and wish a speedy recovery to the injured.

19/4/2012 tarihli ve 6292 sayılı Orman Köylülerinin Kalkınmalarının Desteklenmesi ve Hazine Adına Orman Sınırları Dışına Çıkarılan Yerlerin Değerlendirilmesi ile Hazineye Ait Tarım Arazilerinin Satışı Hakkında Kanun hükümlerine göre Hazineye ait tarım arazilerinin satışına ilişkin usul ve esasların belirlenmesi amacıyla hazırlanan Milli Emlak Genel Tebliği (Sıra No:35) 31/05/2013 tarih ve 28663 sayılı Resmi Gazete’de yayımlanmıştır.

Council of Europe Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, which carries out on-site studies on the activities of local authorities in response to major crises made a visit to Türkiye in this context.

On the first day of the visit, the delegation were welcomed by Dr. Hayri Baraçlı, Secretary General of the Union of Municipalities of Türkiye. He informed the delegation regarding the earthquake on 6 February 2023 and its aftermath. He made a presentation on the process of building resilient cities after the earthquake.

Baraçlı also expressed his gratitude to the delegation for the support both at national and international level after the earthquake.

In Ankara, the delegation met with the representatives of Turkish Red Crescent, United Nations Development Agency and International Organization for Migration. The delegation met with the representatives of Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change and Ministry of Interior Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency to get information on the disaster response activities.

As part of their program, the delegation is scheduled to visit the earthquake-affected areas and also pay visits to Gaziantep, Hatay, Kahramanmaraş Metropolitan Municipalities and Nurdağı Municipality.

The LOCALINTERNational Training Program which is organised by the Union of Municipalities of Türkiye (UMT) for university students in order to promote the local government experience in Türkiye on an international platform and develop local diplomacy and provide opportunities for future cooperation, has started. Organised annually since 2012, this year 21 students from 18 countries are participating in the program.

At the opening event of the program, which will include practices within the framework of the theme "Young Leaders, Local Skills" in this years edition, Prof. Dr. Şükrü Karatepe, Deputy Chairman of the Local Government Policies Board of the Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye, and Dr. Hayri Baraçlı, Secretary General of UMT, took part as speakers.

Karatepe, who gave detailed information about Türkiye's local government system, Presidential Policy Boards and the history of urbanisation, said: "I would like to thank our Union for bringing young people from different countries of the world together with us”. Stating that democracy first emerges in cities and that municipalities are the cradle of democracy, Karatepe talked about the joint work carried out between the Local Government Policies Board of the Presidency and UMT for the development of municipalities and the solution of their problems.

Dr. Hayri Baraçlı, Secretary General of UMT, stated that approximately 30 thousand applications from more than 100 countries were made to the program this year and noted that the students participating in the program were carefully selected. Drawing attention to the importance of experience sharing, Baraçlı gave information about the activities carried out by UMT with a sustainable urbanism approach and stated: "We will carry out this organisation within the scope of the theme "Young Leaders, Local Skills" determined for 2023. It is very important that you are young because you have the chance to look at the world from a new perspective. We thank you for trusting us and coming from different countries of the world."

After the opening speech, Karatepe and Baraçlı answered the questions of the students. The afternoon part of the first days program continued with the presentation of Dr. Ahmet Kazan, Secretary General of the UMT, on the duties and fields of activity of the UMT.

The program, which will take place on 20-27 August, will be completed with various visits, presentations and social activities in Ankara, Konya, Sakarya and İstanbul.

Qudra 2 Türkiye Programme, co-financed by the EU Regional Trust Fund, the EU Madad Fund, the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Spanish International Development Cooperation Agency (AECID), was implemented in response to the Syrian crisis between 2019 and 2023.

Qudra 2 Türkiye Programme was a regional programme aiming at strengthening the resilience of Foreigners under Temporary Protection and host communities which was implemented by the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) in collaboration with the Union of Municipalities of Türkiye (TBB).

The closing conference of the Programme was held in Ankara on the 10^th of August 2023 with the participation of the representatives of pilot municipalities, the Directorate of Migration Management and International Organizations and related international organisations.

Qudra 2 Türkiye Country Coordinator Dagmar Blickwede, upon her speech, underlined the important contribution of cooperation with all stakeholders in raising awareness in municipalities and achieving the determined target.

Dr. Philipp Rock, Head of Co-operation and Development at the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, emphasized the importance of the experiences gained during the Programme.

Dr. Hayri Baraçlı, Secretary General of the Union of Municipalities of Türkiye, declared that the Migration and Cohesion Centre established within the Union, would support the municipalities affected by migration in the coming period with new collaborations.

The Qudra 2 Türkiye Programme aimed to strengthen the basic service delivery of municipalities in Turkey by focusing on social cohesion. The programmw supported collaborative learning with its technical and methodological approach as well as small-scale grant support. In this context, during the implementation period, 23 municipalities received grant support to 49 projects.

The 1st Steering Committee Meeting of the "Today's Youth, Future Jobs " project, of which Union of Municipalities of Türkiye is the main beneficiary and which covers the establishment of "Digital Youth Centers" in 45 cities to provide a series of trainings that will prepare young people for important professions of the future such as informatics, robotic coding, e-transformation, digital marketing, social innovation and design, with the support of municipalities, was held on July 27th at the UMT service building.

The meeting was attended by UMT Deputy Secretaries General, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative to Türkiye, Representative of the Delegation of the European Union to Türkiye, Representatives of the Presidency of Strategy and Budget, Representative of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, UNDP Project Coordinator, UMT Project and Finance Unit Manager and a delegation consisting of UNDP and UMT experts. 

Mr. Miodrag DRAGISIC, Deputy Resident Representative of UNDP Türkiye, stated that the work carried out since the inauguration of the project has progressed effectively and efficiently and that the technical field visits to the municipalities have been very meaningful and useful. He also stated that it was very meaningful that the project team comprehensively reviewed the selection criteria for the municipalities/local governments affected by the recent earthquakes in Türkiye and included the "earthquake affected" criterion in the geographical distribution category of the weighted criteria and indicators determined for province selection. Mr. DRAGISIC also emphasized the importance of field visits and stated that the project brought together their expertise and perspectives to effectively assess the potential of municipalities.

Mr. Kayhan ÖZÜM, Deputy Secretary General of UMT, stated that they are pleased to be the main beneficiary of this project, which is aimed at capacity building at the local level in general, of which UMT is the main beneficiary in cooperation with UNDP. He stated that the choice of profession will be the main guiding factor for our young people in the technology and information society of the future and thanked for the successful cooperation with the stakeholder institutions of our project.

Dr. Ramazan ÖZCAN YILDIRIM, Deputy Secretary General of UMT, stated that the very meaningful and successful cooperation between UMT and UNDP continues to develop and that the necessary support will be provided for the project activities to be planned in the near future to be more beneficial to our municipalities. He also emphasized that the "General Framework of the Situation and Needs Analysis Research", which will continue with İNGEV in the coming period, is extremely important and underlined that they closely follow the needs analysis reports to be prepared within this scope. He stated that the municipality field visits in June were very successful and thanked the expert staff of UNDP and UMT who took part in these visits.

Melahat GÜRAY, representative of the Delegation of the European Union to Türkiye, underlined that the project "Today's Youth, Future Jobs" continues its activities in cooperation with two strong institutions, UMT and UNDP, and that it will be extremely useful for young people in choosing a profession and thanked all stakeholder institutions and participants.

The 1st Steering Committee meeting ended with the presentation of the project technical progress and current situation by the project coordinator Arzu KARASLAN, followed by the discussion of opinions and suggestions on the implementation and sustainability of the project activities.

Union of Municipalities of Turkey (UMT) and Mayor of Balıkesir Metropolitan Municipality Yücel Yılmaz, accompanied by a delegation mayors and experts, paid a series of technical visits in Japan.

Mayor of Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality Fatma Şahin, Mayor of Bursa Metropolitan Municipality Alinur Aktaş, Mayor of Şanlıurfa Metropolitan Municipality Zeynel Abidin Beyazgül, Mayor of Adıyaman Municipality Dr. Süleyman Kılınç, Deputy Secretary General of UMT Halil İbrahim Azak participated in the visit programme which continued for 3 days in Tokyo and Kansai regions.

During three days of intensive meetings, the cooperation to be made in order to heal the wounds of the earthquakes that occurred on 6 February in Kahramanmaraş and affected 11 provinces was discussed. Within the scope of the schedule, technical examinations were also carried out on Japan's preventive measures and interventions regarding disasters.

Firstly, the delegation held a meeting with Yamada Kenji, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan, and Ichiro Aisawa, Member of the House of Representatives of Japan and Member of Parliament of Japan, regarding the steps to be taken after the disaster, and then met with Korkut Güngen, Ambassador of Turkey to Tokyo and made evaluations regarding their contacts with Japan. The delegation held consultations at Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on the "Project for Capacity Building for Local Municipalities on Disaster Risk Reduction and Waste Management" in Hyogo Prefecture.

The delegation visited the memorial park built in the name of the Great Hanshin-Awaji earthquake that occurred in Japan in 1995, and the "Disaster Reduction and Human Renovation Institute", and also examined Japan's disaster experiences on site. The technical inspection visits, which were closely followed by many press organisations of Japan, especially the state broadcaster NHK, ended after the visit to Hokudan Earthquake Memorial Museum.