The Union of Municipalities of Turkiye Foreign Relations Commission held its third meeting at the Union's service building.
The meeting, chaired by UMT Deputy Secretary General Dr. Şengül Altan Arslan, focused on “Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Local Diplomacy” and “Good Practice Examples.” The meeting was attended by administrators from the metropolitan municipalities of Istanbul, Gaziantep, Antalya, and Ankara, as well as the municipalities of Nevşehir and Büyükçekmece, along with representatives from the Marmara Municipalities Union and non-governmental organizations.
In her opening remarks, Arslan highlighted the effectiveness of sister city relationships and noted that the UMT is working to encourage municipalities to be active in international networks and is introducing new initiatives to municipalities. Arslan pointed out that sister cities can provide each other with advisory support not only in financial matters but also in various other areas, and stated that the commission would discuss the ways and methods to be followed to make these relations more effective. Referring to his impressions from the Turkey-Germany Sister Cities Summit organized by the UMT in Istanbul in April, Arslan said that they would work to re-prepare sister city lists with accurate data and make them more effective.
Arslan emphasized the importance of localizing the SDGs and stressed that local administrations must be included in this process in order to achieve the SDG goals by 2030.
In his presentation on the responsibilities of local governments in the SDGs, Deputy Director of Foreign Relations Yahya Can Dura emphasized that municipalities need a governance model based on strategic integrity, institutional ownership, and multi-stakeholder cooperation in order to implement sustainable development goals. Dura also touched on topics such as “localization of SDGs” and the “Voluntary National Review Process” in his presentation.