Turkey Local Agenda 21 Program
During the UN Rio “Earth Summit” held in 1992, “sustainable development” was endorsed as the common goal of humanity, along with the global action plan entitled “Agenda 21” delineating the principles and areas of action to cope with environmental and development problems and to move towards attaining the goal of sustainable development in the twenty-first century. In Chapter 28 of Agenda 21, local authorities in each country are called upon to undertake a consultative process with their populations and achieve a consensus on a “Local Agenda 21” for their communities.
The Local Agenda 21 (LA-21) processes in Turkey were launched in late 1997 via a series of projects, with the support of UNDP – United Nations Development Program, and under the coordination of UCLG-MEWA – United Cities and Local Governments, Middle East and West Asia Section (formerly IULA-EMME). In subsequent years, with the partnership and support of the Ministry of Interior-General Directorate of Local Authorities, the project framework of LA-21 was converted into the “Turkey LA-21 Program”.
The Turkey LA-21 Program, recognized by UNDP as one of the best practices of participatory-democratic local governance implementations in the world, is credited mainly for enabling the development of a new “local governance” model in Turkey whereby public institutions, local authorities and civil society organizations are forming the triangle of the local decision-making processes. The City Councils, situated in the forefront of this model, function as democratic platforms where development priorities and pressing problems of the city are identified and discussed.
This partnership model, bringing together all local “stakeholders” under the facilitation of the municipality and thereby enabling the establishment of a “collective wisdom” which embraces the whole city, provides a very suitable umbrella for other participatory structures and processes, in particular for the Women’s and Youth Assemblies, platforms for Special Interest Groups encompassing the children, the elderly and the disabled, participation at the Neighborhood level, and Working Groups.
Turkey Local Agenda 21 Program: Consecutive Phases
- Phase I: “Promotion and Development of Local Agenda 21s in Turkey” Project (November 1997-December 1999). The Project Document was published in the Official Gazette of Turkey dated 6 March 1998 as “International Agreement”.
- Phase II: “Implementing Local Agenda 21s in Turkey” Project (January 2000-December 2003). The Project Document was published in the Official Gazette of Turkey dated 22 January 2001 as “International Agreement”.
- Phase III: “Localizing the UN MDGs and WSSD Plan of Implementation through the Turkey LA-21 Governance Network” Project (May 2004-September 2006). The Project Document was published in the Official Gazette of Turkey dated 12 November 2003 as “International Agreement”.
- Phase IV: “Localizing the UN Millennium Development Goals in Turkey through the LA-21 Governance Network” Project (September 2006-June 2009). The Project Document was published in the Official Gazette of Turkey dated 24 April 2007 as “International Agreement”.
- Phase V: “Training and capacity building for strengthening the City Councils and their functioning as local democratic governance mechanisms” Project (encompassing the period October 2009-March 2011 as the final phase under the Turkey LA-21 Program.)
The website of the Turkey LA-21 Program is at the following address: www.kentkonseyleri.net
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