Administrative and Financial Capacity Building in Local Governments 29.04.2013

The meeting entitled “Administrative and Financial Capacity Building in Local Governments” was held in Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) with the support of Union of Municipalities of Turkey (UMT) and Union of Turkish World Municipalities (UTWM) and at the kind invitation of Turkish Cypriot Municipalities Union (TCMU) on 25th of April 2013 in Northern Cyprus. In the opening session Mr. Mahmut Özçınar, the President of TCMU and the Mayor of Güzelyurt; Mr. Hayrettin Güngör, the Secretary General of UMT; Mr. İrsen Küçük, the Prime Minister of TRNC; Mr. Nazım Çavuşoğlu, the Minister of Interior Affairs and Local Governments;   Mr. İbrahim Karaosmanoğlu, the President of UTWM; Mr. Halil İbrahim Akça, Turkish Ambassador of Nicosia and Mr. Mehmet Duman, UCLG-MEWA Secretary General delivered their speeches. In his contribution Mr. Duman underlined the necessity of cooperation among cities to solve the problems caused by rapid urbanization. He also informed the participants about the activities conducted within the body of UCLG in order to achieve administrative and financial capacity building in local governments and invited local governments in Northern Cyprus to become UCLG members.

The conference had a diverse participation of local government representatives from different countries and facilitated exchange of experience and information. There were presentations by national and local government representatives and academicians in the following themes: “The Scale Issue and Service Capacity in Local Governments”, “The Sharing of Responsibility and Authority between Central and Local Governments”, “Financial Structure and Income in Local Governments” and “Water and Solid Waste Management in Municipalities”.