UCLG-MEWA is visiting the municipalities within the scope of the Women Activities 24.10.2014

United Cities and Local Governments Middle East and West Asia Section Project Team and World Academy for Local Government and Democracy (WALD), visited several municipalities during the month of August to talk about the UN Women Meeting in 2015, Women Activities and Committee on Social Inclusion.

UCLG-MEWA was represented by the UCLG-MEWA project officer Büşra Müftüoğlu and the UCLG-MEWA Project Coordinator Adrien Licha in the first meeting that was held in Ümraniye. The project team met the library manager Özlem Koçak Süren, the Manager of Women’s and Family Services Gözde Gül Bilir, and the Manager of External Affairs Feyzullah Akyıl, and informed the participants about the UCLG-MEWA’s latest projects, events and publications. In the meeting, the latest information about the UN Women Meeting which will be held in Istanbul in 2015 was presented. Büşra Müftüoğlu informed the participants about the UCLG-MEWA’s recently established Social Inclusion committee and the recent developments about it. The directors of Ümraniye Municipality congratulated UCLG-MEWA for its works and projects and stated that they would benefit from its experiences gladly. Özlem Koçak Süren, mentioning the events for women taking place in their municipalities, added they had six women directors in Ümraniye Municipality and hopefully the number would increase in the upcoming years.

In the second meeting that took place in Sancaktepe, Hülya Alper, Director of WALD and the project team of UCLG-MEWA met the Leyla Balmumcu, Director of Social Affairs and Kadriye Bayraktar, Coordinator of Women’s Coordination Center in Sancaktepe. In the meeting Adrien Licha stressed the importance of UCLG-MEWA in the international arena as it is a platform for all municipalities and Ms. BALMUMCU made a speech about their projects and works in their municipality. Kadriye Bayraktar, the Coordinator of Women’s Coordination Center in Sancaktepe, talked about the functioning of their center and their project of ‘’Happy Homes’’ to the participants. Hülya Alper made a short presentation on the projects of WALD and then discussion on how to carry the projects in the international level was held by the participants.

The third meeting was held in the Culture and Social Affairs, Strategic Development and Career Center in Beylikdüzü. Fidan Gül, Director of Culture and Social Affairs talked about the activities and events for women. The Strategic Development officer Hatice Reçber expressed their appreciation to work with UCLG-MEWA for the UN Women Meeting.

The forth meeting was held in the Zeytinburnu Municipality between Hülya Alper, Büşra Müftüoğlu and Zehra Taşkesenlioğlu.

Taşkesenlioğlu introduced the activities of Zeytinburnu Municipality and proposed an analysis of the number of elected women in municipalities during the process of preparation for the UN Women Meeting. In that sense, the importance of UCLG-MEWA in communicating with city councils, municipal councils, and municipalities was underlined.

The last meeting was held in Bağcılar Women and Family Culture Center on 4 September 2014, UCLG-MEWA was represented by Büşra Müftüoğlu and Hülya Alper. The UCLG-MEWA team met the Deputy-Mayor of Bağcılar Kenan Gültürk, the project experts Özcan Caymaz and İbrahim Beşinci, and several officials from the City Council and Culture Center.  Özcan Caymaz made a presentation on the latest projects of the Municipality of Bağcılar. UCLG-MEWA congratulated the municipality and project team for their works and stressed the importance of the issue of ‘’Elected Women’’. Hülya Alper suggested the team to prepare a course on the concept of ‘’How to be a leader’’. Büşra Müftüoğlu handed in the newsletters of UCLG-MEWA to the Deputy-Mayor Kenan Gültürk and the team made a visit to the Woman and Family Culture Center.

The meetings of the UCLG-MEWA team with the municipalities will continue during the process of the preparation of the UN Women Meeting.