Training Program on Municipal Enterprises for Local Authorities (MELA) is launched online

IICPSD's Training Program on Municipal Enterprises for Local Authorities (MELA) was launched online on 29-30 September.

October 6, 2020

 

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Istanbul, September 29, 30 — The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Istanbul International Center for Private Sector in Development (IICPSD) has  launched  “Training Program on Municipal Enterprises for Local Authorities Ahead to Achieving the UN 2030 Agenda” (MELA) in Turkey in collaboration with Union of Municipalities of Turkey (TBB), Kibar Holding and United Cities & Local Governments Middle East & West Asia Section (UCLG-MEWA) on 29-30 September 2020. The 2-day training program aims to help local authorities to encourage and support the development of municipal enterprises to create and leverage the capacity, and to create an ecosystem for attracting other private sector actors to sustainability, resilience and inclusion in basic municipal service delivery.

IICPSD’s MELA Training Program is structured as a rigorous technical modular seminar providing background on key concepts and recent trends in urbanization and describing how cities can be governed by an inclusive way, explaining different modalities of private sector engagement in basic municipal services and gives and comprehensive understanding of the legal framework while showcasing global good practices of MEs and potential financial instruments in these fields.

The training program was followed by near 200 registered participants from local authorities and enterprises in Turkey.

Dr.Hayri Baraçlı, the Member  of Presidency of Turkey Local Authorities Policy Board  and Assoc. Dr. Birol Ekici; Secretary General of Union of Municipalities of Turkey, Mr. Haluk Kayabaşı, CEO of Kibar Holding and Mr. Mehmet Duman, Secretary-General of UCLG-MEWA delivered keynote speeches at the opening ceremony.

IICPSD’s Deputy Director Gülçin Salıngan opened the first day by welcoming the keynote speakers and attendees while highlighting the importance of cities and local authorities to achieve the UN 2030 Agenda. Ms. Salıngan emphasized the importance of Private-Public Sector collaboration to overcome the development challenges. 

Member of Presidency of Turkey Local Authority Policy Board, Dr. Hayri Baraçlı emphasized the importance of harnessing the role of private sector for inclusive urbanization with his long standing academic and bureaucratic background.

Assoc Prof Birol Ekici, Secretary General of Union of Municipalities of Turkey, pointed out that engagement of private sector in municipal activities and infrastructure investments has long term history in Turkey, acknowledged how important it is to proceed on this to overcome the environmental and social problems together.

Mr. Mehmet Duman, Secretary General of United cities Local Governments, Middle East West Asia Section, pointed out that “…development of local authorities are much more prominent to achieve the 2030 Agenda” highlighting  SDG11, which aims to bring cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

Mr. Haluk Kayabaşı, CEO of Kibar Holding suggested all private sector actors should consider sustainability as a management paradigm and integrate economic, environmental and social factors wit corporate governance principles and evaluate them in all its applications, activities and decision mechanisms.

Following a well-attended opening ceremony, the “Urbanization Challenge and Localizing SDGs” module shed light on the challenges of global urbanization trends and the highlighted the importance of collaborative action for achieving SDGs. On the second module, “Engaging Private Sector for Inclusive Urbanization”, different modalities of Private Sector engagement in basic municipal services were laid out while identifying market-based solutions of private sector engagement in urbanization. During the third module “Establishing Municipal Enterprises”; the legal, financial and governance framework of the municipal enterprises were described. On the fourth module, “Financial Tools for Municipal Enterprises”, the participants explored available financial instruments which can enable Municipal Enterprises to leverage funds for their municipal services with positive impact.  The fifth and the final module of the MELA training was “Impact Investing as an Innovating Financing Mechanism for MEs” in which the potential and recent trends in the growing impact investing market to mobilize finance for social and environmental impact were presented.

Day two of the training was ended with a closing ceremony. Dr.Hayri Baraçlı, the Member  of  Presidency of Turkey Local Authorities Policy Board , Mr. Mehmet Duman, Secretary-General of UCLG-MEWA, and Dr. Ramazan Özcan; Deputy Secretary of Union of Municipalities of Turkey delivered their closing remarks.

Training program is planned to be conducted together with Association of Palestinian Local Authorities (APLA) in collaboration with Union of Municipalities of Turkey (TBB), Kibar Holding and United Cities & Local Governments Middle East & West Asia Section (UCLG-MEWA) for local authorities in Palestine on November 4-5.

For any inquiries, please contact:

Evrim Ayana Karslı, ayana.karsli@undp.org