Sida Beirut and Sida Türkiye Visited RESLOG Partners

May 27, 2024

Resilience in Local Governance Project -RESLOG Türkiye, hosted partners from Sida Beirut and Sida Türkiye during a week-long field mission.

While the second implementation phase covering 2022-2024 period ends, RESLOG Türkiye team organized an extensive field visit for the delegation of Beirut and Ankara representatives of the Swedish International Development Agency-Sida.

The visit was planned with the aim of sharing the results of the successful processes undertaken by the pilot municipalities on active citizenship, community inclusion, green transition, livelihood development and of showcasing the RESLOG contribution to the local level migration management.

Pilot municipalities from Marmara and Çukurova regions were visited during the 4-day visit, the delegation also held a visit to the Union of Municipalities of Türkiye, the project partner of SALAR since almost two decades, and had the chance to learn about the national level policy dialogue efforts and municipal exchange programs.

Marmara Municipalities Step Up to Voluntarism, Youth Empowerment and Local Economic Development

As a pilot which is active at all levels of RESLOG’s work, from neighborhood level to national level, and an important beneficiary of RESLOG’s support; Sultanbeyli Municipality was the first who welcomed the delegation. Sultanbeyli Community Center and Neigborhood House were visited. Sultanbeyli Municipality’s experienced team presented their work in the field and highlighted the importance of the strategic planning and tailored technical assistance provided by RESLOG Türkiye, which was based on local needs and shaped by local realities. The RESLOG contributions of capacity development support on voluntarism, data management and neighborhood development were demonstrated by the presentation of their wide reach-out to the disadvantageous migrant and local communities, especially Syrian and Turkish women.

Yıldırım Municipality, one of the pilot municipalities RESLOG supports Local Economic Development (LED) processes also shared information on the municipality’s migration management approach and LED initiatives. Yıldırım Municipality team stated that their local economic development approach is shaped around empowering refugee and local women by making women’s cooperatives operational and they highlighted that LED research carried out in the region by RESLOG allowed them to conduct data-based and participatory needs analysis and prioritization, thus allowing the use of resources more efficiently.
Cumalıkızık Agricultural Women’s Cooperative also hosted the delegation at their restaurant in Cumalıkızık Village, representatives mentioned the useful, tailor made and hands-on coaching they got from RESLOG experts and how it is helping to professionalize their economic initiative.

The third stop in the Marmara pilots was Osmangazi Municipality of Bursa to visit the Hüdavendigar park created through a participatory design, process by Osmangazi Municipality with the support of RESLOG, inspired by Stockholm municipality.  The park is a s a best practice to provide a common arena of interaction for all community members which   impressed the Swedish counterparts. In addition to having the children of Hüdavendigar neighborhood design the park of their dreams through a series of participatory and inclusive workshops, the municipality increased park’s ownership by including children in the implementation phase.

A courtesy visit – was made to the Mayor of Orhangazi Municipality. Talking about municipality’s commitment to RESLOG, Mr. Mayor stated that RESLOG’s contribution to their Social Development Center reaching its current position has been great and added that he clearly observes the capacity development of the municipal experts. It is mentioned that the Center has become a meeting place for children from all nations and that it strengthens the relation between them while the activities carried out in the center give self-confidence and add vision. Orhangazi Municipality team stated that they also benefited greatly from the national and international exchange and experience sharing organized within the scope of RESLOG.

 

Green Transition and Civil Society Cooperation Was the Highlights From Çukurova Municipalities

The delegation visited two metropolitan municipalities in Çukurova region which are important pilots for RESLOG Türkiye.

The Green Transition Center, which is being set up with the technical support of RESLOG Türkiye and Sweden experts, was in the spotlight during the meeting with Mersin Metropolitan Municipality. It was mentioned that the center, whose establishment was carried out through a participatory and collaborative process, will be a pioneer for Green Local Economic Development and will serve to the whole city. 

The municipal team highlighted that through RESLOG support, they are now able to mainstream migration perspective to each initiative they take and provide a more holistic approach in their services. The municipality’s Social Inclusion Center’s team also participated to the meetings and stated how important NGO- municipality cooperation is for cohabitation efforts and that they realized this with RESLOG. The Social Inclusion Center is now actively trying to engage more with Syrian and Turkish NGOs.

Last stop of the field visit was Adana Metropolitan Municipality where the delegation met with the teams of multi-service community and vocational training centers as well as neighborhood house. Municipal teams presented the services provided to women and highlighted that the RESLOG support for strategic and inclusive planning gave them the vision of transforming the culinary workshop, which they started as a small initiative, into a comprehensive operation that contribute to women empowerment.

 

 

RESLOG Türkiye would like to thank its’ partners for their cooperation throughout the long-term partnerships and to the pilot municipalities who adopted the core values and methods of RESLOG, and made their reach-out more inclusive, remained dedicated throughout the process and produced valuable results and best-practices for other local governments.

For more information on RESLOG Türkiye, its partners and pilot municipalities visit project web-site: https://www.reslogproject.org/anasayfa/

 

Photo details in order:

    1. Sida Beirut Team with Cumalıkızık Agricultural Women’s Cooperative Members
    2. Osmangazi Hüdavendigar Neighborhood, Karaağaç Park was designed by children
    3. Sida Beirut, Sida Ankara, Salar International and RESLOG Türkiye Representatives with Orhangazi Municipality Mayor
    4. The Delegation at the observatory of Mersin Metropolitan Municipality
    5. Meeting with women and children in Adana Municipality’s Women House

 

Copyright © RESLOG 2018 – 2023 Tüm hakları saklıdır.

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Copyright © RESLOG 2018 – 2023 Tüm hakları saklıdır.

https://www.reslogproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Untitled-1.png