One of the biggest and most effective meetings bringing mayors of municipalities from all over the world, council members, local and regional governments and non-governmental organizations, experts of business world and academicians, the 6th Congress and World Summit of Local and Regional Leaders was held in Durban city of South Africa on November 11-15, 2019. Mehmet Duman, WALD Chairman of the Executive Board also participated in the program on behalf of WALD.
The event aimed to consolidate communication among participants and make policies to provide services for society and people, to be conducted by people and to develop the understanding of local governance. The summit started with UCLG Regional Meetings. At UCLG-MEWA meeting, Mehmet Duman, WALD Chairman of the Executive Board shared valuable information with members about recent of WALD and UCLG-MEWA and projects on social cohesion and social protection projects conducted with the collaboration of the UNHCR.
The activity plan of the next year was discussed in Intermediary Cities Forum. In the session named “The Mediterranean Accent of Cities in the Global Governance Agenda”, representatives from various Mediterranean regions and cities discussed main problems that the region faces and contributed to determining a Mediterranean agenda at a local level.
On the fourth day of the summit, the campaign named “Plant Trees, Not Bombs” was commenced. Right after, policy recommendations on migration management, wish for peace and resilience were put forward at MEWA Assembly Track. In the Special Session on Transparency was held on the reliability issue existing between citizens and governments across the world, new governance models based on transparency and access to public information. Mohammed Saadie, Chairman of Union of Municipalities of Dannieh and Chairman of UCLG-MEWA also participated in this Special Session on Transparency as a panelist.
