Hosted by Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), International Forum on Local Solutions to Migration and Displacement was held in Gaziantep on November 26 and 27, 2019 under the collaboration of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), International Organization for Migration (IOM), World Academy for Local Government and Democracy (WALD), Union of Municipalities of Turkey and United Cities and Local Governments Middle East and West Asia Section (UCLG-MEWA).
Within the scope of the forum held with the theme of “From Emergency to Resilience and Development”, more than 60 development actors, including 16 mayors of municipalities from four continents 12 countries and 15 mayors of municipalities from Turkey discussed and shared good practices and local solutions to migration and forced displacement.
Mehmet Duman, WALD Chairman of the Executive Board and Hülya Alper, WALD Academy Director participated in the forum as speakers. Throughout the forum, municipalities from Turkey and the world shared their solutions and examples of good practices with the participants and discussed possible methods of cooperation at urban level. The forum also focused on how to scale local solutions to improve lives of refugees, emigrants and host communities.
In addition, the forum constituted a platform on determining needs, difficulties and opportunities for more international cooperations at local level in response to migration and displacement. “Gaziantep Declaration 2019” was announced to the public at the end of the forum. According to the declaration, role of municipalities and cities confirming the global compact for secure, proper and regular migration will be recognized and inner-city networks supporting to enhance and scale success stories in local interventions will be consolidated. In addition, the declaration determined key tasks in nine main titles, such as innovation, data management, etc. and disclosed that success will be achieved in refugee and emigrant policies.
