GOODWILL AGREEMENT SIGNATURE BETWEEN WALD AND UN 

World Academy for Local Government and Democracy (WALD) and United Nations Turkey (UN) signed a goodwill agreement. WALD Board of Trustees Members, Sancaktepe Mayor Şeyma DÖĞÜCÜ, representatives of different institutions and organizations and many guests attended the signing ceremony.

Speaking at the signing ceremony UN Turkey Resident Coordinator Alvaro RODRIGUEZ said, “We hope that this goodwill protocol will primarily contribute to Turkey's achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030". RODRIGUEZ also stated that the goodwill protocol will enable WALD to support the UN's Five-Year Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework in Turkey. The signing ceremony held at the foundation headquarters in Sultanahmet on the 29th anniversary of WALD's establishment.

UN Turkey Resident Coordinator RODRIGUEZ said that "In support with the 11th Sustainable Development Goal, the goodwill protocol will also contribute to the issues being worked on common areas such as working with municipalities, establishing relations between different municipalities at regional and global level, and Syrian refugees."

"WE CONTINUE OUR WORK IN AREAS SUCH DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION AND YOUTH"

In his speech at WALD Chairman of the Board Mehmet DUMAN stated that Since 1993, when WALD was founded, we have been creating ideas platforms by bringing together civil society, private sector, public institutions and organizations and international organization officials in order to strengthen local governments, develop democracy and create a vision of sustainable cities.”

DUMAN also added that “We continue our efforts to add value within the framework of a rights-based approach to people's lives to create smart cities for the localization of the Global Sustainable Development Goals, to combat climate change, to expand the use of renewable energy, to take into account gender equality and disadvantaged groups, to carry out many different projects and to create a decent work and working environment”.  

Noting that WALD’s signature with the United Nations on the 29th anniversary of its establishment is very valuable, Duman said; "With our WALD E-Parliamentary Youth Platform that we established, university students from many different countries of the world come together with their peers in Turkey and have the opportunity to discuss with international and Turkish leaders on many issues from education to health, from environment to climate change, from economy to politics. We continue our work in many different areas such as environment and climate change, participation, democracy and youth by developing values within the framework of the same determination and commitment we added to our country.