United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Turkey held a workshop with broad participation in Ankara as part of its work for the development and implementation of local service delivery standards for the first time in Turkey under its Local Administration Reform Phase III Project.

Since there are no studies carried out to date on local service delivery standards in Turkey, the work of UNDP proved to be the first one in this sense.

In line with the changing public policy and diversifying local services in the world and Turkey, the study aims to increase the efficiency of service delivery in a citizen-oriented manner, to ensure consistency in service delivery and a certain service quality in accordance with the international standards.

The workshop brought together stakeholder institutions and attracted great interest. The relevant representatives of various central governmental institutions, especially the Local Government Policies Board of the President’s Office, Presidency of Strategy and Budget, the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, the Ministry of Interior, the Union of Municipalities of Turkey and selected municipalities were among the participants.

The opening speeches were made by UNDP Turkey Assistant Resident Representative (Programme) Seher Alacacı Arıner, Deputy Director General of Provincial Administrations of the Ministry of Interior Servet Güngör, Deputy Director General of Local Authorities of the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization Emrullah Töremen and Deputy Chairman of the Local Government Policies Board of the President’s Office Prof. Şükrü Karatepe.

Prof. Karatepe emphasized the importance of providing quality local service at a certain standard, giving examples of local services he carried out during his term as the Mayor of Kayseri Metropolitan Municipality.

During the event moderated by Prof. Hakan Yılmaz, Key Expert responsible for the “Effective Local Service Delivery” component of the project, the standards regarding public health, public health in public transportation, preventive and protective fire services, home care services for the elderly and agricultural support services, which are five service areas determined by previous studies, were discussed.

These service delivery standards were determined as a result of the meetings previously held with central governmental institutions, especially the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, Ministry of Interior, and Presidency of Strategy and Budget, followed by fact-finding interviews, surveys and workshops held with municipalities, especially with metropolitans.

The evaluations of the participants regarding the implementation guide that will be prepared in order to ensure the clarity of the developed standards and accelerate their implementation were received through the group studies carried out in the workshop.

In the next stage, seminars are planned to be organized in 10 selected metropolitan cities with the participation of governorships, district governorships, municipalities and provincial directorates of relevant ministries and other relevant institutions in order to provide information about these service delivery standards and to discuss their implementation at the local level.

With the project, in terms of the Sustainable Development Goals, it is aimed to support the global campaigns and policies of the United Nations, in particular on the basis of “Good Health and Well-being”, “Sustainable Cities and Communities” and “Climate Action”.

For more details about the Local Administration Reform Phase III (LAR III) Project, implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization and the Ministry of Interior, and financed by the European Union: www.lar.org.tr.

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