Konya is a historical city that has survived to the present day with deep historical ties and has hosted many civilizations. Konya, in terms of wealth and stability in its international relations besides its diversity and quality of physical, cultural and social local services, is a model both to Turkey and to the world. The city has established strong relations with many cities and international institutions. It has nearly 50 town twinning all over the world. On the other hand, Konya maintains its relations with 18 globally influential international organizations. United Cities and Local Governments (UCGL), which is foremost of these organisations, is one of the most important organizations representing and defending the interests of local governments on the world stage.
Konya Metropolitan Municipality, which became a member of UCLG in 2012, runs the membership of the UCLG Executive Board and the Co-Chair of UCLG-MEWA, the Organization's Middle East and West Asia Organization. Uğur İbrahim Altay, the Mayor of Konya Metropolitan Municipality, was elected as UCLG Co-Chair at the Congress held in Durban, South Africa between 11-15 November 2019 and he still continues his duty., Konya, which continuously follow the agendas of the Union, supports UCLG, which is a leadership and coordination platform for local governments, and its work by implementing the current agenda items in the city. Mayor Uğur İbrahim Altay personally invited Mr. Volkan Bozkır, Chairman of the 75th General Assembly of the United Nations, to the UCLG World Council in order to ensure observer status in the UN, which is one of the important goals of UCLG, and expressed this request. Thanks to its relations with UCLG, Konya contributes to the international representation of local governments and also supports Turkish foreign policy.
UCLG, which was established in Paris in 2004 with a very comprehensive Congress attended by representatives of local and regional governments, is now headquartered in Barcelona. The Organization, that wants to be the voice and advocate of democratic local governments around the world, works to promote its values, aims and interests through cooperation between local governments and within the wider international communities. The UCLG Organization is the most comprehensive local and regional government network, as it represents 270,000 cities and 5 billion citizens from different parts of the world. Dear Kadir Topbaş, who was an important figure for Turkey and died recently, had served as the president of the organization. As a city that witnessed the rise of UCLG, Konya worked in coordination with UCLG at that time and supported both Mr. Topbaş and the international representation of our country. UCLG is organized according to its own regions. Organizations; It works to achieve the goals and objectives of UCLG in Africa, Asia Pacific, Eurasia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, West Asia, and North America regions. METROPOLIS and the Regions Forum, also within UCLG, are important for the Organization. Thanks to this wide network, UCLG operates in 136 UN member states and works to gain observer status in the United Nations.
UCLG constantly informs its members on a wide range of topics and encourages them to find city-centered solutions to problems experienced around the world. Some of the issues on the agenda of UCLG are as follows: Supporting multilevel governance and local finance, ensuring the rights of people victimized by migration or other reasons, supporting cities for sustainable and participatory democracy, tackling poverty, climate change and inequalities, promoting cultural diversity and gender equality, etc. In fact, all these agenda items can be realized as a result of the localization of the Sustainable Development Goals, which UCLG frequently emphasizes and constantly encourages its members. The Sustainable Development Goals is a framework of 17 goals and 169 goals in the social, economic and environmental areas of sustainable development, to which the United Nations (UN) Member States are committed to becoming a reality in the next 15 years. UCLG conducts various studies to localize these goals.
As it is seen, the relations between UCLG, which is a very important platform, and the city of Konya, which seems to be closed to the outside, have a very important past. Konya significantly supports the organization that wants to be the global voice of local governments.