Reports - United Nations Development Programme

4. HUMAN DEVELOPMENT RESULTS AND UNDP’S CONTRIBUTION
Building on the achievements of the first phase,
two subsequent phases were funded: Phase 2 involved a
replication and extension to 50 municipalities ( January
2000 – June 2003); Phase 3 involves the institutionalisation
of LA 21 processes and mechanisms at the local and
national levels ( July 2003 - present). Phase 3 of the
programme (TUR/03/004) has a total approved budget of
USD 1,933,333 including USD 1,400,000 in cost
sharing. Over the years, other components were added to
replicate and extend the project model. One such
component focused on the Yaylak Plain, and was funded with
cost sharing from the Nordic Investment Bank. Another
focused on local capacity building for disaster prevention
and preparedness, and was supported with cost sharing
from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.
Despite the repeated approval of new project phases,
the programme has not been subject to a systematic,
in-depth evaluation, except for a specific evaluation of
the disaster preparedness component. An in-depth
evaluation is scheduled under the current phase, however,
and is incorporated in the project budget.
As part of the pilot stage, a series of basic documents
including “Local Agenda 21 Planning Guide” edited by the
International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives
(ICLEI), a handbook on Local Neighbourhood
Authorities, the quarterly Project Newsletter, informative
books, brochures and leaflets, reports, proceedings of
meetings, posters and other documents have been
published and/or translated into Turkish and distributed
by IULA-EMME and project partners. Frequent
awareness-raising symposia, working group meetings and
sectoral roundtables were held in all of the pilot cities.
LA 21 activities, especially the fledgling City
Councils created under the pilot stage, caused some
friction with members of the existing Municipal Councils
who no doubt saw them as treading on their turf. In
response, the Ministry of Interior issued a Decree on LA
21 on 19 March, 1998 supporting the City Council model
and allaying any fears that the responsibilities of the
Municipal Councils were being usurped.
RESULTS OF THE LA 21 PROGRAMME
As a result of these efforts, by the end of the first phase of
the project the number of local authorities applying to
participate in the project was well over the number
initially envisaged. Although the exact list of LA 21
towns varies from document to document, the total
number of towns that have created City Councils and
follow the general principles of the LA 21 programme
had increased to 50 by January 2004, and are widely
dispersed throughout the country.
The UNDP has succeeded in mobilising a significant
volume of resources for the LA 21 programme, which is
viewed by most of the donors and partners of the UNDP
in Turkey as a success story. Approximately USD 2
million was mobilised from the so-called “Capacity 21”
funds from UNDP Headquarters and a further USD 4.5
million was mobilised from the Governments of Turkey,
Canada, Denmark, France and Switzerland. 36 LA 21
exemplifies UNDP Turkey’s ability to leverage its own
limited resources and effect changes in Turkey that have
far wider implications than the management of
environmental assets alone. It helped to increase
significantly the level of participation of CSOs and
private citizens in decision-making, and also increased the
level of decentralisation of governance in Turkey.
At the broadest level, the UNDP LA 21 programme
has, through its catalytic approach, spread a locally
adapted model of City Councils largely spontaneously
and through local initiative from nine pilot initiatives to
over 50 cities throughout the country. While the
structure of the City Councils varies between cities, they
have generally all involved:
Members of the provincial Government, sometimes
including the governor
Members of the municipal Government usually
including the mayor
Members of the Municipal Councils
Elders
Members of the business associations and chambers
of commerce
Members of local NGOs
Women’s groups, associations and foundations
Trade unions
Members of youth organisations
Academic institutions that have a local presence
Mukhtars or local traditional leaders or
neighbourhood heads
Participation in City Councils is voluntary. They
vary in size between 100 participants in small cities to
around 800 in the largest ones. As such they have
required additional organisation in order to keep them
manageable. The City Councils are variously chaired by
Mayors or other senior officials of local Government and
are supported by an organisational committee that helps
manage the agenda and issues placed before the Council.
In most instances, the organisational committees are led
by an active local Government official, such as the
Secretary-General of the Municipal Council as in the case
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36. The lion’s shares were Turkey’s contribution of USD 3 million and Switzerland’s
contribution of USD 1.3 million.
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