The results of two years of hands-on co-operation between VNG International and Union of Municipalities of Turkey (UMT) within the scope of MATRA-CA were presented at the Public Outreach Conference on 18 October 2022 at the premises of UMT in Ankara. The next steps for sustainability and scaling up were also discussed at the Conference, which was organised with the participation of representatives from municipalities, citizens’ assemblies, and central government institutions.

The half-day event marked the completion of MATRA-CA (Municipal Authorities in Türkiye Realising Alliances with Citizens’ Assemblies), which was a bilateral co-operation project financed by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Türkiye, and implemented by VNG International in partnership with UMT between 2020 and 2022. The project aimed at contributing to good local governance in Türkiye by strengthening participatory mechanisms, with a specific focus on procedural participation.

In the first part of the conference, Secretary-General and Deputy Secretary-General of UMT delivered opening speeches highlighting the importance of citizen participation in decision-making, and emphasized the role of citizens’ assemblies as one of the key participatory mechanisms at local level in Türkiye. The opening speech of the Deputy Ambassador of the Kingdom of The Netherlands to Türkiye referred to the long-standing history of co-operation between Türkiye and The Netherlands, and the mutual exchange of knowledge and experiences at municipal level, which further contributes to reinforcing the close ties between the citizens of the two countries. The Director of VNG International, whose opening speech was delivered via video recording, complimented the open dialogue initiated through MATRA-CA by underlining that the project provided ideas and inspiration for the future to keep on experimenting with new participatory methods and tools to strengthen democratic local government.

The second part of the conference focused on sharing the achievements of MATRA-CA with the participants. Representatives of the pilot municipalities of Etimesgut, Keçiören, and Yenimahalle recapitulated on their experiences with Participation Task Forces, which were established as an innovative method of bringing together local elected councillors, municipal officials, and citizens’ assembly members around the same table to work on participatory policy proposals for their respective municipalities. Members of the UMT Team of Trainers provided details on the various topics of the intensive training of trainers programme that they have taken part in throughout the project. The Procedural Participation Module, which has been developed as a result of this programme, was introduced in detail as a new and unique training module that will be integrated in the curriculum of the UMT Municipal Academy for disseminating the technical knowledge and good practices on citizen participation across Türkiye. As a practical module focusing on procedural participation, it includes a range of participatory tools and methods that can be used and enriched by UMT and its member municipalities for improving citizen participation in local decision-making.

In the closing of the conference, UMT representatives provided information on the upcoming plans about the establishment of a Participation Desk within UMT. The Participation Desk is envisaged to function as a cross-cutting institutional structure to promote and coordinate UMT’s activities in the field of citizen participation, and it will ensure the sustainability of the progress achieved through MATRA-CA both by committing the UMT Team of Trainers in its setup and operation, and also by assigning the ownership of the Procedural Participation Module for broader use and enhancement.

At the end of the conference, plaquettes of appreciation were presented to UMT, and the representatives of pilot municipalities in memory of their dedicated efforts and continuous support to the successful implementation of project activities.