Turkey, Realizing Alliances with Citizen Assemblies (MATRA-CA)

The overall objective of the project was to contribute to enhanced local governance in Türkiye through improved procedural participation process and participatory decision-making methods. The project consisted of the following specific objectives:

• Strengthened public participation processes in three municipalities through the completion of three procedural participation pilots, evidenced by their adoption of citizens’ assembly policy recommendations in their strategic management process.
• Delivery of a public participation module, accessible through the UMT Municipal Academy.
• Capacity of UMT to disseminate the public participation method among all Turkish municipalities.

Outputs and services delivered by VNG International include:

• Eight officials from Union of Municipalities of Türkiye (UMT) came together to form a Team of Trainers focusing on procedural participation.
• To co-operate with the UMT Team of Trainers in the implementation of project activities Three Pilot Municipalities were selected from among the district municipalities of Ankara Metropolitan Municipality.
• A set of questionaries were prepared for Baseline Assessment in pilot municipalities, and in UMT.
• UMT Team of Trainers and the members of the Participation Task Forces came together at the Governance Workshops organised for preliminary in-depth mutual interaction.
• A tailor-made Training of Trainers Programme was designed and delivered for UMT.
• Pilot municipalities were visited by the UMT Team of Trainers to hold
• Information Exchange Meetings with the members of the Participation Task Forces.
• Deputy Secretary-General of UMT, and the UMT Team of Trainers participated in a Study Visit to The Netherlands to observe Dutch participatory practices.
• Pilot municipalities visited UMT for the Interface Meetings that allowed collaborative exchanges with the UMT Team of Trainers.
• Participation Task Forces of the pilot municipalities prepared
• Participatory Policy Proposals to be submitted to their respective municipal councils.
• The training programme and materials were developed into a Procedural Participation Module to serve as a guidebook for UMT Team of Trainers.
• The project results were showcased in the Public Outreach Conference organised at UMT.
• To assess the overall project impact, and to provide ideas for next steps, a Sustainability Survey and Framework were developed.

Project management

• Organisation of exchange activities, study tours and a public outreach conference
• Management of pilot projects
• Training of trainers
• Coaching and mentoring of national trainers
• Coaching and mentoring of citizen council members, task forces etc
• Coaching and mentoring of citizen assemblies on policy formulation and influencing strategies
• Risk and compliance analysis