We shared the results of our Metropolitan Municipality Governance Scorecard (MMGS) research, which aims to support democracy, sustainable development and quality of life at the global, national and local level by strengthening good governance in metropolitan administrations, at the conference we held at Altınbaş University on September 26.
26 September 2022
At the conference, we talked about the importance of the project, its approach, method, determinations, suggestions and the results of our work on the law on access to information.
Based on good governance principles, the Metropolitan Municipality Governance Scorecard allows citizens to monitor and evaluate metropolitan administrations based on official documents, information and data. With the data collected in the light of 337 indicators created within the scope of the model, it has become possible to measure and improve the authority and resources of metropolitan municipalities in terms of good governance, where, in what direction and how they are used. In this way, the opportunity to see how and to what extent metropolitan municipalities apply each governance principle in their decision-making, resource use, service delivery and corporate functioning processes.
MMGS was used for the first time in Türkiye to evaluate twenty-seven metropolitan municipalities managed by elected mayors. Within the scope of the research, Adana, Ankara, Antalya, Aydın, Balıkesir, Bursa, Denizli, Erzurum, Eskişehir, Gaziantep, Hatay, İstanbul, İzmir, Maraş, Kayseri, Kocaeli, Konya, Malatya, Manisa, Mersin, Muğla, Ordu, Sakarya, Samsun, Şanlıurfa, Tekirdağ and Trabzon metropolitan cities were examined.
Making the opening speech of the event, Argüden Governance Academy’s Chairman of the Board, Prof. Dr. Metin Çakmakçı, stated that they contribute to the development of good governance culture in institutions with the works they carry out to increase the quality of life of everyone, and that they are pleased to publish the Metropolitan Municipality Governance Scorecard project.
In his speech titled “The Importance of the Project”, Argüden Governance Academy Chairman of the Board of Trustees Dr. Yılmaz Argüden said:
“78% of the population in Türkiye lives in big cities. When good governance culture is strong in metropolises, more inclusive, sustainable and effective solutions can be produced on the environment, people and economy. Public institutions that adopt principles such as consistency, responsibility and sensitivity, transparency, accountability, inclusive participation, fairness and effectiveness also gain the trust of the society more.”
Emphasizing that municipalities that will improve the quality of life of the society, have to pay attention to work based on data, participation and cooperation in order to meet the increasing expectations of citizens. Argüden continued:
“Strengthening good governance culture in metropolitan cities that are affecting and affected by economic, environmental and social processes in the world contributes to increasing the quality of life of citizens. We wanted our work to be a guide for local government actors and municipalities. The model can also be used by other metropolitan municipalities around the world. In this respect, it is an innovative model offered to the world from Türkiye. We aim that this resource we provide will be a reference for leaders and practitioners who trigger transformation and development in municipalities, on the way to develop 'good governance' practices.”
Sharing that the MMGS Model will make a holistic contribution to sustainable development and increase in the quality of life in the short, medium and long term, Project Coordinator Dr. İnan İzci talked about the benefits of the model: “First of all, the model contributes to the regulation, institutional mechanism and process that will implement the good governance principles in the legislation. With its citizen-centered aspect, it provides the development of the public administration approach that puts the citizen in the center; It gives citizens and civil society a tool to monitor and evaluate metropolitan municipalities for good governance. It contributes to democratization, sustainable development and human welfare, starting from the local level, through the adoption of good governance culture in metropolitan cities.”
After informing about the project, the project researchers; Argüden Governance Academy Academic Board Member Dr. Erkin Erimez and Argüden Governance Academy Project Specialist Dr. Merve Ateş Eren shared what the Metropolitan Municipality Governance Scorecard means, the distribution of Metropolitan Municipalities according to their scorecards, the data obtained in the research and the results of the research.
Yakup Gözderesi, Member of the Argüden Governance Academy Youth Network, talked about the results obtained from the metropolitan municipalities that applied to obtain information through volunteers in his speech titled “Information Gaining Exercise.” They asked belowed questions to metropolitan municipalities;
After the Project Results and Development Suggestions, under the moderation of Dr. Erkin Erimez, the Project Demonstrations and Strengthening Good Governance in Metropolitan Municipalities Panel was held. TESEV Good Governance Advisor Fikret Toksöz, Retired Governor and Deputy Undersecretary Enver Salihoğlu, Istanbul City Council President Tülin Hadi and Marmara University Faculty of Political Sciences Lecturer Prof. Dr. Erbay Arıkboğa took part in the panel.
In the workshop that took place after the Project Demonstrations and Strengthening Good Governance in Metropolitan Municipalities panel, we asked;
During the workshop, we exchanged views with citizens, municipality and civil society representatives for development in metropolitan municipalities.
Chair of Trustees
Chair of Board
Academic Council Member
Academic Council Member
Project Specialist
Project Advisory Board Member
Project Advisory Board Member
Project Advisory Board Member
İstanbul City Council
