We Attended the 6th International Resilience Congress with the theme of “Sustainable Strong Future”

As Healthy Cities National Network of Türkiye, we attended the 6th International Resilience Congress hosted by the Union of Municipalities of Türkiye in Ankara between 16-18 December. This year’s congress was held under the theme of “Sustainable Strong Future” and addressed disaster, resilience, climate crisis, public health issues and resilience policies and activities in local administrations.

The congress aimed to discuss and increase resilience in cities by bringing together local administrators, local government bureaucrats, civil society representatives and scientists from different disciplines. The congress continued for 3 days and as 19 face to face – 12 online, 45 sessions were organized in total.

In the opening session, President of The Union of Municipalities of Türkiye and Mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, Ekrem İmamoğlu, United Nations Disaster Risk Reduction Representative, Kamal Kishore, Head of Japan International Cooperation Agency Türkiye Office, Watanabe Daisuke, Secretary General of The Union of Municipalities of Türkiye Suat Yıldız and Congress Academic President of METU, Meltem Şenol Balaban made important speeches.

At the congress, mayors shared their experiences and emphasized the role and responsibilities of local administrations about building resilient cities. Resilience against natural disasters, practices that strengthen public health in cities and environmental sustainability came to the fore. Experts emphasized strategies to increase the capacity of local administrations for rapid recovery after disasters and the critical importance of resilient urban planning about creating healthy living environments. In addition, important data about the effects of climate change on cities were shared and solutions were discussed.

In the closing declaration, it was stated that cooperation should be increased for the integration of the solution proposals expressed at the congress into national and local policies. The topics such as sustainability, disaster management, resilience, climate crisis and public health before, during and after disasters discussed at the congress, directly overlap with the priority working areas of Healthy Cities National Network of Türkiye. The importance of implementing resilience policies to build healthy cities and projects that support public health in case of disaster was emphasized once again.