Municipalities support social and economic development and work for improving the resilience of metropoles. The quality of services, decision making processes, and efforts for supporting sustainable development and improvement of quality of life could be improved by strengthening good governance practices in municipalities.

1.1. Detailed analysis of different social groups, districts, and neighborhoods in the planning process

Strategic plans define vision (goals) for the future and a road map to reach identified goals. A detailed and data based current state analysis should be conducted as the first step of a successful strategic planning process. Current state analysis must include a detailed social group-based analysis and data collection (women, children, elderly, disabled, migrant, etc.) so as to devise effective plans. Participation in these processes is important to understand needs, demands, and expectations of different social groups. The participation of different groups enables municipalities to collect useful data for the planning process. Various districts of metropoles must be covered in a current state analysis for a fruitful planning process. Participation and data-based planning process would help to make strategic plans more inclusive, holistic, and enable the determination of meaningful goals for each stakeholder group and plan services accordingly. Strategic plans must be prepared in accordance with resources (current and future) and capabilities of municipalities. Strategic plans must be prepared considering short, medium, and long-term value creation for each stakeholder group perspective.

1.2. Adoption of a holistic perspective for sustainable development

A holistic perspective could be adopted in supporting sustainable development efforts in metropoles. This process could be designed starting from strategic planning by participation of all relevant stakeholders. Participatory decision making would help to identify sustainable development goals that have been discussed and consulted with stakeholders. Acceptance and implementation of goal related policies would be smooth. KPIs could be transparently identified and monitored so that all stakeholders can make a holistic evaluation.

1.3. Alignment of goals with national and international development efforts during planning processes

Municipalities need to protect the rights of future generations while serving for today’s generation. They need to make plans with short, medium, and long-term perspectives. SDGs could be a good guide for sustainable development planning and activities. National and regional development plans are important guides for development of the country and the region. Municipalities are one of the key actors in regional development activities. Therefore, alignment with national, regional, and sectoral development plans in planning and implementation stages greatly matters for supporting a development agenda and improving the quality of life.

1.4. Improving coordination and cooperation with district municipalities

Metropolitan and district municipalities must cooperate and coordinate for more effective operation. Coordination and cooperation perspectives are valuable in strategic planning, investment planning and implementation, and service delivery stages of operations. Coordination and cooperation would enable operational efficiency and cost saving for both parties. These saved resources could be utilized to improve the quality of life of particular social groups.

1.5. Improving coordination with subsidiary organizations and companies

Subsidiary organizations and companies perform services (such as transportation, water, and sewage utilities, etc.). Cooperation and coordination of these institutions are important for an efficient operation. The vision of metropolitan municipalities and subsidiaries must be identical; furthermore, alignment must be done at the strategic planning processes of organizations. Subsidiaries’ activities play an important role in the quality of life of all citizens.

1.6. Preparing action plans for important issues in a participatory manner

Action plans would help to mobilize other stakeholders’ resources if they are prepared in a participatory manner. Strategic plans are documents showing the direction of the organization. However, a more detailed planning perspective could be useful during the performing stage. When all stakeholders have been invited to the action planning process, they can provide their views and recommendations and also useful data for planning stages. Roles could be defined in a cooperative manner and some responsibilities shared by stakeholders. Such a perspective would strengthen the legitimacy of future activities for all stakeholders and help to improve resource base.

1.7. Improving the quality of life for each social group

Research findings establish that metropolitan municipalities’ service delivery to social groups needs to be more inclusive. Improving the quality of life for each social group is valuable from a human rights perspective. Planning and performing municipal activities for disadvantageous groups in an inclusive, fair manner is a requirement of good governance practices.

Utilization of resources and authority in municipalities could be improved by participatory decision making. Consultations with stakeholders enable municipalities to collect views, recommendations, needs, and demands of different groups. Data regarding all these issues could be collected as well during the consultation processes. Therefore, municipalities would have a chance to analyze expectations, needs, and also their resources and capabilities before reaching a decision. Stakeholders’ views matter because these views reflect the experiences of stakeholders related with the municipalities. The diversity of ideas improves the quality of decisions and enables the use of resources for more inclusive and impactful projects and activities.

2.1. Using meaningful participation methods and approaches to encourage citizen participation in the metropolitan municipality planning processes

Research findings reveal that stakeholder participation processes have been conducted mostly through a survey, a one-way communication method. Methods such as workshops and focus groups are more useful for engaging with stakeholders and enable interactive learning. The second aspect of improvement is the inclusiveness of the participation processes. If participation of all related stakeholders has been ensured, the quality of decision could be improved or acceptance of the consequences by all stakeholder groups achieved. The quality of decision making would be enhanced with improvement in the quality of participation. Improvements in decision making quality would then enable the improvement of quality of life and support sustainable development efforts.

2.2. Ensuring the participation of all related stakeholders into the planning processes

All related stakeholders including city councils, academia, business, CSOs, citizens must be encouraged to participate in the strategic planning process in order to improve the quality of the planning process. The research findings highlight that only 6 out of 21 city councils made some contribution to strategic planning processes. Less than half of the municipalities have shared the participant list who joined the strategic planning processes. This information is useful for understanding the inclusiveness level of the consultation process. Limited information has been shared regarding the decision-making processes. Stakeholder participation could be encouraged through information sharing regarding participation processes since stakeholders would be able understand how they have impacted the decision making processes.

2.3. Supporting active citizenship and right to the city

Municipalities need to design programs (training, digital means of participation and engagement) for active citizenship. A digital means of participation could be useful and create an environment where decision makers and stakeholders could engage in a continuous manner. Such an approach could enable the engagement of different groups of stakeholders for finding solutions to common problems. Diversity of mind would facilitate improved governance practices of municipalities as well.

2.4. Improving good governance practices in City Councils

City councils are an interface between citizens and municipalities. City councils could be centers for transparency, participation, and monitoring of metropolitan municipalities. The inclusiveness of city councils could be improved by attracting different social groups to the councils’ umbrella. They need to be more active in providing proposals to municipal councils, so that city councils could have a say on municipal policy development processes. More resources should be allocated to city councils for improving their effectiveness.

2.5. Improving the interaction between mayors and municipal council members with their citizens

The key decision makers in municipalities are mayors and municipal council members. An institutional mechanism that would orchestrate/regulate the relationship between citizens and municipal council members would be very helpful to improve the quality of engagement. Some office space could be allocated for the engagement of municipal council members with citizens and CSOs. The minutes of each meeting need to be prepared and used as a data source for improving and evaluating municipal services. Meetings need to be performed in groups rather than one to one for ethical reasons. The Council of Europe’s recommendations of February 2022 could be an effective framework for structuring these relations.

2.6. Introducing new mechanisms for participation

Participatory budgeting and neighborhood councils are some of these new methods that could be implemented for enhancing participation. Such an approach could help to improve the inclusiveness of the participation processes. For instance, a child-related policy development process could start with participation by children. Parents, school principals, and teachers, psychologists and other related stakeholders could participate in the process at the second stage. All participation processes could be a data source which would help evidence-based decision making by bureaucrats and municipal council members. Limited resources could be used in the most efficient manner through these processes.

2.7. Improving and strengthening cooperation with stakeholders

Improving the participation of CSOs, academia, and business is important because such an improvement would utilize the knowledge base of these stakeholders. Research findings report that improving the participation of these stakeholder groups is an area of improvement. Mobilizing these stakeholders for a common purpose would help municipalities to use the resources of these groups. Contribution of these groups is important because municipalities have limited resources. Such partnerships would improve sustainable development efforts and quality of life in metropoles. These partnerships could be formed by continuous and transparent engagement with those groups.

Trust is based on transparency and the quality of shared information. Transparency could be achieved by providing continuous, understandable, accurate and comparable information. Such an approach improves not only public trust in the municipalities but also institutional capacity of municipalities.

3.1. Providing meaningful and citizen centric information

Strategic plans, annual reports, and other means of information sharing methods need to contain understandable information. Citizens could monitor, evaluate, and understand the impacts of the activities and practices of municipalities. Municipalities could prepare citizen scorecards as a way of sharing understandable information.

3.2. Sharing information related to districts, neighborhoods, and diverse social groups

Information in annual reports and strategic plans could be separated by the basis of district, neighborhood, social groups. Then the relevant information for each group could be communicated directly to the related group. Stakeholders in these segments would be able to understand the services delivered and investment made for their satisfaction. This type of information sharing would help to improve inclusiveness in the planning and service delivery stages.

3.3. Development planning with a holistic perspective

The alignment of national and regional plans with the strategic plan of municipalities is very important for the development of the region. The alignment of a strategic plan with global initiatives with planning processes would help to identify priority areas of action. Annual reports serve as a good tool to communicate the alignment of these plans and performance of development efforts. Development efforts would help to improve quality of life. Reporting would be useful for showing the impact of a municipality in national, regional development efforts.

3.4. Strengthening transparency and democratic accountability

Metropolitan municipalities should improve accurate and complete information sharing to strengthen their accountability to citizens. Broadcasting municipal council meetings, communicating all decisions taken in the municipal council, communicating all municipal committee reports with related evidence for each decision are some tools available to municipalities for improving transparency. Internal audit reports and ethic commission reports also need to be communicated for strengthening and improving transparency and accountability in municipalities. Transparency and accountability would improve trust in the municipal council and municipal council members.

3.5. Annual reporting by City Councils

City councils are important for improving the participation of stakeholders. Stakeholders’ trust could be improved with improved transparency and accountability. City councils’ annual reports would be a good tool for sharing activities and for improving transparency. Stakeholders would be able monitor, evaluate, and understand the importance and impact of city councils. Increase in trust and accountability could motivate more inclusive and effective participation of stakeholders. Annual reporting could help to build a positive reputation for city councils.

3.6. Strengthening financial transparency and accountability

The format by which financial information is shared needs to be standardized. Information sharing formats must be understandable and allow comparison with the budget, with previous periods and with peers. Improved transparency would enable the efficient use of resources.

Consolidated financial reporting of municipalities including their subsidiaries is important since all subsidiaries have an important impact in the everyday life of citizens. Transparency in resource transfers and resource allocation between municipalities, and subsidiaries would improve accountability. Variances in financials compared to budget, goals, and previous period need to be explained in clearly understandable language. Actions directed toward improvement need to be communicated to stakeholders.

Communicating how the fixed assets of municipalities have been utilized in a transparent manner is a highly effective practice since these assets could generate important revenue. The communication of municipal bids and results of the bidding processes need to be shared in a transparent manner for improving financial accountability. Citizen budgeting could be a useful tool for improving the quality of information in these areas. Stakeholders’ trust would improve with improved financial transparency and accountability.

3.7. Sharing information on the performance of goal-based budgets

Metropolitan municipalities prepare goals-based budgets in their Performance Programs. Research findings observe that only a portion of municipalities communicate the realized figures for each goal in their Annual Reports. Communication of goal-based performance is important to monitor so as to see if a municipality’s activities are in line with its strategic plan. Stakeholders could also understand the prioritization of activities of a municipality in this way. Variations need to be explained and improvement actions communicated transparently.

3.8. Collecting and sharing city related information

Metropolitan municipalities ought to systematically collect data on city related demographics, geographical units, administrative structures, economic plans and activities, social life and so on. They should share such information with the public in an open and regular manner. City related information sharing could improve the quality of decisions made by business and CSOs. Evidence based decision making would help to support sustainable development and to improve quality of life.

3.9. Sharing information with citizens about their opinions, complaints and demands

Municipalities need to continuously measure and monitor citizen satisfaction levels. Citizen satisfaction is an important input for identifying areas of improvement in municipal activities. Satisfaction survey results and improvement actions must be communicated to stakeholders. Information regarding the content of citizens’ demands for their right to information and the municipality’s response time must be shared with the stakeholders.

Institutional capacity is important for effective implementation of decisions taken. Institutional capacity depends on institutional culture, capability of human resources, technological capability, and financial resources. Continuous development of institutional capacity is important for dealing with changing problems and the environment. A strong institutional capacity could facilitate an agile institution. If institutions are strong and agile, they could more easily gain the trust of stakeholders.

4.1. Utilization of integrated quality management systems

Quality management systems are useful for the continuous development of institutional capacity. A quality management perspective needs to be adopted in all processes of the organization. The adoption of a quality management approach would improve effectiveness and efficiency in organizational and administrative processes. Organizations need to employ people qualified in quality management systems. Measuring and evaluating the performance of processes enables the necessary improvement for operation efficiency and effectiveness. These measurement and evaluation need to contain internal and external stakeholder engagement activities. Complaints as well as levels of satisfaction are inputs for the evaluation process as well. Well-functioning organizations could be agile and adopt to changing circumstances.

4.2. Strengthening financial resource management

Financial resource management is vital for effective and efficient service delivery of a municipality. Effective balance sheet management must be conducted to deliver services and make necessary investments according to strategic plans. Increasing loan amounts may serve needs of today; however, such action may destroy the future of the municipality and the entire community. Monitoring and oversight by all stakeholders are important to minimize the risk of too much debt utilization. Municipalities need to identify targets for finding new revenue streams and improve the revenues in existing resources. Effective fixed assets utilization could be one source of new or increasing existing revenue streams. Municipalities need to occasionally focus on savings and spending cuts in difficult times. The municipality must share the reasoning behind these measures with stakeholders.

4.3. Mobilizing stakeholders for common goals

Mobilizing stakeholders’ resources such as financial, human, and intellectual resources would help to achieve set goals. Municipalities could create a wider impact through such cooperation. Trust in the municipalities could grow. Increased trust could enable new partnerships with CSOs, business and academia. Tools such as development platforms and investment agencies could be useful for building relationships and a cooperative environment.

4.5. Utilization of stakeholders’ views and recommendations

Complaints, demands, as well as the right to information are important data sources for evaluating and improving municipal processes. Utilization of this data source on a daily, weekly, monthly, and annual basis would help indicate improvement areas, perceptions, and satisfaction regarding service delivery. If municipal services are improved based on data, this development would improve trust in the municipality. Improvement activities could create a multiplier effect on effectiveness and efficiency of municipal services. Effective management of the complaint handling process would improve communication, relations with stakeholders, and improve trust to the municipality.

Municipalities directly affect the everyday life of citizens. Therefore, monitoring the activities of metropolitan municipalities is valuable for giving feedback to municipalities regarding improvement actions. Monitoring could be performed by individuals or through civil society organization. The MMGS model contains tools that could analyze municipalities through publicly available information and would help give feedback to municipalities.

The participation of citizens and CSOs to the municipal decision-making processes is important for improvement of decision-making quality. Citizens and CSOs could participate in city councils to be active stakeholders. City councils are mechanisms to encourage and support participation, transparency, and accountability in municipalities. The inclusiveness and transparency of city councils need improvement, a benefit which would increase the effectiveness of these structures.

Citizens and CSOs could propose projects such as participatory budgeting and citizen scorecards to the municipalities. Both these groups could encourage and make pressure to realize proposed projects.

Citizens and CSOs could monitor municipalities by using MMGS and proposing improvement ideas to the municipality. Metropolitan municipalities could utilize such an approach as an external risk management tool in addition to an internal one. External oversight could be an effective approach for the efficient utilization of municipal resources.

Employees and municipal decision makers need to adopt good governance practices as stated in the 11th Development Plan of Türkiye and in Turkish regulations related to municipalities for more effective and efficient operation of municipalities. Implementation of good governance practices would improve resilience, development level, and quality of life of metropoles as well as would increase trust to the municipalities.

MMGS findings evidence a need for improving information quality provided to stakeholders. Annual Reports, Strategic Plans, and all publicly available information must contain understandable and comparable information. Increasing the quality of provided information would increase trust in the municipalities.

The effectiveness of city councils needs to be improved. Currently there are 21 city councils out of 27 metropolitan municipalities. The number of city councils should grow so as to encourage participation. Effectively operating city councils would enable fair, inclusive, effective, efficient, and cooperative policy development by municipalities. Municipalities need to consider participation as a policy area and need to define policy goals for it.²

Adoption of integrated thinking perspective would improve efficiency and effectiveness of municipalities’ operational capabilities. This would enable the development and implementation of holistic policies and plans by municipalities.

Central government institutions must encourage and support the implementation of good governance principles and practices as stated in the regulations. New policies need to be developed, existing regulations strengthened, or new regulations made for participation, information sharing and development of institutional capacity fields. The Court of Accounts’ audits ought to cover the quality of implementation of good governance principles so that it could propose improvement actions.

Central government must encourage, support, and direct alignment of municipal plans with national and regional plans. The central government must encourage, support, and direct metropolitan municipalities to cooperate with district municipalities.

The city council’s regulation could be strengthened. Such a move could support participation if stakeholders and the quality of participation through utilization of different engagement tools. The degree of cooperation and coordination between the city council and municipal council needs to be improved. Platforms, joint groups, or task forces are useful tools to improve cooperation and coordination. More stakeholders could participate in city councils when the effect and impact of city councils are improved through regulatory measures.

Standards need to be defined for financial information sharing in order to enable comparison with previous years and budget figures. Such a move would improve transparency and accountability.