NILUFER BELEDIYE BASKANLIGI
Nilüfer Municipality is one of the seven central district municipalities of Bursa metropolitan which is the 4th biggest city in Turkey and which takes place in the southeast of Marmara Sea and northwest of Uludağ (Olympos Mountain). Nilüfer is named after the Nilüfer River which is flowing across her. NB was established in 1987, as one of the three district municipalities with the establishment of Bursa Metropolitan Municipality. In that year, the district had a population of 32.483 (56.131 with villages), areas of 7.700 hectares and 13 neighbourhoods. NB has improved its services continuously to meet the changing needs of the rapidly developing region and created a city with modern standards in all aspects and today became an attraction center.
As per 2019 census, 465.956 people live in Nilüfer. The age distribution of the population is %28 aged 0-19; %62 aged 20-59; %10 aged 60 and over. The change during the years in the population structure of Nilüfer, demonstrates that the district is the most rapidly urbanizing region of Bursa. As of today, within the 50.756-hectare land of Nilüfer, there are 64 neighbourhoods.
Nilüfer district hosting the first settlement in Bursa Region as per some researchers, bears the traces of both Byzantine and Ottoman and the older periods in history. As it is a newly developing district, you cannot find historical buildings in the city center of Nilüfer. But there are lots of ruins and historical structures within the villages and neighbourhoods bounded to Nilüfer.
Nilüfer ranks the first place amongst the districts of Bursa today, contributing to the economy of Turkey and Bursa. The area of the district is enlarged more than 6 times and the population increased 15 times since 1987. The very first Organized Industrial Zone (BOSB) of Turkey is also within the district of Nilüfer. In BOSB which is 6,8 million square meters wide, approximately 30 thousand workers are being employed. Uludağ University is also situated in Nilüfer approximately 25 km from city centre of Bursa.
Being sport city, healthy city, education, science and technology city, manufacturing city, sharing and solidarity city, eco-city, planned and development city and culture and art city are Nilüfer Municipality’s mottos which we determined for becoming modern and leader city. They are guide so as to be more livable and happy city. In addition, Nilüfer Municipality has values to give services for own stakeholders. These are democracy, freedom, participation, social municipalism, conscience and equality. These are crucial as municipality for Nilüfer district.
NM began to work on total quality management in 2000. ISO 9001, OHSAS 18001, ISO 14001, ISO 10002 and ISO 27001 are implemented by Nilüfer Municipality. Nilüfer Municipality (NM) also uses European Foundation Quality Management (EFQM) excellence model to manage own services. NM started excellence journey in 2003. In that year, NM was the first municipality that recognized for excellence. In 2004 EFQM Local & Regional Government Prize, a special prize for Excellence Progress in the development of e services for citizens has been given to NM. After that, NB has taken National Quality Prize in 2006 and be named as finalist in 2008 and 2012 European Excellence Award. In 2013, NM win prize in “Adding Value for Customers” category and became first local government to win this prize all around world.
NM is member of Covenant of Mayor platform. NM gave commitment on decreasing GHG emission 20% until 2020 according to Covenant of Mayors. In this direction, the Municipality of Nilüfer prepared a “Sustainable Energy Action Plan” and created a roadmap for long-term goals. With the Sustainable Energy Action Plan, in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Nilüfer District, the processes for implementing these decisions are planned on a long-term basis considering the policies and programs of various sectors.
NM also signed United Nation’s “Global Principles Agreement”. NM is the first municipality to sign this agreement. With this agreement, NM commit to making the Global Compact and its principles part of the strategy, culture and day-to-day operations of our company and undertake to make a clear statement of this commitment – both to our employees, partners and citizens. NM support public accountability and transparency and will report on progress made in a public manner.
Memberships of Nilüfer Municipality:
- European Quality Management Quality (EFQM)
- Mayors Adapt
- United Cities and Local Governments Middle East and West Asia Section (UCLG – MEWA)
- Energy Cities
- EUROCITIES
- Global Fund for Cities Development (FMDV)
- Global Compact
- World Health Organization – Healthy Cities Network
- International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA)
- World Association of the Major Metropolises (METROPOLIS)
- United Cities and Local Government (UCLG)
- Rainbow Cities
- Turkey People Management Association (PERYÖN)
- Bursa , Bilecik , Eskişehir Development Agency (BEBKA)
- Association of Social Democrat Municipalities (SODEM)
- World Health Organization (WHO)
- Turkey Municipalities Union (TBB)
- Turkey Quality Association (KALDER)
- Marmara Municipalities Union
- Bursa Union of Culture and Tourism Promotion
- Turkey Healthy Cities Union
- Turkey Historical Union
- Union of Climate Friend Cities
Signed International Treaties:
- Turkish – Swedish Local Governments Union (TUSELOG)
- Covenant of Mayors
Organizational Structure:
Municipalities Law in Turkey defines 3 decision organs for the municipalities: Municipal Council, Municipal Executive Committee and Mayor. The municipal council is the municipality’s decision-making body and shall comprise members elected according to the principles and procedures provided for by the relevant law. Some of the functions of the municipal council are:
- Discuss and adopt the strategic plan, the investment and work programs and the performance criteria for municipal activities and staff
- Adopt the budget and final accounts and make budget transfers between subjects
- Discuss and approve the municipality’s urban plans
- Decide to contract loans
- Elect the bureau of the municipal council and the members of the executive committee and specialized commissions.
The municipality council of Nilüfer consists of 37 members who are elected in 5 year periods. 9 Specialized Commissions take place in municipality council. All commissions have 5 members from Municipal Council. These commissions meet for the decisions that municipality council need expert inspection. These commissions are:
- Plan-Program and Budget Commission
- Construction and Planning Commission
- Legal Affairs Commission
- Environment and Rural Area Commission
- Health and Sport Commission
- Education, Science and Technology Commission
- Culture, Art and Tourism Commission
- Industry and Commerce Commission
- Participation and Equality Commission
The services that NB can provide are defined and limited in municipalities law. In local administrations, services are separated amongst governorships (district managements), metropolitan municipalities and district municipalities. Although cultural, social and sports services are included in the services run by municipalities, the authorization for them belongs to the central government. Most of the infrastructure and utility services (water, sewerage, transportation, maintenance and repair of main roads etc.) belong to the metropolitan municipalities. Municipalities can provide services only within their borders.
Nilüfer Municipality has 27 departments to sustain own services:
- Youth and Sport Services Department
- Internal Inspection Department
- Strategy Department
- Public and Public Relations Department
- Department of Technical Works
- Transportation Affairs Department
- Public Development and Urbanization Department
- Department of Planning and Project
- Department of Legal Affairs
- Department of Registry
- Support Services Department
- Culture and Social Affairs Department
- Social Support Department
- Information Technologies Department
- Environment Protection and Control Department
- Municipal Police Department
- License and Audit Department
- Financial Services Department
- Human Resources and Training Department
- Veterinary Services Department
- Cleaning Services Department
- Parks and Gardens Department
- Library Department
- Property and Expropriation Department
- Theatre Department
- Mayor Secretary Department
- Internal Inspection Department
Another authority in the city, defined by municipalities law is head of neighbourhood. With the voluntary participation of neighbourhood residents, the head of neighbourhood shall identify community needs, develop the neighbourhood’s quality of life, manage relations with the municipality and other public institutions and bodies, put forward the neighbourhood’s opinions on matters concerning it, co-operate with other institutions and exercise the other functions conferred on him by law. The municipality shall provide the necessary in kind assistance and support, within the limits of its budgetary resources, to meet the needs of the neighbourhood and the head of neighbourhood’s office and to resolve any problems; it shall bear the neighbourhood residents’ shared requests in mind in its decision-making and shall endeavour to ensure that services are provided in such a way as to meet the neighbourhood’s needs.
The vision of everyone joins governance; elected “Neighbourhood Committees” was set up to produce projects with participation. Alongside elected member, head of Neighbourhood, representative of parent-teacher association, representative of family health center, representative of NGOs that is active in relevant neighbourhood, one representative from each student delegate of primary schools, secondary schools and high schools are natural partners of the neighbourhood committees. Neighbourhood Committees perform activities to ensure about specifying neighbourhood’s common requirements, presenting an opinion about neighbourhood and participating public institutions’ decision processes. Citizens decide the priorities related to their neighbourhood and create projects.
Nilüfer Municipality carries out its services through municipal council, municipal executive committee, mayor, 6 deputy mayors (3 elected, 3 appointed), 26 department managers and 2121 personnel (335 officer, 114 employee, 28 contracted, 1618 outsourced).
The Municipality has a lot of studies and works for disadvantaged society groups. People with disabilities, refugees and migrants, LGBTI people, etc are encouraged to participate in all municipal activities and organizations. People living in rural areas are also encouraged and supported to reach the municipality. Youth works are held by Nilüfer Youth Office and Youth Council. Participation of youth on administration is very important and always taken seriously by the municipal government. There are numerous of youth activities held each year and active participation of disadvantaged youth is also provided in Nilüfer via these activities. Some of the services that are defined as Nilüfer Municipality`s responsibilities are:
- Sport Services
- Marriage Services
- Civil Defense Services
- Health Services
- Vocational Education
- Rural Area Office
- Disabilities Services
- Innovation Center
- Gender and Equality Office
- History and Tourism Office
- Recycling Office
These services are provided not only for citizens of Nilüfer but also to all of Bursa and surrounding cities.
Nilüfer Innovation Centre:
We started to work for bringing to life the Nilüfer Innovation Centre in order to use innovative approaches according to participation principle in solving social questions. In this centre, we design many activities for participation and co-productivity.
- Idea workshops, common sense meetings
- Seminars, panels, experience and knowledge sharing conversations, meetings
- Test production workshop activities
- Project market activities
- Trainings
- Contests and so on.
We have a working group consists of our employees. We created it completely on a voluntary basis. Its name is Nilovation. Our project team received trainings on innovation, creativity, project management and teamwork and we continue to work to improve their skills. Innovation group takes an active role on a voluntary basis in all these activities.
We support entrepreneurial ecosystem in Nilüfer.
We work with youth groups, NGOs, and young individuals to include youngsters especially disadvantaged young people to bring out innovative approaches from their side.
We are planning and realizing many activities to support this ecosystem in Nilüfer. We organize seminars, workshops and trainings. We are planning on project markets to bring together all start-up groups and investors.
We have a systematic roadmap for new ideas. These new ideas which are created from the needs and opportunities in our municipality follows a path in accordance with the model you see on the slight.
This model focuses on the following dimensions;
- Strategic
- Cultural
- Innovation processes and project management and
- Open innovation
We founded Nilüfer Innovation Centre to create innovative solutions over current social, cultural, economic and environmental problems and to adopt them for ensuring a sustainable life for humanity, society and for our planet.
It will continue to produce innovative projects in its future works.