“Local participatory democracy” is a favorite catchphrase of Ekrem Imamoglu, mayor of Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city. It is also the approach he has adopted for rethinking and revamping the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB), one of the biggest public administrations in Turkey.

Imamoglu, elected last year and a member of the opposition Republican People’s Party, has set his sights on shaking up top-down governance and lack of transparency by getting experts and the general public more involved in decision-making processes. In a nutshell, what he seeks is a strategy for the future “based on common sense.” One obstacle Imamoglu faces is how to overcome government resistance to implementing such a policy, for which the tourism sector has become a test case.

Since November 2019, Imamoglu has held high-profile events to launch new permanent structures within the IBB and flexible consultative bodies, the two tools of his new approach. On Feb. 12, Imamoglu presented the Istanbul Planning Agency as the centerpiece of his quest for local participatory democracy and the main pillar of a renewed IBB. He described it as a “new beginning” for the city, a “model set to become an example to the world.”

The municipality had a planning department in the past, but, Imamoglu explained at the launch, attended by Al-Monitor, “It was closed due to a political decision,” meaning by Ankara. The new planning agency consists of four sections: Vision 2050, to elaborate long-term strategies and goals; the Istanbul Institute, a scientific agency guided by a network of researchers charged with studying practical issues, such as transport and green spaces; a statistics bureau, to gather data on various aspects of society; and a design division to develop a new identity.