Let’s Plan Beşiktaş’s Future Together

Beşiktaş Municipality started the preparations of Strategic Plan of 2025-2029 that will shape next five years. The Strategic Plan focused on stakeholder analysis, one of the most critical stages in the planning process. Different communication channels will be actively utilized in this strategic plan and our neighbours from Beşiktaş will also be participating. The voice of Beşiktaş residents will be heard through social media, surveys, focus group meetings and on-site interviews. Opinions and suggestions will be collected in meetings that will be carried out separately with young people, senior residents, children, women and disadvantaged groups. The expectations and suggestions of people from Beşiktaş play an important role in the municipality’s decision-making process.

Emphasizing the importance of participatory democracy since the day he took office, Beşiktaş Mayor Rıza Akpolat made the following statement:

“Dear neighbours,

The process of preparing the Strategic Plan of 2025-2029 that will shape upcoming years, started after the elections. Our preparatory work has been completed; we are continuing our analysis. We have started our stakeholder analysis, the most important step of this plan. We will plan the next 5 years with you. You will say it, we will implement it. We will not act with the understanding of ‘I did it. It is done’. We will move Beşiktaş forward together. We will succeed together.

We will not only provide service. The services we will provide will be decided together with our neighbours. Therefore, your participation in our planning process is our greatest desire. In this context, we include everyone in the strategic planning process in the most effective way; we establish platforms where everyone can share their views by actively using all communications tools. We have already been receiving your questions, comments and opinions from social media, our call centre, our service buildings and the field. In addition to these, we will have face-to-face contacts and surveys through the website we will establish.

We will address the problems, expectations and suggestions of each segment. We will have separate meetings, focused group meetings and idea marathons with our youth, our children, neighbours over the age 65, disadvantages neighbours and women. We will identify the primary problems of Beşiktaş, and seek solutions together.

We will talk about projects for the future of Beşiktaş with other public institutions providing services in our district, the non-governmental organizations, the universities, the professional organizations and the all corporate stakeholders.

We will establish communication desks where our citizens can participate in strategic planning studies in places where population density is high and we will receive their opinions through different activities and methods. We will talk with great sincerity about what kind of city the Beşiktaş neighbours dream of, what they see as missing or necessary in this district. We will do whatever is necessary to strengthen local democracy and carry out a strong and effective planning process.

The process of preparing a strategic plan will not be a plan drawn up at a desk. This process will become a celebration of local democracy where we mobilise all means to get everyone’s opinion. With our upcoming practices, we will complete our steps to transform Beşiktaş into an exemplary city where local democracy is best practiced.

The administration of this district belongs to everyone living here. If we say ‘Beşiktaş belongs to all of us’, we will all govern together, succeed together and become stronger together. I hope that our new term strategic plan will be beneficial to our district and our neighbours. I invite you all to join this local democracy celebration.”