Burcu
Burcu Ozupak Gulec
Ad-Hoc Expert
Generic Skills
B.1. Understanding of integrated and sustainable urban development:
I am an experienced urban and regional planner, who enjoys academic research. I received my BA degree in Urban and Regional Planning from Mimar Sinan University, Istanbul. Then I received three master’s degrees; one in Urban Design from Mimar Sinan University, the second in EU Policies and International Relations from Marmara University EU Institute and the third in Urban Studies from University of Kent, United Kingdom. I worked at various projects for Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, such as urban design, conservation of world heritage sites and urban regeneration projects. I worked as the Head of Planning Programming and Coordination at Istanbul Development Agency, where I coordinated the preparation of two regional plans of Istanbul (2013 and 2023 Plans); including collection and analysis of economic, social and spatial data, and participatory strategy development. I also designed financial support programs to implement these strategies. I have both theoretical knowledge and experience in participation methods and processes to achieve the desired result. I coordinated the participation of citizens and experts in strategy development and experienced various participation tools. Recently I have been working as a consultant to public and civil society organizations, universities and private sector on sustainable development, urban policies and issues, strategic planning and management, participatory methods to engage citizens and experts, innovative and creative cities.
B.2. Understanding of exchange and learning processes at transnational level:
Especially at Istanbul Development Agency, as one of my coordination duties I organized and attended many meetings and learning activities, both at local and transnational level in order to transfer and improve knowledge and practices. Although at the national level the topics and methods varied greatly, the topics that were subject to exchange and learning activities at transnational level mostly included regional and urban planning processes and participation plan, institutional context, innovation and creativity partnerships, investment opportunities in Istanbul and promotion of Istanbul. The institutions and countries varied from, business delegations to student groups and to planning teams from all around the world, including US, Morocco and European countries. Generally, study trips, workshops and site visits were organized.
B.3. Proficiency in English:
I received my high school degree from a very reputable American School, Robert College, where the education was in English. My master’s degree in EU Policies and International Relations at Marmara University EU Institute was also in English. I was awarded Jean Monnet Scholarship and completed my third master’s degree in United Kingdom at University of Kent. In addition to these, my three master’s theses were in English. After my academic studies, I worked at European Commission, DG Regio as a trainee in Brussels. All these required to be proficient in English. Then during my professional life, I was responsible for many meetings, presentations, publications and partnerships in English. Recently, I worked on revising the translation and editing the Istanbul Regeneration Master Plan, which was prepared in English by an international team. I am proficient and comfortable in communicating in English.
Thematic expertise:
Theme / Policy:
Urban Strategic Planning
Summary Thematic expertise:
I am an experienced urban and regional planner, particularly in strategic planning of cities and metropolitan areas. I have a bachelor’s degree in urban and regional planning, and three master’s degrees, all related to EU policies and sustainable development. I contributed to many planning processes, from Istanbul Financial Center to site management plans of Historical Peninsula. I planned and coordinated the preparation of two regional development plans of Istanbul (2013 and 2023 Plans), which are strategic plans that include social, economic, environmental and spatial aspects of the metropolitan area, extensive participation and communication processes. As the Head of Planning Programming and Coordination Unit at Istanbul Development Agency, I also had the opportunity to design the financial support programs to implement these plans. I organized and participated as a speaker in numerous events, conferences, training, exchange and capacity building activities, to share our experience in these strategic planning processes, citizen engagement, implementation, governance or urban issues with other institutions, city planners and students from Turkey and various countries. I gave technical support to other institutions’ planning processes, such as planning the participation and moderation of Istanbul strategic plan with my team. Recently I have been working as a consultant to public institutions, NGOs and universities, in strategic planning, urban and local development.
Theme / Policy:
Arts and Culture
Theme / Policy:
Local Economic Development
Summary Thematic expertise:
I am an experienced urban and regional planner. I have a bachelor’s degree in urban and regional planning, and three master’s degrees, all related to EU policies and sustainable development. I coordinated the preparation of two regional development plans of Istanbul (2013 and 2023 Plans); they include social, economic, environmental and spatial strategies, providing a bridge between national and local plans. At Istanbul Development Agency, I also designed the financial support programs to implement these plans and to foster economic and social development, organized events to raise awareness, to develop policy papers, thematic networks and partnerships; concentrating on SME development in specific sectors, cluster development, attracting foreign direct investment, entrepreneurship, innovation, developing creative industries and Istanbul Financial Center, etc. Analysis of economic data, bringing local actors together, setting strategies and long-term targets together was one of my main duties. For example, I coordinated an exchange and learning process among institutions on entrepreneurship and venture capital, we published a book on barriers in investment at the end. I also have experience in management of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, which required special consideration on local economic development. I am a founder and member of an Arts Initiative, where I am leading the creative economy group, to support and raise awareness about the added value of creative industries.
Expertise support to local authorities and other stakeholders in designing & delivering integrated and participatory policies
E.1. Knowledge on participatory methods and tools for co-production and implementation of local polices :
I am an experienced urban and regional planner, particularly in strategic planning and participation. I contributed to many planning processes, from Istanbul Financial Center to site management plans of Historical Peninsula, they generally included participation of experts. I planned and coordinated the preparation of two regional development plans of Istanbul (2013 and 2023 Plans) and programs to implement them. I was also responsible for coordination of directors and advisory boards and stakeholders, raising awareness and developing local policy on priority issues, all required extensive participation processes and continuous communication with stakeholders. In preparation of these plans, more than 2500 citizens and experts participated in strategy development; I planned and applied different participation tools, adapting to the context, such as social media campaign, search and decision conferences, world café, inspiration tray, workshop, surveys etc. Sometimes these meetings included site visits, experience sharing activities or pre-education of participants. I gave technical support to other institutions’ planning processes, such as planning the participation process and moderation of Istanbul strategic plan with my team. My ongoing Phd research is on developing success criteria and evaluation framework for participation processes. Recently I have been working as a consultant in strategic planning and sustainable urban development.
E.2. Knowledge on integrated approach for the design, delivering, monitoring and evaluation of urban strategies/policies:
I coordinated the preparation process of the regional plans of Istanbul, which are integrated strategic documents, that include performance indicators for monitoring. Although they are determined and stated at the plan, I need to admit that monitoring and evaluation has not been as much credited as preparation and implementation of strategies. The urban data was collected on a regular basis to monitor the policy outcomes from other institutions.
I designed 31 programs to implement priority strategies of Istanbul. These programs also included indicators for evaluation. However, the evaluation context is developing in Turkey. It is not really owned by policy makers and administrators. Therefore since the evaluation plan was not applied and the program specific data was not collected at the beginning, the final evaluation of these programs did not really present the impacts.
I believe evaluation is very important to improve the policies and institutions. Therefore, I have specific interest in evaluation and two of my masters thesis focus on evaluation, one is about an evaluation framework for EU Regional Policies and the other is about Limits of Cohesion Policy, evaluating the EU Regional Policy.
E.3. Awareness of the main policy and funding schemes for sustainable urban development at EU and national level:
I work as a consultant on strategic planning, sustainable urban development and capacity building for public institutions, NGOs and universities. Some of my very recent work are; consultancy in editing Istanbul Transformation Master Plan and Analysis Report; consultancy in establishing Istanbul Design Bureau for UNESCO Creative Cities Network, Design City Istanbul and maintaining the quality of work; consultancy on third sector university and public impact of Abdullah Gul University and consultancy in establishing NGOs. Working as a consultant, in relation to many different kinds of institutions, keep me updated and aware of up to date agenda, trends and funds available. In addition to my professional job, I continue my academic research, which focuses on successful participation processes. Therefore, I keep up to recent theoretical discourse as well. Also I am a founder and member of an Arts Initiative (a social cooperative) and an Arts Association. I lead a creative economy group, I lobby, present and try to create a community to support the creative industries ecosystem. It helps me to interact with stakeholders and track related funds.
E.4. Ability to understand specific local situations and adapt tools and content to different local realities:
I planned participation processes or organized one-time participation events, applied many participation tools myself and I participated to many meetings, that are were not sincerely looking for input, not suitable to the context, the participants were not representing the target groups or dominated by specific groups, did not produce a solid output, an incompatible participation tool was applied, etc. Attending and experiencing unsuccessful moments, processes and results has also been beneficial. Generally, I adapt the tools to the local context and the targets of the institution. For example, when we were preparing 2023 Reginal Plan of Istanbul, we organized 12 thematic workshops, we used different techniques depending on the theme and the participants, roundtables, world café or inspiration tray sessions. When we needed a structured discussion with a bigger group as 200 participants, we used computer assisted analytical hierarchy process at a decision conference. When we wanted to get detailed information for the designing the financial support programs, we used face-to-face interviews or focus groups at districts. When we coordinated a national policy development process on urban regeneration, we took the participants to site visits and arranged meetings with investors at the site, to educate the participants before the meetings. When we wanted to create awareness and youth participation in Istanbul’s vision, we organized a social media campaign and survey.
Informations
Residence location:
_Other_
Languages:
_Other_ - Mother tongue
Foreign Languages level:
Foreign languages:
Email:
burcu@ikiiki.com.tr