Kadıköy Municipality defines it mission as: “in order to set a participatory, innovative, modern, equitable, liberalistic and strong community and atmosphere for each individual, especially prioritizing the children and the youth, it targets to be a local government functioning within its duties, authorization and responsibilities and ensuring the sustainability of its services”. Acting with this mission, it adopts the vision of “being a local government adopting participatory governance and leader in innovation”. The mission and vision of the Municipality identify the general framework of its priorities, putting “human-being” at the core of its services. The Municipality acts prioritizing the happiness and well-being of citizens it is responsible for serving, and it takes its power from the inclusion of the society and the related partners in its decision-making processes. For this end, developing programmes and projects through active participation of senior citizens and improving their participation in decision-making processes comprise the ground for ageing policies of the Municipality.

Kadıköy has the largest proportion of older people over the age of 65 in Turkey, which is one of the reasons why Kadikoy is committed to becoming an age-friendly city. As one of the primary local actors in social service provision, Kadıköy Municipality adopts specific principles and policies targeting the elderly population and provides a range of services for this population group which amounts 93.887 people in 2021.With a population of 65+,Kadıköy is the district with the largest population of 65+ among the districts of Istanbul. Since ageing is a priority area in Kadıköy district, Kadıköy Municipality is proud to be the second municipality from Turkey, which has recently become a member of WHO Global Network of Age-friendly Cities and Communities. Furthermore, in April 2016, the Municipality attended the recent pilot exercise of WHO age-friendly environments of Europe, and successfully completed and submitted its report to WHO. For Kadıköy Municipality it is strongly important to put effort in order to converge its policies targeting the older people to the global agenda. Our programmes and projects for 65+ citizens provide evidence that the population group of the elderly comprise an essential part of our social policy framework.