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The phenomenon of poverty has been seen in every period of world history. I. and II. Crises such as the World Wars, the 1929 Great Depression, the 1970 Oil Crisis, the 2008 Mortgage Crisis and 2019 COVID-19 Pandemic have been experienced in our world. Countries have abandoned welfare state policies and started to implement neo-liberal policies, especially after the 1980s. The phenomenon of poverty has become more visible in countries experiencing processes such as wage inequality and unemployment due to neo-liberal policies, crises, globalization, and rapid technological developments. Poverty, which is the main problem of developing countries today, has also created a problem in developed countries. In democratic regimes, local governments, as well as central governments, also provide public services. The structure and nature of local governments differ from country to country. Local government organizations come to the fore especially in social services and social transfers, as they are the closest to the public. Content analysis was conducted on the strategic plans (2020-2024) and budget realizations of the activities (2021-2022) of Antalya, Muğla, Van, and Hatay Metropolitan Municipalities, which were selected by purposeful sampling from metropolitan municipalities, which are local government units. Themes and concepts were coded, and a code list was created. It has been argued that metropolitan municipalities, which are important actors of local governments, undertake important tasks in the fight against poverty and social transfers, transferring resources, making legislation, and cooperating with the central government and other actors. It has been observed that these four selected metropolitan municipalities manage the processes and implement exemplary and different practices. There have been examples where holistic approaches are exhibited in order to transform poverty. Within the scope of the struggle against poverty, the place of local governments is to transfer resources and cooperate in the fight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Municipalities, the closest local government units to the public, have had to improve their management and service provision to respond to the changing and diversifying human needs in today's accelerated technology. The municipalities, whose content and service activities have been recreated, have sought to provide better and faster service to their citizens by adopting technological developments that have become a culture. The study is important in determining whether municipalities are trying to implement technological developments in service delivery. This study examined the use of technological tools and equipment in the service delivery process of Şanlıurfa Metropolitan Municipality. The study, in which the qualitative research method was used, was conducted with the senior managers of Şanlıurfa Metropolitan Municipality. The data obtained from the interviews were analyzed in the MAXQDA qualitative data analysis program. Result of the analysis shows that Şanlıurfa Metropolitan Municipality has created the "Address Tracking System" where all the building and apartment doors within the municipality borders are tracked. In addition, the municipality has implemented the "Smart Detection System" project, which is the first in Turkey. Şanlıurfa Metropolitan Municipality has integrated systems that will keep up with the developing technology of the era, such as the "Smart Detection System", which detects the potholes and problems encountered by public transportation vehicles on the route and transmits them to the relevant unit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]