Issue: 4
Water is essential for life and crucial for sustainable development, including the preservation of our natural environment and the alleviation of poverty and hunger. Water is indispensable for human health and well-being. Realizing these facts, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, in December 2003, proclaimed the years 2005 to 2015 as the International Decade for Action 'Water for Life' and declared 22 March of each year as the World Water Day (WWD).
Every year, a different UN agency is selected to coordinate events surrounding WWD around the world, and a different theme is chosen to reflect the many facets of freshwater resources. WWD 2006 was guided by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) under the theme 'Water and Culture.' As the UN's focal point for the promotion of cultural diversity, UNESCO drew attention to the fact that there are as many ways of viewing, using, and celebrating water as there are cultural traditions across the world.
Currently, over 1 billion people in the world lack access to water and over 2.4 billion lack access to basic sanitation. Access to clean water is lowest in Africa, while Asia has the largest number of people with no access to basic sanitation. However, this water crisis is largely our own making. It has resulted not from the natural limitations of the water supply or lack of financing and appropriate technologies but rather from profound failures in Water Governance, which refers to the range of political, social, economic, and administrative systems that are in place to
develop and manage water resources and the delivery of water services at different levels of society. In this matter, UN is working to create concrete activities such as the promotion of public awareness through the publication and diffusion of documentaries and the organization of conferences, round tables, seminars and expositions related to the conservation and development of water resources.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) also aims to achieve sustainable water resources development and management and its Water Governance Programme is currently providing assistance to member countries on different levels through the following areas:
1) Local Management of Water Resources, Water Supply, and Sanitation
2) Integrated Water Resource Management
3) Addressing Global and Regional Water Challenges
4) Water and Climate Change
5) Gender Mainstreaming
6) Capacity Development for Effective Water Governance
UNDP is additionally one of the implementing agencies of the Global Environment Facility (GEF). UNDP-GEF administers and implements an important programme on International Waters. Besides, several UNDP-GEF Biodiversity projects involve coastal, marine and freshwater ecosystems.
UNDP Turkey and water
UNDP Turkey gives great importance to issues related to water in its environment portfolio. UNDP Turkey’s Black Sea Ecosystems Recovery Project (BSERP) is an example for projects supported in this area. The overall objective of the BSERP is to support participating countries in the development of national policies and legislation and the definition of priority actions to avoid that discharge of nitrogen and phosphorus to the Black Sea exceed those levels as observed in 1997. On the other hand the specific objectives includes reinforcing regional cooperation under the Black Sea Convention, setting up institutional and legal instruments and defining priority actions at regional and national levels to assure sustainable coastal zone management, and protection of coastal and marine ecosystems and habitats in order to secure sustainable use of coastal and marine resources.
Another project of UNDP Turkey is “Natural Wastewater Treatment in Karaurgan Village”, which aims to set up a waste water system with natural filtration ponds and prevent the health problems caused by the direct flow of wastewater into rivers. Karaurgan Development Society, which was established in 2005, initiated natural wastewater treatment implementation to solve this problem. In leadership of the Society, a committee will be founded and a fund will be created and managed by the village householders for natural wastewater treatment system’s maintenance. In addition, with naturally filtered water returns from the ponds, it is planned to water 400.000 m² of agricultural estates of Karaurgan village.
Perhaps that’s why we have such a parochial view of what constitutes a ‘water crisis’. Dwindling reservoirs, rumblings about compulsory water meters, and a few ministerial exhortations to flush the toilet less often and abandon the bath in favor of a quick shower, and we’ve got a national emergency on our hands. Hold the front page, we could be heading for a hose pipe ban in the Home Counties.
In the next 24 hours, diarrhea caused by unclean water and poor sanitation is going to claim the lives some 4000 children. The annual death toll from this relentless humanitarian catastrophe is bigger than the population of Turkish city of Manisa. Dirty water poses a greater threat to human life than war or terrorism. Yet it barely registers on the radar of public debate in rich countries.
Preventable child death is the tip of an iceberg. At any one time close to half the population of the developing world is suffering from water-related diseases. These diseases rob people of their health, destroy their livelihoods, and undermine education potential: they account for roughly 400 million lost school days each year.
The statistics behind the crisis make for grim reading. At the start of the 21st Century, and in the midst of an increasingly prosperous global economy, some 2.6bn people – have no access to even the most rudimentary latrine. Over 1 billion have no source of safe drinking water. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) include a pledge to halve by 2015 the proportion of people without access, but the world is hopelessly off track.
Unequal access to water powerfully captures the gross disparities that divide our world. In Britain, come rain, flood or drought, the average person uses 160 litres of clean water each day. In rural Mozambique or Ethiopia, people use what women and young girls can carry back from rivers and lakes: around 5-10 litres a day for each household member. The iconic image of a women carrying water belies a more brutal reality. You try carrying a 20 litre plastic jerrycan of water that weighs about 25kg for four miles in the baking sun.
The global sanitation gap is even more overwhelming. Those of you who have seen The Constant Gardner will recall the vibrant, colorful Kenyan slum visited by Rachel Weisz. The slum was Kibera. With a population of around 750,000 it is one of the largest informal settlements in Africa and accounts for one quarter of people living in the capital, Nairobi. Over 90 per cent lack access to a latrine, giving rise to a phenomenon that didn’t figure in the movie: the ‘flying toilet’. Lacking any alternative, people defecate into plastic bags that are thrown into street or ditches, with terrifying consequences for public health.
Kibera is a microcosm of what happens across the developing world. Rapid urbanization and a crumbling water and sanitation infrastructure in cities like Jakarta, Manila, Nairobi and Lagos have left millions of desperately poor people in overcrowded slums facing a constant threat from water infected with human excrement.
To add insult to injury, the poor invariably pay more for their water than the rich. In Kibera, you pay three times more per unit of water than in Manhattan or London – and ten times more than in high-income suburbs of Nairobi. Similar patterns are repeated across the cities of the developing world. The reason: water utilities pump cheap subsidized water to well-off customers, but seldom reach the poor. Most slum dwellers face the choice between buying water from high-cost private traders, or taking a trip to the nearest stream.
Overcoming the water and sanitation divide is a cause that unites moral imperative with economic common sense. Meeting the MDG target would cost around $4bn a year for the next decade. To put the price tag in context, it represents about one month’s worth of spending on bottled mineral water in Europe and the US. Put differently, for less than people in rich countries now spend on a designer product that produces no tangible health gains, we start rolling back one of the main causes of preventable childhood death.
And for every $1 invested another $3-4 would be generated through savings on health spending and increased productivity. As investments go, this one’s a no-brainer.
So why is progress so slow? Partly, of course, because this is a crisis borne overwhelming by poor people. Too often, governments in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere are more disposed to provide subsidized water for the rich, rather than universal access for the poor. The low priority attached to water and sanitation is reflected in national budgets – and, more acutely, in the chronic under-financing of infrastructure.
Aid donors have also under-delivered. Even with increased domestic financing and improved utility governance, the poorest countries need a step increase in external financing. Extending water and sanitation infrastructure requires large up-front investments with payback periods of 20 years or more. Yet the share of aid dedicated to these sectors (adjusted for the inevitable surge to Iraq) has halved and fallen in real terms since 1997 and fallen in real terms. To make matters worse, aid flows are weakly related to need. Sub-Saharan Africa faces the greatest financing gaps, but the region accounts for only 15 per cent of aid.
Sterile debates about ‘public versus private’ provision do not help take things forward. Privatisation is not a magic bullet, though in some cases the private sector can provide the services needed to enhance efficiency. Conversely, failures and under-financing in the public sector is already forcing poor people into private water markets, with disastrous consequences.
Water is not just another commodity. It is a source of life, dignity, and equality of opportunity. That is why it is too important to be left to the market – and why governments bear ultimately responsibility for extending access. Human need, regardless ability to pay, must be the guiding principle. South Africa has shown the way by introducing legislation requiring all providers, public and private, to supply a minimum amount of water free of charge. In Senegal and Manila too, new forms of public-private partnership are extending access for the poor through small surcharges on the wealthy. Redistribution may be out of fashion these days. But converting public water subsidies for the rich into public investments for the poor would help accelerate progress and overcome the glaring equity gaps that scar many countries.
More than anything else we need political leadership. For example in Britain, the water and sanitation crisis of the 19th Century gave rise to powerful new political coalitions that brought together municipalities, industrialists and social reformers. These coalitions created an irresistible force for change, paving the way to huge new public investments and governance systems. Civic duty, economic self-interest, and morality combined to make to elevate water and sanitation a national cause.
Today, new social movements and partnerships between governments and civil society are beginning to make inroads into the crisis. These need to be strengthened and deepened. But we also need global leadership – and an informed public debate in rich countries that pushes water and sanitation up the aid agenda.
OK, so perhaps we should take fewer baths and be sparing in our use of hosepipes. But none of us should be willing to tolerate a world in which over 1 million children are, in a perversely literal sense, dying for a glass of water and a toilet.
Kevin Watkins
Director UNDP Human Development Report Office
Before the next heat waves hit the country, Turkey is speeding up its efforts for the prevention of global warming. Within the scope of the project for the preparation of the Initial National Communications (INC) of Turkey on Climate Change, which will reveal the measures taken so far by Turkey for the implementation of UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), numerous awareness-raising meetings were held for different public segments during February and March. The Preparation of the INC of Turkey project is jointly conducted by the Turkish Ministry of Environment and Forestry, the UNDP and the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
The latest of these meetings, held in Ankara on 23 March 2006, addressed civil society organisations (NGOs). In the forum entitled “Climate Change and Civil Society Organisations”, all concerned NGOs came together and shared information about their activities on the subject. The purpose of the forum was to direct NGO activities towards the same goal and to create synergy and cooperation between NGOs, related research institutions and governmental organs.
The causes of climate change, its effects and possible outcomes; Turkey’s contribution to global climate change and its commitments to UNFCCC as a Party country ; adaptation projects to tackle the challenges of global warming; and alternative energy resources were among the topics discussed during the forum, followed by NGOs’ presentations of their activities, their concerns, and expectations from the government.
The forum was chaired by Deputy Undersecretary of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MEF) Prof. Mustafa Öztürk. Environment Management Deputy Director of MEF Fevzi İşbilir, Prof. Nüzhet Dalfes of Istanbul Technical University, Çukurova University’s Project Coordinator for TUBITAK’s ICCAP (Impact of Climate Changes on Agricultural Production System in Arid Areas) Project Prof. Rıza Kanber, Environment and Sustainable Development Programme Coordinator of UNDP Turkey Dr. Katalin Zaim, Initial National Communications of Turkey on Climate Change/GEF Project Coordinator Dr. Günay Apak, and Assoc. Prof. Filiz Karaosmanoğlu of Istanbul Technical University attended the forum as speakers.
Deputy Undersecretary of MEF Prof. Mustafa Öztürk said, “Turkey is among those countries which will be most affected by climate changes. Although in many provinces of Turkey the sulphur dioxide emission is much lower compared to EU countries, particle pollution resulting from greenhouse gases is high. Nearly 50% of all waste produced in Turkey are collected regularly and systemmatically, but the methane gas (a type of greenhouse gas) accumulating in dumping grounds is not recycled, hence resulting in energy loss. The rest of the waste produced is haphazardly disposed of, without any control, and the methane emitting from these waste materials mixes into the atmosphere.”
Environment Management Deputy Director of MEF Fevzi İşbilir talked about the distribution of fossil fuel emissions in the world, stating that in 1995 the developed countries accounted for the majority of fossil fuel-based greenhouse gas emission into the atmosphere with 73%, but projections for the year 2035 indicate that the percentage will be equally shared by 50% between the developed and the developing counties by then. İşbilir said, “Turkey contributed a tiny 0.7% to the worldwide energy-based carbondioxide emission in 2001”.
At the end of the forum, the participants unanimously agreed on the necessity of taking preventive measures against climate change in Turkey, by producing more local data in this area and sharing them with international sources.
Within the scope of activities in the area of climate change, a training seminar was conducted with the support of international experts during 6-10 March, for all related institutions, including the State Institute of Statistics, to enhance their capacities in the “Uncertainty Management of Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventory”.
During March 2-3, a workshop was held on the “Relationship between Climate Change and Land Use and the Impacts of Climate Change, Vulnurability and Adaptation”. Researchers, and authorities of the State Meteorological Services and Ministry of Environment and Forestry Directorate of Research and Development contributed to the organisation of the workshop in which 70 people participated, including representatives from several NGOs and related governmental bodies. The workshop focused on the assesment of the impacts of climate change and the adaptation process, and on determining the areas where project activities should be carried out.
During the National Energy Efficiency Week in February, Dr. Günay Apak presented the UNDP-supported activities realized in Turkey in the area of Climate Change and the management of the GEF project at the “Energy Efficiency Conference” held in February 23-24, 2006. As part of the weekly events, UNDP Turkey set up a stand to share its ongoing activities with the public.
Within the framework of the efforts to prepare Turkey’s initial greenhouse gas emission inventory, a Greenhouse Gas Inventory Training programme was organized in February 7-9 with the support of the European Environment Agency, from which 27 authorized experts benefited. During the training, the participants gained significant experience in emission calculation and the emission factor selection techniques appropriate for Turkey.
Another training programme on “Effective Communication” was held in February 2-3, attended by 26 participants from various ministries, which focused on the interdisciplinary methods of effective communication and information sharing in the area of climate change.
All of these activities have been carried out within the framework of the project supported by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) with a fund of 405,000 US Dollars and jointly implemented by the Turkish Government and UNDP. The project studies the probable impacts of climate change and prepares Turkey’s greenhouse gas emission inventory, as well as assessing the country’s projected greenhouse gas emission figures until the year 2020. Within the scope of the project, alternative energy scenarios and preventive measures to reduce gas emission will be evaluated. The project currently prepares Turkey’s Initial National Communications on Climate Change with the assistance of mostly local experts, and conducts public awareness-raising campaigns.
International efforts in the area of climate change
The Earth’s climate has altered several times during certain periods in the history of its evolution, due to natural causes. These alterations which were previously considered “normal”, are now seen as the detrimental result of human activity, and today the global climate change has become a source of threat for the whole world. Scientists now talk about a new type of climate change which they expect to create a huge impact on human life and the ecosystem. More and more amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere, due to the consumption of fossil fuels, energy production, deforestry, industrialization and other man-made causes. Increasing greenhouse gases cover our planet like a blanket and prevent the escape of energy from the earth and the atmosphere, thus causing a dangerous over-heating which threatens natural climatic cycles.
The first evidences of the negative impact of human activity on the climate were discovered during the First World Climate Conference held in 1979. Alongside the increased sensitivity of the public opinion on environmental issues during the 1980s, international governments have also become more aware of the issues concerning the climate. United Nations General Assembly adopted a decision in 1988 to call for “the conservation of the global climate for the welfare of present and future generations”. In the same year, the administrative organs of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) founded the “Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change” (IPCC) to research, study and evaluate scientific data in this area. At the Second World Climate Conference, IPCC called for a treaty on a global scale on climate change and in March 21st, 1994 the UNFCCC (UN Framework Convention on Climate Change) was adopted. UNFCCC’s aim is to prevent further damage caused by man-made greenhouse gas emission on the climatic system which has reached dangerous proportions and confine it to a certain level. 188 countries and the European Union have signed the Convention since the date of its ratification . Turkey joined the UNFCCC as the 189th member country at a rather late date of 24 May, 2004.
In its second stage which began last month, the project will reach out to 25 thousand more people within a year.
Supported by UNDP and Microsoft, and conducted by the Youth Association for Habitat and Agenda 21, the project aims to improve the communication and computer skills of local youth councils set up within the scope of “Turkey Local Agenda 21 Programme”, and especially of socially disadvantaged youth in various provinces.
The project was launched in March 2005 with the selection of 40 young volunteers who would train their local peers in basic computer skills. The volunteers were first given courses on how to become trainers, then they went back to their home towns and searched for local facilities where they could teach. They arranged the cooperation of local establishments and/or businesses, be that a public recreational centre, a social activity club, or an internet cafe, and started training their coevals in computer literacy.
1,200 young people received training from these volunteers between June 2005-February 2006. Knowing for fact that these “graduates” passed their freshly-acquired skills to their brothers, sisters and friends, we believe the number of new computer users back home is much higher.
In the second stage of the “Young Trainers Teach Their Peers Basic Computer Skills” project this year, the number of volunteers, coming from 26 different provinces of Turkey, has increased to 45. Through the 3-year duration of the project, a total of 100 thousand people, aged 15-25, coming from underprivileged families, are expected to gain basic computer training.
This year, the project will pay greater attention to the training of female youth. Last year, of the total trainees, with an age average of 19, 48% were female.
In addition to representatives from Ataturk University, there was a wide range of participants from government organizations (including Ministry of Agriculture, State Planning Organization, GAP Regional Development Agency), NGOs from the region (Erzurum and Bayburt Chamber of Trade and Industry) and international organizations, at the meeting.
After the welcoming speeches delivered by Jakob Simonsen (UNDP Resident Representative) and Prof. Ziya Yurttas (National Program Coordinator), progress in three different components of the project has been presented by the project partners/staff. Ahmet Saltik from Sur-Kal (Sustainable Rural and Urban Development Association) made a presentation on the rural development component, Kenan Bayraktar, Tourism Coordinator, presented the initiatives in rural tourism in Coruh valley and Erol Cakmak, the Project Manager presented the entrepreneurial activities as well as the broader project activities. Following the discussions, external impact evaluation was shared with the Steering Committee members.
The evaluation report findings can be summarized as:
- the project achieved significant success in capacity building; the concept of civil society and the power of collective action were demonstrated through three components
- human capital potential increased
- a number of civil society organizations established or strengthened with the support of the project
- sustainability of the programme activities were ensured especially in rural development component with District Development Councils
The report also addresses a number of lessons learned:
- The focus of LEAP Project has been too broad to maximize impact
- There should have been stronger synergy between the three components
- In the future, the project should engage relevant Ministries more centrally to maximize impact and sustainability
The presentations were followed by a discussion session, where representatives from relevant government agencies and beneficiaries of the project exchanged views on how to increase impact and cooperation with relevant institutions. The participants drew attention to the importance of participatory methods in any development initiative and provision of support for associations and organizational skills is essential for sustainability issues.
The participants also discussed potential mainstreaming of District Development Councils into planning, implementation and monitoring of any rural development initiative. The partners also discussed the experience of Bayburt Chamber of Commerce and natural stone sector as a best practice example of local ownership among partners.
LEAP project began in January 2001 with the aim of supporting social and economic development in the three main areas, which are participatory rural development, rural tourism, and supporting local entrepreneurship. It is funded by the Swiss Development and Cooperation Agency, UNDP and Ataturk University and aims to build good models for human centered Sustainable Human Development. LEAP promotes close working relations with central and local government institutions in the design and implementation of project activities. It also co-operates closely with local NGO's and other institutions to encourage strong ownership of the program and to ensure sustainability of the policies and structures developed. The project recently commissioned an independent evaluation to assess the impact of the activities to development of Eastern Anatolia and to provide suggestions for future/similar interventions.
At the workshop the appropriated micro finance models applicable to the Turkish banks were discussed as well as the key findings of the survey, which are as follows:
Strengths and opportunities for Turkish commercial banks in microfinance identified at the workshop:
Weaknesses and Threats for Turkish banks in micro finance identified at the workshop:
It has been agreed that successful implementation of microfinance by commercial banks in Turkey will both enhance and diversify the customer base of commercial banks and contribute to a great extent, to the development of microfinance market and the reduction of serious income disparities in Turkey. According to 2001 data, while the share of the segment, which gets the biggest slice from the national income is 46 %, the share of the group that receives the lowest remains at 6 %. Therefore, provision of banking services to the segment which has no access to financial services will help increasing their incomes and allow them to be economically stronger activity, will have a serious role in reducing the imbalances in incomes.
The programme was presented by Kemal Dervis, the Chair of the UN Development Group and UNDP Administrator, Sahabettin Harput, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Interior and Jakob Simonsen, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Turkey. This 2-year programme aims to eliminate gender inequalities, create an environment to provide gender equality at national and local levels, build local government and NGO capacity, design service models for women and girls and finally, raise awareness on women and girls’ rights.
Decision-makers at national level as well as in pilot cities which are Izmir, Kars, Nevsehir, Sanliurfa, Trabzon and Van, civil society organisations and the general public at these cities are target groups of the programme, which is financially supported by all UN agencies in Turkey, governments of Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Denmark, Norway and Canada and private sector companies. The UN chose these cities to show how services could be diversified, resources could be enhanced and the lives of women and girls could be bettered by a participatory, coordinating and intersectoral-cooperation-focused approach.
UN Joint Programme aims simultaneously to develop interventions for local women and girls and improve the capacity of institutions responsible for service provision. The programme is currently identifying the needs of women and girls, including the most vulnerable populations. Priority actions are being identified through a participatory planning process involving all stakeholders. These priority areas are being selected according to regional needs amongst topics of education, employment, reproductive health, violence against women, trafficking, asylum seekers, refugees and internally displaced people. Once identified, stakeholders will work together to design 5-year local action plans. By the end of the programme a national scaling-up model will be in place and the six pilot cities will be evaluated for certification as ‘Women First Cities’ based on commonly agreed upon criteria.
Kemal Dervis' statement on International Women's Day
It was not a coincidence that the joint programme was inaugurated by UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervis on the eve of the International Women’s Day. UNDP, who has been defending the concept of human development for two decades, do not see it only as an economic growth tool but a mission to improve human in every aspect. In a world where three-fifths of the one billion poorest people are women and girls, gender equality and women’s empowerment goal, naturally, is crucial to development.
Kemal Dervis, during the launch of the programme, referred this year’s theme for International Women’s Day, ‘Women in Decision-Making,’ giving examples of women Heads of State or Government in countries on every continent. “There are and have been women in power before, but what is happening today in many ways goes deeper and is built on more solid foundations. As the world’s examples illustrate, we may be witnessing a shift in the balance of power at national and international levels, where women are finally being recognized as equals and as leaders,” he said.
Dervis explained, as a result of UNDP’s exemplary projects in countries like Congo, Yemen, Pakistan, Georgia and Honduras where women’s participation in decision-making cannot be or less provided, number of women voters’ increased remarkably, gender equality became government policy and citizens are now more aware of the issue. He added that UNDP runs projects to enable the exchange of and access to information on strengthening political participation of women within and across borders.
UNDP Administrator stated that despite these successes, progress towards the goal of gender equality and women’s empowerment still trails conspicuously behind and considered the fact of girls being %70 of 130 million children who are out of school, as a sad truth. “Women account for two-thirds of the 960 million adults in the world who cannot read, which greatly impedes their ability to participate in the political process. With notable exceptions, women are too often absent from parliaments, making up, on average, only 16 percent of parliamentarians world-wide,” he said.
Dervis’ words of “Without women’s equal participation in political life, all members of society will suffer. We have to look to equality not as just a worthy goal, but a proven way of accelerating human development. Whether working to ensure equal access to water and energy services, to strengthening the response to HIV/AIDS, or building lasting peace processes, women need a strong voice at the table so that they can determine their future,” once again reaffirmed UNDP’s commitment to improve women’s capacity.
"Gender Mainstreaming in UNDP Projects" training was been held on 10 March 2006. After a brief explanation of “Gender Mainstreaming” and its history, what needs to be done for the ongoing gender projects to protect gender equality was discussed and exemplary situations were given.
As defined by the United Nations, gender mainstreaming is: “… the process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies or programmes, in all areas and at all levels. It is a strategy for making women’s as well as men’s concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes in all political, economic and societal spheres so that women and men benefit equally and inequality is not perpetuated.”
With this point of view, under the gender-mainstreaming project, all relevant applications, including UNDP’s gender projects, were re-examined, results of these applications were approached from a different perspective and there have been striking outcomes. As an example, one of the Turkish Government’s social security policies requires at least 30 workers in a work place for an employer to be obligated to insure workers. However, most of the women in Turkey work in places where there are less than 30 workers, which shows that the Government do not consider how its policies would affect women. Similar again, UNDP’s projects on women’s empowerment and capacity building end up putting women in a position where she has to work for a superhuman 18-hour, even if she works at home. Another problem is that while women are enabled to earn money, it is not followed whether she has control over it.
The most important outcome of the training was that it is needed to be sure that applications affect men and women equally and we have to take decisions by asking questions such as who is the policy-maker for gender equality, what are the aims, whether they empower women or putting her in a worse situation, are there any gender-distinct data for these policies.
Training was given by the President of Ankara Branch of Association for Training and Supporting Women Candidates (KA-DER) İlknur Üstün, Ankara University Women's Studies Centre expert Dr. Aksu Bora and KA-DER Ankara Branch International and EU Affairs Coordinator Dr. Selma Acuner.
UNDP’s 'Mainstreaming Gender in UNDP Deliverables & Services' project
Although a middle income country, and one where EU accession figures prominently, in terms of its Gender Empowerment Measurement Turkey ranks 73rd out of 78 countries, placing it behind Iran and Pakistan. According to the 2004 NHDR for Turkey, very significant gender disparities exist, especially in the less developed parts of the country (the southeast and eastern Anatolia). Moreover, there are significant violations of women's human rights, such as honour killings and domestic violence, throughout the country. UNDP/Turkey historically worked to address these issues of gender in its programming, most recently through the Millennium Development Goals as well as through increased efforts in 2004 at joint programming with other UN agencies. Given the scope of the gender related disparities however, it was deemed essential that the capacity of the Country Office be assessed and that greater attention be called to mainstreaming gender into the three programming areas of the Country Office - namely Poverty Reduction, Environment, and Democratic Governance.
The outcome of the mainstreaming gender project objective will be the institutionalization of gender mainstreaming within the practice and culture of the Country Office and its external partners. To achieve this objective, the project has four main components:
1. A review of UNDP Turkey's programmes and projects, reviewing needs and potentials in gender mainstreaming;
2. The development and delivery of replicable training programmes to UNDP Turkey staff, project partners and beneficiaries, and decision makers;
3. The development and publication of a Gender Equality & Mainstream Handbook relevant to the Turkish context;
4. An international exchange between UNDP Country Offices for the exchange of lessons learned and best practices.
The project is expected to raise awareness on the issues surrounding gender equality and mainstreaming and offer practical solutions to implementation and common challenges. By placing the concepts in real contexts, the UNDP Country Office, its government and non-governmental partners, as well as its programme beneficiaries, will benefit from sustainable and effective approaches, documented in an original Handbook on Gender Equality & Mainstreaming at the end of the project.
The Kiev forum, which was attended by academics, policymakers, representatives from international organizations and media, aimed "not only to increase understanding of the economic transition … but also to provide valuable expertise and economic advice to policymakers in Ukraine and their international partners," said Frank O'Donnell, UNDP Resident Representative in Ukraine, who opened the event.
Ben Slay, an economist and director of UNDP Bratislava Regional Centre, said that growth in the region has been promisingly 'pro-poor' but work remains to be done, particularly on access to health and education, gender issues and rural development.
"Not only is poverty is falling, inequality is falling as well," he said. "But the challenge still remains to transform general economic growth to growth that benefits all segments of society."
The growth, productivity and development issue of Development and Transition, a newsletter published by the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) with UNDP, was also launched at the forum.
The newsletter examines regional growth prospects through 2015, privatization and 'jobless' growth in FYR Macedonia as well as growth and cooperation in Central Asia. The March issue also features economic reform recommendations for Ukraine and an interview with Kemal Dervis, the new Administrator of UNDP. Here is the interview:
Development & Transition (D&T): In A Better Globalisation, you argued that the international governance structure needs to be rebuilt, replacing the post World War II system with one more appropriate to the realities and requirements of the 21st century. What should be the role of UNDP, and the UN as a whole, in such a system?
Kemal Derviş (K.D.): Humanity went through its worst catastrophe in history in the middle of the 20th century, ending with World War II. The creation of the United Nations, and of related international institutions, was a response built on the hope that we could prevent such catastrophes in the future. Some of the specific features of these institutions reflect the world at that time 60 years ago. It is, therefore, natural and necessary to adjust the institutional architecture so we can now face the challenges of the 21st century. The UN remains at the centre of the international system and UN reform should be the driver for an overall renewal.
D&T: How have prospects for attaining this vision, been affected by September's World Summit? What specific innovations in the international governance architecture might we expect as a result of the Summit?
K.D.: The Secretary-General proposed far-reaching policy and institutional reforms to the Summit, and the overall intent of these proposals was accepted. Unfortunately, agreement could not be reached on many of the specific innovations. Nonetheless, the Summit was a step forward, particularly in relation to the Millennium Development Goals. In terms of the follow-up, what needs to be done first is to continue to extend the reforms to the areas in which the Summit could not yet agree and try to reach consensus and support for these other dimensions, and second, to implement those decisions where agreement has been reached. We need to redouble our efforts to follow-up on the MDGs and to try to build a roadmap that allows as many countries as possible to reach these MDGs in 2015. The Summit strongly asked all of us to work together in that direction.
D&T: In what ways do the development challenges facing the transition economies in the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Balkans, and Central Europe differ from those of other UNDP programme countries? In what ways are they similar?
K.D.: The development challenges of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Balkans, and Central Europe have common features in that many of these countries have gone through a deep transformation of their political and institutional systems. In many cases, this transformation has been extremely disruptive and painful, particularly to the weakest segments of the societies in those countries. There is today a great hope for more prosperity in the future, and certainly in many cases participatory democratic institutions have been built. Nonetheless, serious equity problems - social service problems – remain. Serious governance problems threaten the stability of some countries. The region in some ways is similar to other parts of the world where UNDP has country programmes and in some ways it is different. The influence of the European integration process is particularly important in Central Europe and extends beyond the official EU members or candidates to the "European neighbourhood” to the East and Southeast. It is very important for UNDP and other organisations to work very closely with the European Union and to ensure our efforts are complementary.
D&T: Many transition economies no longer have strong programmes with the IMF and World Bank. For the new EU member states, this is because they have “graduated” from the Bretton Woods assistance, and can more easily finance themselves on international capital markets. However, the IFIs' cooperation with some of the region’s poorest countries—Moldova, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan—as well as middle-income countries like the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan—is much less vibrant now than it was 5-10 years ago. These countries generally do not have the same beneficial access to international capital markets. Many of these countries have likewise not yet joined the World Trade Organisation, even though their exporters face significant protection on OECD markets. In light of this, what roles should UNDP, and the UN system, play vis-à-vis these countries?
K.D.: In the area of financial cooperation, including IFI programmes and trade, the region’s poorest countries have needs that arenot very different from many of the poorer countries in other parts of the world. In the middle income countries, important financial needs remain due to the weakness of the fiscal systems and the need to build new social infrastructure. Some of the countries of the region have reasonable access to capital markets, some do not, or have access only to very expensive funds. UNDP’s main role is to work with these countries on the software of development, on capacity building, and the strengthening of the human resource development processes in those countries. As is the case in some other parts of the world, such as Latin America, middle income countries are not yet ready to be solely and entirely dependent on commercial capital markets. These countries still require some element of development assistance which is best provided in the form of blending commercially sourced resources with some official development aid.
D&T: UNDP has undergone significant changes in the last 10 years. What changes still lie ahead? Where would you like to see UNDP, and the UN system, 10 years from now?
K.D.: In 10 years I would like to see the achievement of the MDGs. Achievement of these goals will not be easy and will require constant work and vigilance on the part of everyone. We have seen tremendous progress in some regions of the world, while other regions have slipped even further into poverty or have fallen victim to disease and conflict. We must redouble our efforts and work closely with governments, civil society and the private sector to press ahead. I would also like to stress that achieving the MDGs is not just a question of resources. Resources are needed but we also need much better governance at both the national and international level. My hope is that in 2015 we have a secured and strengthened United Nations system reflecting the great needs of the 21st Century.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Coco-Cola Company President Nevill Isdell attended the signing ceremony at the UN Headquarters in New York on 8 March, 2006.
Companies and other organizations which sign the Global Compact commit themselves to abide by the 10 universal principles in the areas of human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption.
Coca-Cola Turkey and UNDP Turkey have jointly started the 1.5 million Dollar “Life+” Youth Fund in May 2005. Now in its second year, the “Life+” Youth Fund supports projects on education, sports, environment, culture and arts, developed by young people aged 16-26. The objective of the fund is to contribute to the youth’s efforts to create projects that will increase the quality of their lives and help them play an active role in society.