Issue: 102
Kamal Malhotra, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Turkey, gave an interview about climate change to the morning show of Açık Radio called ‘Open Journal’ on 26 May.
Malhotra reminded that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon calls climate change as one of the defining issues of our times and it is a top priority for the United Nations.
Hence, to catalyze action on climate change, Ban Ki-moon invited Heads of State and Governments along with business, finance, civil society and local leaders to Climate Change Summit in New York in September 2014.
Saying that climate change is also a top priority for UN in Turkey, Kamal Malhotra emphasized that in order to tackle challenges posed by climate change in Turkey at a practical level, there is a need to have a strategy with very concrete steps and to make it country-specific via helping Turkey analyze and understand economics of climate change issue.
He said that ‘We need to have a clear and consistent strategy about climate change and push it consistently. If not, we are not going to be able to make progress.’
Malhotra concluded that ‘We have to find ways to integrate concrete programmes, plan, actions, projects on climate change into Turkey’s sustainable development strategy, its agricultural strategy and its natural resource management strategy. We really have to be able to implement them at a more practical level. That’s what UN, particularly UNDP, is prioritizing to do.’
The campaign focused on the concept of “sustainability” and in particular on sustainable energy with the hashtag #itspossible.
It was also coincided with the Regional Conference on “Scaling up Sustainable Energy Solutions – Role of the Private Sector” organized in Istanbul.
The initial aim was to find an open platform where we can encourage public to talk about inclusive and sustainable human development.
We wanted to communicate the concept of ‘sustainability’ with a remarkable catch line and therefore we asked “Is the progress possible without consuming the earth?”
We asked for the answers from the public whether #itspossible or not. But our answer was ‘yes, it is.’
In Ankara, our billboards were in the form of “racquets” and “stands” (posters) in/around public bus stops; as well as “megalights” (running large billboards) in main intersections of the city.
They were featured in Ankara streets for almost two weeks.
Residents of Istanbul were able to see our outdoor campaign on billboards for a week.
In Istanbul, we also showed a 10 seconds animated video, based on the same graphic concept of our billboard, on selected squares of the city. The short video ran for almost three weeks in Istanbul.
The video and the billboard are important tools which can create awareness among the public about what UNDP does globally and in Turkey much more than any other communication tool can do.
Moreover, what we aimed with these campaigns is to show how people can engage more with UNDP in Turkey, especially via social media.
We have seen the results of our campaign especially in the number of our social media followers. Our Twitter community grew by more than 10 percent, now exceeding 11,600.
These campaigns would not be possible without the cooperation of our colleagues in İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality and Ströer in Ankara.
We would like to extend our gratitude to them for enabling an innovative and effective communication of sustainability for our planet’s future.
Young people gathered to discuss volunteerism at Youth and Volunteerism Summit organized with the initiative of United Nations Volunteers (UNV), Eurasian Universities Union (EURAS) and International Blue Crescent Relief and Development Foundation.
The Summit was held in 6 May in İstanbul Aydın University Florya Campus to discuss volunteering opportunities of young people with a panel, workshop and an NGO fair.
How volunteerism is perceived?
In the morning session, a panel was held where NGO representatives and young volunteers participated.
In the light of panel discussion, different views on volunteerism perception, bureaucratic procedures for establishing student clubs and inadequacy of social responsibility academic advisors to orientate and encourage university students were discussed.
After the panel discussion the survey on volunteerism perception among İstanbul Aydın University students conducted by University’s Turkey’s Research Center before the summit had been presented to the participants.
The survey stated that university students do not have accurate information about volunteering opportunities and NGOs, underlining the need to integrate social responsibility courses for increasing the awareness about this field.
During the workshop held in the afternoon session, students and social responsibility department representatives from Giresun University, Amasya University, Eskişehir Anadolu University, Gaziantep University, Gazi University, Dokuz Eylül University, Uludağ University, İstanbul Aydın University and Sabancı University discussed the ways that NGOs , academic units and university students can follow in order to encourage more university students to do volunteering activities.
A recommendation list was prepared as an outcome of the workshop.
Outputs of the summit will be announced in the coming months along with the academic publication of EURAS in collaboration with UNV and IBC.
“Training of the Trainers Programme on TS EN ISO 50001 Energy Management System (EnMS)” has started on 5 May in Ankara with the participation of 30 people from academia, private sector, ESCOs and NGOs from different provinces of Turkey.
The training is conducted by Gerard Doherty and Erik Gudberg, international energy efficiency experts of UNIDO within the context of Improving Energy Efficiency in Industry Project.
At the opening session of the training Erdal Çalıkoğlu, Deputy Director General of General Directorate of Renewable Energy stated that at the development phase of Improving Energy Efficiency in Industry Project there was not a standard in Turkey like ISO 50001 and this standard was issued by TSE, one of the partners of the project.
He underlined that after the project’s initiation they put emphasis on dissemination of ISO 50001 standard within the Improving Energy Efficiency in Industry Project instead of working on a new energy management standard.
He added that in this context this Training of the Trainers Programme is very important to create a core team on TS EN ISO 50001 Energy Management System and spread the works nation-wide.
Improving Energy Efficiency in Industry Project is executed by the General Directorate of Renewable Energy of the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources together with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) with the support of Global Environment Fund (GEF).
Small and Medium Enterprises Development Organization (KOSGEB), Turkish Standards Institute (TSE) and Technology Development Foundation of Turkey (TTGV) are the other partners of the project.
Participation to the trainings is expected from the relevant departments of the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, provincial directorates of the ministry, governmental institutions, building inspection firms, engineering and consultancy firms, project developers, and NGOs taking part in building inspections.
The participants are expected to have certain technical information and knowledge on building inspection and to have taken part in ensuring energy efficiency during the building inspection processes.
Please click here for the Registration Form.
Please click here to learn more about the Training programme.
Southeast Anatolia Leopard project was initiated in August 2013 in collaboration with the Foundation of Conserving the Natural Resources and Biodiversity and the Foundation of Nature, Culture and Life.
With the support of the GEF Small Grant Programme and General Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks, the project aims to find the reasons behind why leopards are being killed in the region, to develop precautions for that and to educate the public for the importance of leopards both at local and national level.
The usage of camera traps at this project brings the biodiversity of Siirt to light.
During the studies undertaken with the project, the living traces of bobcat and sea otter in the region are found.
Ahmet Aydın, the Governor of Siirt visited the leopard project
Ahmet Aydın, the Governor of Siirt, visited the Southeast Leopard Project in May.
He visited the project together with a crowded delegation including leading local authorities and the people of Yelkesen Village.
The Governor checked one of the camera traps that were located on the outskirts of Gabar Mountain and got detailed information about the project.
He emphasized that this project was started months before the leopard killing in Diyarbakir in November 2013. Later on, he stated that this region, which was remembered with news about death, should now be featured with its rich natural life and this project is very important in order Siirt to be an exemplary city in this respect.
‘Botan Valley should be taken under protection’
Afterwards, Governor Aydin had a meeting with Batur Avgan, Project Coordinator and Nevzat Amcalar, Chief of Siirt Department of the Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs.
At the meeting, responsibilities of authorities to protect leopards in the region and to ensure the sustainability of the activities in this field were discussed. Besides, it is discussed what should be done to declare the parts of Gabar Mountain that are in the borders of Siirt as the wildlife improvement area and declaration of Botan Valley as a national park.
In order to create wild life corridor between the Herekol Mountain and Gabar Mountain where it is thought the leopards are living, Botan Valley should have protected area status.
The Governor Ahmet Aydın stated that he will go to Ankara in July in order to have meetings on declaring these areas as protected.
Future is in Tourism - Sustainable Tourism Support Fund project is implemented with the cooperation of Anadolu Efes, Ministry of Culture and Tourism and United Nations Development Program (UNDP), in order to support the local economy and development through sustainable tourism.
417 fund applications were received from 66 provinces to the Call for Proposal, which attracted intensive attention throughout Turkey.
The list of the projects, those found to be successful as a result of evaluation of concept notes and entitled to participate to Sustainable Tourism Support Fund Workshop on 6-7 June in Istanbul is announced.
For detailed information you may visit www.gelecekturizmde.com.
Young people from 62 cities participated to the meeting to evaluate youth campaigns on Youth Friendly Cities and Youth Friendly Budgeting of Local Governments.
Young delegates also discussed the work plans of parliament and how they can support Habitat’s work in coming year.
The Initiative of Civil Climate Summit is a new formation whose aim is to increase the representation and participation of civil society in climate governance issues in Turkey and thus, to make it more effective. The initiative organized a consultation meeting on May 15.
At the meeting, the CCV (Civil Climate Summit) Initiative was represented by the Society for Global Balance, 350 Ankara and Legislative Association.
Other participants were UNDP – GEF Small Grants Programme, Delegation of the European Commission to Turkey, Heinrich Böll Stiftung Foundation, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Association, Ankara Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany and Union of Turkish Bar Associations.
The Initiative of Civil Climate Summit is an organization that was established with gathering of different civil formations and the main aim is to create a ‘citizen focused’ climate agenda. It has been almost a year that the initiative works in line with a consciousness that there is a detected momentum of rising social expectations tend toward struggle for climate change.
The 1st Civil Climate Summit was held on November, 2013 which was organized by the Initiative of Civil Climate Summit with support of GEF Small Grants Programme.
At the consultation meeting, detailed information was given on the future plans and the preparation process of “2nd Civil Climate Summit” which will take place on September, 2014 by civil formations within the Initiative of Civil Climate Summit.
The entrepreneurs of Civil Climate Summit stated that the citizens in the country adopt the climate change issue in person and take part in a facilitative defending of it.
As a short term plan, the Initiative of Civil Climate Summit has in mind to organize training and awareness raising meeting with a wide participation of media members in summer at Istanbul.
By this way, it was planned to call attention of public opinion to Turkey’s international responsibilities by creating an effective civil climate struggle campaign through media in the process of the 2nd Civil Climate Summit.
There is a need to work on a roadmap that Civil Climate Summit should determine with civil formations and to create a partnership atmosphere with different fractions of the society before the United Nations’ twentieth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 20) that will take place on December 2014 and a new global climate agreement that is expected to get accepted in 2015 at Paris (COP 21).
In this frame, during a short time till happening of the 2nd Civil Climate Summit, preparing reports for some issues such as the role of media in and Turkey’s position at the struggle of climate, responsibilities of civil formations and the works regarding the production of informative periodics for the process were remarked as a planned activities by the Initiative of Civil Climate Summit.
Startup Women bringing together women entrepreneurs was organized for the first time in Turkey as part of the “Design Your Future” and the "International Entrepreneurship Initiative" programmes and it was held between 2-5 May in Ankara.
Startup Women was brought into action with the partnership of UNDP, Ministry of Development, Habitat Center for Development and Governance, Vodafone Turkey Foundation and Microsoft.
Entrepreneur candidates, developers, designers and young entrepreneurs in Ankara came together with the support of Viveka, TOBB Ankara Young Entrepreneurs Council.
During the event, six teams developed their innovative ideas into prototypes with the support of ten mentors as a result of a 48 hours intensive working.
The winner is ‘Dert Sende Derman Bende’ Project
Six teams brought their technology based mobile app and web project ideas to prototype level as a result of a 48 hours non-stop working and presented them for jury’s evaluation.
Members of the jury of this special event were Sezai Hazır who is the founder of Habitat center for Development and Governance and the member of Supreme Board of TOBB Young Entrepreneurs Council, Numan Numan who is the cofounder of 212, Sertaç Çeltek who is the resource manager of Microsoft Consultancy Services, Cem Ener who is the coordinator of Boğaziçi University BUBA, and Canan Çakmakçı who is the general manager of Cyberpark.
‘Dert Sende Derman Bende’ online psychological support platform, which brings together those who need psychological support and psychological assistants by providing an additional resource through an application in which users can identify the price range, was granted the first place.
Han Project, which aims to deliver products of Anatolian artists to markets that give their real value, came in second.
Third place was shared by LightButik which offers an online solution for problem of reaching healthy food for those who work hard and Me-How which uses gamification method to regularly provide food for street animals.
Microsoft, which is one of the main partners of the event, will provide free office opportunity and consultancy support in Microsoft Innovation Center for a year for the winner “Dert Sende Derman Bende” team as an award.
Besides, top three teams were entitled to participate in “Innovation4Good” which will be held on 15 May in Ankara and in which a roundtable will be organized within the scope of the Design Your Future project.
Finally, all participants gained free access to DreamsPark software for a year.
The Regional Conference on “Scaling up Sustainable Energy Solutions – Role of the Private Sector” has been jointly organized on 13-14 May by Islamic Development Bank and the United Nations Development Programme and hosted by the Government of Turkey, Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources.
The regional conference took place in the context of the organizers’ commitments to expand engagements on energy efficiency, renewable energy, and energy access in line with UN Secretary General’s Initiative on Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL).
Sustainable Energy for All is a pioneering initiative that was launched by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in September 2011 and set three interlinked objectives for the international community to achieve by 2030: Ensuring universal access to modern energy services; doubling the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency and doubling the share of renewable energy in global energy mix.
New partnerships for promoting sustainable energy
The sessions of the conference focused on challenges and opportunities for private sector involvement in sustainable energy solution in Europe and Central Asia region. The conference concentrated on concrete public-private partnerships and specific investments and facilitation of the sharing of experiences and success stories on private sector involvement in energy programmes among a broad range of partners, international agencies and private sector actors.
The conference helped enhance networking between public institutions, international organizations, financing institutions and private sector that are active in sustainable energy across the region. During the conference, high-impact opportunities in sustainable energy solutions for business in the region were identified, beyond just showing existing initiatives.
Turkey announced its commitment to support SE4ALL
There are six countries from Europe and Commonwealth of Independent States (ECIS) region who engaged with the initiative and Turkey is also among these countries who expressed an interest in advancing Sustainable Energy for All.
At the conference, Turkey announced that it will join the UN Secretary General's SE4ALL initiative. Joining the SE4ALL initiative will help Turkey to systematically achieve its ambitious national targets to reach 20,000 MW of installed wind capacity, 3,000 MW of installed solar power capacity and to utilize its available hydro potential by 2023 as lied out in the “Electricity Energy Market and Supply Security Strategy Paper”.
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Editor: Faik Uyanık
Assistant: Nazife Ece
Intern: İlkin İsmayilov
Contributors to this issue: Başak Saral, Burcu Morel, Deniz Özbek, Deniz Tapan, Gökmen Argun, İdil Şerifoğlu, Mustafa Özer
Cover photo: The Regional Conference on “Scaling up Sustainable Energy Solutions – Role of the Private Sector”
© 2014 UNDP Turkey
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