Issue: 107
A delegation of 17 people from the Algerian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development General Directorate of Forestry visited Turkey on 19-25 October 2014.
Following the information exchange from relevant Ministries, the delegation also traveled to Şanlıurfa where they came together with the representatives of the GAP Regional Development Administration and the development agency of the region and received information on the region’s rural development efforts.
The delegation specifically obtained information on rural institutional structures, producer cooperatives and production facilities, women producers, fishery, solar powered irrigation systems and forest products and had the chance to see applied practices in the field.
Concrete outcomes such as strengthening information exchange, technology transfer and establishing long-term cooperation between the countries were gained during the technical study visit that was realized in the context of South-South Cooperation.
A training session was organized within this framework in Trabzon on October.
Filter dams is also planned to be constructed as part of “22. Regional Directorate Upper Reservoir Recovery, Reconnaissance Survey, and Finalization Project” initiated by the 22. Regional Directorate of General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works (DSI).
Filter dams which is used in many countries have not been constructed before in Turkey.
A protocol on promoting filter dams in Turkey was signed between DSI and UNDP and within the scope of this protocol, a technical briefing meeting, software promotion and technical tour studies are started.
During the training, briefings and presentations about filter dams were made by international experts, academics, and DSI experts. Finally, software prepared for filter dams were presented.
Training session ended with the field studies about the subject.
“Entrenched poverty and prejudice, and vast gulfs between wealth and destitution, can undermine the fabric of societies and lead to instability,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his message for the Day, which is commemorated annually on 17 October.
In his remarks, the Secretary-General said: “Where poverty holds sway, people are held back. Lives disfigured by poverty are cruel, mean and, often, short.”
Mr. Ban admitted that “enormous” successes had been achieved with the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of halving the proportion of people living in poverty already reached. In addition, he pointed out that at least 700 million people had been lifted out of extreme poverty between 1990 and 2010.
But, observed the Secretary-General, the damaging impact of entrenched poverty remained a constant due to the aftereffects of the 2008 financial crisis as an estimated 2.4 billion people continue to survive on less than $2 a day. Moreover, he noted that women and girls were still largely excluded from opportunities of self-development and fulfilment, often isolating them, and their families, in pockets of poverty.
“Since the beginning of the financial crisis, inequality has grown even more pronounced than it was already,” Mr. Ban declared. “Discrimination against women and girls remains a blatant injustice, robbing the entire development enterprise of one of the keys to progress.”
With the fight against poverty at the core of the UN development agenda, the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty has been observed every year since 1993, when the UN General Assembly designated this day to promote awareness of the need to eradicate poverty and destitution in all countries ahead of the MDG deadline set for 2015.
This year's theme for the Day, 'Leave no one behind: think, decide and act together against extreme poverty,' draws much-needed attention to the challenge of identifying and securing the participation of those experiencing extreme poverty and social exclusion in the “Post-2015 Development Agenda” that will replace the MDGs.
An energy audit evaluates how energy is being used and identifies the energy and cost-saving opportunities.
If energy efficiency is to be increased, the organization’s energy needs and priorities should be identified and it has to be committed by top management.
Energy audit is an assessment to identify the breakdown of energy consumption, significant energy users, level of overall energy use, energy improvement measures and potential energy saving areas and amounts.
Training on Energy Audits for ESCOs
Energy audits are essential for increasing energy efficiency, particularly in industry.
In the context of Improving Energy Efficiency in Industry Project, “Energy Audit Training Workshop” was organized on 20-22 October 2014 with the participation of 22 people from ESCOs.
In his opening speech Erdal Çalıkoğlu, Deputy General Director of General Directorate of Renewable Energy and National Project Director, said that; “While working on structuring and authorization of ESCOs, we also support the works regarding the development of technical and administrative capacity of ESCOs within the national and international projects. It is very important to have more authorized ESCOs in industry with high technical capacity.”
In the first day of the training, international consultants Andreas Karner and Peter Weldingh made presentations on increasing energy efficiency through focusing on Energy Management System (EnMS), walk-through energy audits as energy reviews, EnMS continuous improvement approach, multiple detailed energy audits.
Furthermore, the consultants informed the participants on how to prepare and conduct a walk-through energy audit that will be a base for detailed audit and which steps should be taken for this process.
During the training determination of company energy priorities, reviewing energy bills for tariffs and multiple billing, selected key walk-through energy audit subjects (steam, compressed air, pumps and fans, motor system optimization, lighting, insulation, refrigeration, heat exchangers, CHP, boilers and furnaces, process optimization, renewable energy opportunities, non-energy benefits) were also presented and walk-through energy audit checklist was assessed with the participants.
Visit to one of the industrial companies located in Ankara with its well-known energy efficiency works was an added value for the second day of the training.
Production lines, processes, and utilities were visited after getting information on energy consumption, unit cost, energy saving measures, etc. from the managers of the company.
After the site visit, the measures undertaken in industrial company were reviewed; the findings and recommendations on low or no-cost energy efficiency measures were discussed with the participants.
In the last day of the training, the energy efficiency measures recommended for the mentioned company were reviewed in order to see if they are appropriate for energy audit approach, in which areas more detailed analyses and data sets are needed.
In the closing session, feedbacks of the participants on the suitability of the questions were provided and the suggestions were discussed to improve the checklist.
Social Good Summit meet-ups organized all around the world are looking for answers to the question of “How can technology, innovation and new media be used for social good?”
Social Good Summit İstanbul meet-up, organized with the partnership of UNDP, UN Volunteers (UNV), İstanbul Commerce University and Hürriyet, was held in 23 October 2014.
In Social Good Summit İstanbul meet-up, speakers including high level professionals from Twitter and Devex shared thoughts on how technology and new media can help achieve equality for all by 2030.
Sinéad McSweeney, Twitter’s Europe, Middle East and Africa Public Policy Director, talked about examples of using 140 character messages for social good around the world.
Raj Kumar, President and Editor-in-Chief of Devex, a web portal closely followed by international development community, mentioned about the contributions of social networks to development efforts.
Ezgi Başaran from Radikal discussed the realms where online publishing and social good intersect.
Experts and communication professionals from UNDP in Turkey and UNDP’s Headquarter were also present at the summit.
Sandrine Ramboux, founder of C@rma, Suat Özçağdaş, founder of Center for Social Innovation, Assist. Prof. Engin Çağlak from İstanbul Commerce University, Tuna Özçuhadar, founder of SürdürülebilirYasam.TV and Sertaç Taşdelen, founder of iyilikpesinde.org, were also among the speakers.
Dr. Ali Ercan Özgür, founder of International Development Partners (IDEMA) pointed out the necessity to create social good in a lonelier but more social new world.
Sree Sreenivasan, the first Chief Digital Officer at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art and New Media Professor at Colombia University, joined the meet-up from New York with his video address. He gave his #sreetips for non-profits using social media.
Livestreamed
In the meet-up which is entirely livestreamed, individuals all around Turkey shared their opinions and asked questions to the speakers of the meet-up. #2030Şimdi hashtag was used for the discussions on social media during the event.
More information about the meet-up can be found on http://bit.ly/socialgoodistanbul.
Global Social Good Summit 2014 was hosted by UNDP in New York on 21-22 October, organized for the fifth time.
Social Good Summit, held during the United Nations Week, had brought a dynamic community together. The importance of innovative thinking and technology on finding solutions to the most crucial challenges we face was discussed in the summit.
Last year Social Good Summit was held for the first time in Turkey. During the meet-up in İstanbul, it was emphasized that we should change the point of view in solving our greatest challenges with innovative social good projects for the future we want in 2030.
Why #2030Now?
#2030Now builds on the UN-led process to craft a post-2015 development agenda that will follow and accelerate progress on the Millennium Development Goals that cover the period from 2000 to 2015.
Starting from 1 January 2016, we enter a new 15 year period with a new global development agenda.
Hence, the hashtag for this event #2030Now is extremely important. We would like to discuss the post-2015 global development priorities and use every innovative and technological tool which is available to us to take us to a better world by 2030.
Please click here for more information on Social Good Summit İstanbul meet-up.
Click here for more information on Global Social Good Summit.
The 2014 Aid Transparency Index recognized UNDP for its “commendable performance” in publishing information beyond international standards this year, placing it first overall out of 68 major agencies evaluated worldwide.
“UNDP should be congratulated for making significant improvements to the quality of its publication,” said Publish What You Fund, a non-profit organization that advocates and measures transparency.
The index is based on the International Aid Transparency Initiative standard, which sets a common global benchmark for more timely, accurate and comprehensive aid information. Financial flows, budgets, results, and project location, timelines, and documents are published into an online database that tracks how aid is spent. This not only increases the accountability of donor countries, but also allows developing countries to better align donor assistance with their national priorities and budgets, ultimately maximizing aid effectiveness.
More than 280 countries, UN agencies, multilateral banks and NGOs use the IATI standard, and more than 20 recipient countries have endorsed the initiative.
As an original IATI signatory, UNDP began publishing to global standards in 2011. Since then, it has consistently met and even surpassed international transparency standards, operating an innovative portal (open.undp.org) that details more than 10,000 of its development projects across 177 countries and territories, and publishes over US$5.8 billion in project data.
“Transparency is core to our mission,” said Helen Clark, UNDP Administrator. “We are gratified to be recognized for our efforts to operate in an open, transparent manner. UNDP is committed to working in the open to spark innovation, to ensure the best possible use of funds entrusted to it and to accelerate the development of a sustainable future for all.”
This continued commitment to transparency was recognized in the appointment of UNDP to head the IATI Secretariat last year. Leading a consortium of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), the governments of Ghana and Sweden, and UK-based NGO Development Initiatives, UNDP is using its considerable reach across 177 countries and territories to continue to improve the transparency of international development cooperation.
“This role puts UNDP at the forefront of global efforts to increase transparency in development cooperation, including through efforts to develop further the IATI common standard for publishing information about aid spending,” Helen Clark said.
UNDP also discloses its internal audit reports, and last year moved from annual budget reporting to publishing monthly reports, which detail activities and result frameworks using sub-national geographical data.
GAP GREEN Magazine is prepared within the context of Utilization of Renewable Energy Resources and Increasing Energy Efficiency in the Southeast Anatolia Region Project which is implemented by the Southeast Anatolia Regional Development Administration of Turkish Ministry of Development (GAP RDA), with the technical support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Representatives from several governmental institutions, NGOs, media and academia participated to the meeting, in which the role of media in delivering the messages to and raising awareness of public on the topics of environment, renewable energy, energy efficiency, sustainable development, and green growth were discussed.
GAP GREEN Magazine was also promoted as a tool in this context.
Sadrettin Karahocagil, Head of Southeast Anatolia Project Regional Development Administration; Prof Dr. Bülent Yeşilata, editor in chief of GAP GREEN magazine; Ilgaz Gürsoy, NTV correspondent and presenter of the programme Yeşil Ekran; Cihan Yavuz, Communication Expert of 451 Derece Consultancy were participated to the meeting as keynote speakers.
They shared their experiences on the importance of role of media and communication activities in raising public awareness and changing public perception on environment, renewable energy, and energy efficiency issues.
GAP GREEN Magazine will be published quarterly and will be the voice of Southeast Anatolia Region on sustainable development and green growth.
The first issue focuses on driving development sectors of the region such as renewable energy, organic agriculture, eco-tourism that are came up with Competitiveness Agenda of the region.
The first issue starts with the introduction of Cevdet Yılmaz, the Minister of Development and there are interviews with GAP RDA Sadrettin Karahocagil and UN Turkey Resident Coordinator UNDP Turkey Resident Representative Kamal Malhotra.
There are also news from the region that are related to dissemination and awareness raising activities and demonstration projects.
In addition to that there is detailed information on two large scale projects “Utilization of Renewable Energy Resources and Increasing Energy Efficiency in the Southeast Anatolia Region” and “Organic Agriculture Cluster”.
Moreover; in this first issue of the magazine there are articles on energy efficiency in hospitals, energy efficiency in public buildings, carbon-neutral hotels, the importance of organic cotton production, use of information technologies in agriculture, smart cities. Last, but not least the articles on experiences on agriculture and rural development projects and Karacadağ Development Agency’s financial support program on renewable energy will be a guide many people and institution.
“Household Appliances and Climate Change” project implemented by Boğaziçi University in cooperation with ‘Yeşil Düşünce’ Association within the framework of the grant programme for universities of Market Transformation of Energy Efficient Appliances in Turkey Project (EVÜdP) ended with ‘Climate Change and Energy Efficiency’ Conference in 24-25 October 2014.
EVÜdP Grant Programme supported projects which aim to contribute to academic studies on energy efficiency all around Turkey, to improve capacity building, to open a course on energy efficiency or adding the theme of energy efficiency of household appliances to existing curriculums.
Projects supported with EVUDP Grant Programme had started on 31 January 2014.
Studies on energy efficiency and challenges faced were discussed during the first part of the conference, where Rıfat Öztaşkın from Turkey White Appliances Industrialists Association, Mehmet Tüfekçi from Arçellik, and Bahriye Bayraklı from Profilo BSH were speakers.
Energy efficiency, future of research and development studies, recycling processes of electrical household appliances, supervision and control of data on energy labels and legal regulations in the context of consumer rights were among topics discussed.
Bilal Düzgün, Junior Expert in General Directorate for Renewable Energy of Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, gave information about legal regulations on energy efficiency and studies carried out by the Ministry, in the second part of the conference.
Düzgün pointed out that they work on energy efficiency in a broader sense, meaning not only for electrical household appliances but also for housing, industry and energy efficiency in public areas. He further added that studies on the regulation prepared in 2011 continues in order to achieve goals identified in “Energy Efficiency Strategy Document 2012-2023”.
Düzgün also emphasized that the Ministry prioritized the topic as one of the primary working areas.
First day’s last speaker Prof. Dr. Murat Türkeş made a detailed presentation at the regional level in which he briefly touched upon current processes of framework conventions on climate change and showed data on climate change in Turkey.
After the presentation, he answered questions about international treaties on climate change and Turkey’s obligations.
“Studies about raising awareness on energy efficiency and climate change” workshop held on the second day of the conference.
In order to enable an interactive discussion, World Cafe method was implemented during the workshop.
Participants gathered in three different groups randomly where topics were previously determined as private sector, NGOs, and public institutions.
Open discussions in three sections; current situation, challenges and solutions on energy efficiency were made in the workshop.
Once a section came to an end participants moved to other groups and a presentation was made at the end with the contribution of all participants sharing their opinions and suggestions.
Workshop report including various innovative solution ideas will be shared on www.enerjiveiklim.org.
Summaries of presentations made in the conference will put on conference brochure and videos of presentations will be available on project website.
www.enerjiveiklim.org
EVÜdP has been implemented by the General Directorate for Renewable Energy (GDRE) of the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with the financial assistance of the Global Environment Facility (GEF). Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology (MoSIT), White Goods Manufacturers’ Association of Turkey (TÜRKBESD), and Arçelik A.Ş are among the project partners of EVUdP.
Commissioned by the UN Development Group, UNIDO and the UN Global Compact are co-leading efforts globally in support of the Secretary-General’s request for an open process of consultations on “Engaging with the Private Sector”, based on their strength to advance engagement with the private sector.
The thematic national consultations aim to facilitate a dialogue that explores how businesses can best contribute to global sustainability and reflects the global and inclusive scope of the future sustainable development goals and Post-2015 Development Agenda.
In Turkey, the first round of development talks on the Post-2015 Development Agenda (2013) focused on identification of key development challenges and issue areas to be incorporated in the development framework.
The second round of consultations addresses the respective “how to”/implementation mechanisms regarding the Post 2015 Development Agenda.
Among the five focus areas identified by the co-leads, Turkey selected the following topics: Enhancing Partnerships and Engaging SMEs for which good governance, gender, inequalities, youth and education were identified as crosscutting issues.
Subsequently, a national Task Force was formed represented by UNIDO, Global Compact Türkiye, UNDP, UNFPA, FAO, UNV, ILO and IOM under the coordination of the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office.
Between May-September 2014, the Task Force organized various stakeholder meetings with NGO, Academia, Banking and Finance sector and Public sector representatives.
The main multi-stakeholder National Consultation took place in Istanbul on 19 September 2014. More than 60 representatives from private sector, civil society, academia and government attended the consultation.
The Ankara Consultation followed this on 22 October 2014. The meeting was attended by more than 100 representatives mainly from public sector representing over 20 ministries.
Key messages that emerged from the inclusive dialogue and results of the survey on Post-2015 Development Agenda on Private Sector Engagement Turkey consultation can be summarized as follows;
Furthermore, the participants stressed the need to define concrete, implementable, rational and adequate “Sustainable Development Goals” (SDGs) and “Key Performance Indicators” (KPIs). It was also recommended to have a maximum 10 goals and a manageable number of indicators.
The Consolidated Turkey Meeting Report is currently being drafted and is expected to be launched in December 2014.
The Global Consolidated Report on 2014 Consultations can be found here.
For more information on the inclusive dialogue series on private sector engagement for Post-2015 Development Agenda implementation, please visit here.
Please visit Global Compact Türkiye website for the Survey (in Turkish).
The awards were presented in a ceremony held in 10 October 2014 in France.
‘Future is in Tourism - Sustainable Tourism Support Fund’ project is implemented with the partnership of Anadolu Efes, Ministry of Culture and Tourism and UNDP.
‘Future is in Tourism Sustainable Tourism Support Fund’ which aims to promote local economy and development through sustainable tourism, has made grant calls two times until now.
‘Future is in Tourism’ has supported three projects so far, and gave training support to more than 50 local tourism actors and non-governmental organizations.
To see all vacancies, click here.
Editor: Faik Uyanık
Assistant: Nazife Ece
Intern: Damla Deniz Haykır
Contributors to this issue: Birce Albayrak Coşkun, Ceyda Alpay, Deniz Tapan, Gökçe Yörükoğlu
© 2014 UNDP Turkey
All rights of New Horizons are reserved to UNDP Turkey. Any use of information should be accompanied by an acknowledgment of New Horizons as the source citing the URL of the article.