Issue: 138
Turkey – Istanbul – The “16th Golden Compass Turkish Public Relations Prizes” were awarded to winners by the Turkish Public Relations Society (TUHID), marking its 45th year in the communications sector. In the awards ceremony held at Grand Pera Emek Theater in the evening of 25 May 2017 Thursday, the “TUHID-UNDP Special Prize” presented jointly by TUHID and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) was awarded to Microsoft Turkey’s “Women Leaders in Technology”. The “Women Leaders in Technology” contest organized jointly by Microsoft Turkey, KAGIDER and Aydın Doğan Foundation aims to identify and support the women who made success stories in technology in Turkey.
The awards ceremony hosted by TUHID at Grand Pera Emek Theater in the evening of 25 May 2017 Thursday was honoured by Prof. Dr. Ms. Ayşe Şule Kut, Rector of Okan University and the Chair of 16th Golden Compass Jury; Ms. Irena Vojáčková-Sollorano, UN Turkey Resident Coordinator and UNDP Turkey Resident Representative; Ms. Oya Eczacıbaşı, Chair of Istanbul Modern Executive Board; Ms. Ümit Boyner, Chair of Boyner Group Executive Board; and many leading personalities of business, media and public relations.
Delivering the opening remarks for the 16th Golden Compass Awards Ceremony, Ms. Gonca Karakaş, Chair of TUHID Executive Board, stated that 242 projects applied for Golden Compass Turkish Public Relations Prizes in 17 main categories and 17 subcategories, with 170 projects from institutions and 72 Young Communicators projects. Ms. Karakaş pointed that all these invaluable projects were rigorously examined, and 41 identified for award. Referring to the importance of communications in the future world, Ms. Karakaş said “We have chosen this year’s theme as ‘Communication of Goodness, Goodness of Communication’. Our purpose is to consider the concept of goodness in a wide range from individual to institutional.” Emphasizing further that the world of communications has been undergoing a drastic change, Ms. Karakaş added that “We as TUHID not only want to be part of this change, but also try to lead the change. We know we have a lot more to do.”
Ms. Irena Vojáčková-Sollorano, UN Turkey Resident Coordinator and UNDP Turkey Resident Representative,
Goal is to bring out success stories that will inspire women entrepreneurs
The “Women Leaders in Technology” contest, which was awarded the “UNDP Special Prize” jointly presented by TUHID and UNDP, will be held for the second time this year. The contest includes prizes in the following categories: Future Technology Star Candidate, Future Technology Star, Woman Leader Making Difference in Information Technologies, Woman Entrepreneur of the Year, Woman Software Developer of the Year, Woman CIO of the Year, Woman Overcoming Handicaps, Woman Scientist of the Year and Woman Leader Making Difference in Cloud Technologies. The prizes will be awarded to winners in a ceremony to be held Microsoft Turkey Office on 12 June.
Why forest management is important
Forest lands are beneficial to the environment, economy and society all at the same time and should be considered a treasure for both the country and the world. They benefit multiple places concurrently, and that is the common good that must be born in mind when it comes to forest management.
Therefore, the biodiversity and climate response are integratively addressed in the Mediterranean region. Forest are important ecosystems that enable such integrated management. In order to manage forest ecosystems integratively, we need to be aware of their capacity to retain carbon, biodiversity in the region, and multiple benefits derived from forests.
The basic purpose of the project by UNDP and OGM in partnership is to contribute to Turkey’s climate response by enhancing forest management. However, forest means more than that. The work under the integrated forest management directly affects numerous areas: climate response, direct contribution to regional economy, employment, tourism opportunities, increased water quality, biodiversity and pest control to name a few. Shortly, forest means everything. Works preserving forest and developing forestry directly affect many things ranging from economy to biodiversity.
What UNDP and OGM do on the issue
The first question we must ask ourselves is how we should manage forests so that they retain more carbon. A number of plans are in the making to increase the capacity to retain carbon. Focusing on current carbon-oriented efforts, methods are developed to increase such capacity. Forests serve not only climate response, but also offer multiple benefits.
Forest lands are the ecosystems with most significant carbon retention capacity for Turkey’s climate response. The “Integrated Forest Management Project” supported by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and implemented jointly by the General Directorate of Forestry and UNDP engages in activities to strengthen Turkey’s forests for climate response. A Monitoring, Reporting, Verification (MRV) system has been developed to measure, monitor, report and verify the quantity of carbon retained by the forest ecosystem. Due to its multiple benefits as mentioned above, the MRV system developed nationally has been developed considering not only climate response, but also the Sustainable Development Goals.
Why Mediterranean forests
The Mediterranean region is most vulnerable to adverse effects of climate change in Turkey. The forests in the region hold also significant potential to reverse such adverse effects. Therefore, the newly tried systems are first implemented in this area.
New approach, new method
OGM and UNDP met at Köyceğiz to try a new system, not ever used before, to more comprehensively make carbon measurements. OGM’s forestry engineers, who received training of trainers on this new, comprehensive method of carbon measurement, had an opportunity to field test their newly acquired skills. The updated measurement systems will enable OGM to make more integrated plans of forest management. Following the training and field trials, it was decided to pilot this new method at Alara Forest Administration Section of Antalya. Should the new measurement techniques prove feasible, the intention is to roll them out all over Turkey. OGM will have more detailed and better standardized data on the quantity of carbon retained by forests in Turkey. It will also employ such information to address the question of how we better manage forests for the common good.
Certification ceremony was held with the participation of Mr. Fatih Hasdemir, Deputy Undersecretary of Ministry of Development, Mr. Güngör Azim Tuna, Governor of Şanlıurfa, Mr. Abdülkadir Açar, General Secretary of Şanlıurfa Metropolitan Municipality, Mr. Sadrettin Karahocagil, President of GAP RDA, Prof. Ramazan Taşaltın, Rector of Harran University, Ms Irena Vojackova Sollorano, the United Nations Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Turkey and Mr. Koichiro Nakamura, Minister at Embassy of Japan in Ankara. Within the project, 822 Syrians and 228 Turkish citizens have completed vocational trainings on 37 different occupations such as accounting/data processing, electrical plumbing, installing solar energy systems, food product processing, fruit and vegetable growing. Moreover, coupled with vocational training courses, 750 Syrians completed basic life trainings and 750 Syrians attended in Turkish language courses.
In her speech at the ceremony, Ms Irena Vojackova Sollorano, said:
“Within our project, Syrians are equipped with not only technical but also practical and basic life skills as well as an understanding of Turkish society with language courses. Yet vocational and language trainings provided by this project strengthen social cohesion among Syrians and host communities. UNDP will continue to work closely with the government, other UN agencies, local partners and humanitarian partners to deliver on building resilience for the people and communities most affected by the Syria crisis. We believe that social cohesion is never finished as well as solidarity with Turkey”.
75 courses for overall 1,375 Syrian and 375 Turkish citizens
To address better the needs of private sector, the identification of the vocational trainings was completed based on the outcomes of the stakeholders workshop organized in collaboration with HARÜSEM, TÖMER-Turkish Training Center, ŞESOB and GAPTAEM in 2016. Moreover, the employment opportunities and areas of vocational trainings were assessed based on the desk-review of available labour market information, regional development plans and UNDP’s labour absorption report as well.
The project is composed of two components that aim to contribute to strengthening the social stability in Southeast Anatolia region.
The “Employability and Livelihoods” component aims at contributing to the employability of different segments of Syrian population and host communities through provision of vocational training and competency development programmes that the local agricultural sector, manufacturing sector and the services sector are in need. Moreover, it addresses improving local value chains and local production ecosystems and infrastructures for diversified and enhanced livelihood opportunities
These vocational training and competency development activities were developed for the first time in Şanlıurfa with a multi-stakeholder approach on sectors of agriculture, industry and services and are complemented with Turkish language courses life skills trainings.
As a part of the project, the trainings will continue throughout the year. In total, 1,375 Syrian and 375 Turkish citizens will attend 75 vocational training courses on industry, services and agriculture. The project will also support the trainees in job seeking, advisory, matching and placement services in collaboration with specialized local and national institutions such as Turkish Employment Agency (İŞKUR) in line with national regulations.
Background:
Strengthening Social Stability in Southeast Anatolia Project”, funded by the Government of Japan, is implemented by UNDP and GAP Regional Development Administration, in Gaziantep, Şanlıurfa, Kilis and Hatay provinces. The overall project has the budget of $ 10,1 million USD in total and is expected to end up in March 2018. The other component of the project aims social infrastructure support to local authorities/municipalities, as well as to fill the gap, which is identified/communicated, in terms of strengthening the municipal capacities for public services and creating public areas/social zones.
For more information about the UNDP’s work, please visit: http://www.tr.undp.org/content/turkey/en/home/ourwork/syria-efforts.html
For media queries, please contact:
Kıvanç Özvardar, +90 312 456 11 37, UNDP Communications Assistant, Ankara
It is aimed, through the Biological Control Laboratory, to strengthen the activities undertaken at Antalya International Forestry Training Centre and build capacity against forest pests through biological control. The laboratory will serve three key functions, namely breeding, diagnosis and training.
The breeding of predator insects is one activity to be undertaken in such centres. Insect breeding rooms with special air-conditioning and laboratory units were created to breed Calosoma sycophanta to control pine processionary moth (Thaumetopoea wilkinsoni) which is a leading pest, and Thanasimus formicarius species to control bark beetles. It is contemplated for the future to breed other alternatives of natural anti-pest species that may be used in biological control.
In addition, imaging and recording devices such as stereo-zoom microscopes were procured for use in the diagnostics of both pest insects and natural anti-pest species; and special units were established for such works.
This laboratory established at Antalya International Forestry Training Centre will significantly augment the capacity to breed insects for biological control of forest pests. The Centre will also engage in training activities at national and international level including particularly diagnostic activities.
UNDP Turkey participated in the" Seal of Gender Equality "program in September 2015. In the process beginning with this program, UNDP Turkey is committed to ensure that gender equality is observed and dealt with in all the work carried out in the field of development as well as internal institutional processes. CO have taken significant steps to internalize the gender equality as an indispensible part of our everyday work and to reflect it in various fields like organizational structure, management system, program development and recruitment as well as project design and implementation. Starting as an objective, the program has transformed into a tool that strengthens the steps taken to achieve the ultimate goal of building a human rights approach based on gender equality. A total of 18 months of efforts by the UNDP Turkey Team have been awarded with the Silver certificate by the "Gender Equality Seal" certification program.
However, the biggest award is the strong gender equality perspective that our team has developed. The certification program mediates the clarification of the gender equality target for the country team. Now we know that, as development experts we are not the technicians who are to integrate gender equality into every implementation as a corporate requirement. We can clearly identify why we need to do so, in other words why we need to have gender mainstreaming in the center of the sustainable development. In the last abstraction level, the seal process allowed us to rebuild the connection and strengthened the ties between the our professional and personal lives.