Issue: 78
This disparity — the so-called “digital divide” — is, in large part, a reflection of deeper social and economic inequalities both between and within countries.
Those who cannot access the ICT services become increasingly marginalized within the modern world.
Young people today are growing up with unprecedented ideals and ambitions, driven by new technological affluence and widely bourgeoning ICT infrastructure.
We have, as a matter of utmost obligation, to create opportunities for them to give full expression to their talent and realize the future they yearn for.
While aiming at facilitating access to ICTs, we need to focus on developing competencies, skills and human capacities to respond to rapid technological progress.
This development challenge is not confined to the developing countries only.
The industrial world is also struggling with a yawning gap between groups at different educational and income levels, to the extent of possible exclusion of the entire sectors of society form access to ICT.
This situation is further aggravated by the dramatic increase in the Internet access and the consequent widening digital disparity between the richest and the poorest segments.
Three ways of impact
The privileged groups tend to acquire and access technology more easily and achieve exponential productivity gains compared to the marginalized who fail to capture share of the rapidly growing e-markets, economic innovation and concomitant impetus of growth.
ICT indeed affects Human Development in three ways:
a. enhance human capabilities, human creativity and knowledge;
b. increase productivity which generates economic growth; and
c. create large employment possibilities, requiring small amounts of investment.
Turkey has a relatively young population compared to EU countries.
Young people aged between 15-24 years number 12 million + and constitute 16.8% of the total population. Compared to the adults 67.7% of the young use computers while 65.8% use internet.
These young men and women represent its next generation.
The country has a 15-year window of demographic opportunity to prepare today’s youth for the challenges of 2023 and beyond. By then, about 70% of Turkey’s population will be of working age.
This so-called demographic transition, when the population growth rate is declining while the working age population keeps rising is called ‘the demographic window of opportunity’. This episode is considered as one-off ‘opportunity’ in a country’s history.
Definition of success today
Young people of today will also form the majority of decision-makers and implementers by the year 2023. Turkey needs therefore to begin now to invest much more intensively in its young people to equip them with advanced skills required by the knowledge economy.
Quality education -- equipping people with skills such as an adequate cognitive capacity, critical and creative thinking, computer literacy -- is essential in a fast changing world.
It is argued that over the next 20 years, half the world’s professions, as they are currently practiced today, may disappear, with environment, advanced production methods, human resources management, knowledge management and IT becoming key growth areas.
Success in a globalizing world will primarily depend upon human creativity, human knowledge, human productivity, human innovation; human skills supported by the new information and communication technologies.
* Shahid Najam, UNDP Resident Representative in Turkey and UN Resident Coordinator in Turkey
They sought to balance the imperatives of robust economic growth and the needs of a growing population against the ecological necessity to conserve our planet’s most precious resources — land, air and water. And they agreed that the only way to do this was to break with the old economic model and invent a new one. They called it sustainable development.
Two decades later, we are back to the future. The challenges facing humanity today are much the same as then, only larger. Slowly, we have come to realize that we have entered a new era. Some even call it a new geological epoch, where human activity is fundamentally altering the Earth’s dynamics.
Global economic growth per capita has combined with a world population (passing 7 billion last year) to put unprecedented stress on fragile ecosystems. We recognize that we cannot continue to burn and consume our way to prosperity. Yet we have not embraced the obvious solution — the only possible solution, now as it was 20 years ago: sustainable development.
Fortunately, we have a second chance to act. In less than a month, world leaders will gather again in Rio — this time for the U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development, or Rio+20. And once again, Rio offers a generational opportunity to hit the reset button: to set a new course toward a future that balances the economic, social and environmental dimensions of prosperity and human well-being.
More than 130 heads of state and government will be there, joined by an estimated 50,000 business leaders, mayors, activists and investors — a global coalition for change. But success is not guaranteed. To secure our world for future generations — and these are indeed the stakes — we need the partnership and full engagement of global leaders, from rich nations and poor, small countries and large. Their overarching challenge: to galvanize global support for a transformative agenda for change — to set in motion a conceptual revolution in how we think about creating dynamic yet sustainable growth for the 21st century and beyond.
This agenda is for national leaders to decide, in line with the aspirations of their people. If I were to offer advice as U.N. secretary general, it would be to focus on three “clusters” of outcomes that will mark Rio+20 as the watershed that it should be.
First, Rio+20 should inspire new thinking — and action. Clearly, the old economic model is breaking down. In too many places, growth has stalled. Jobs are lagging. Gaps are growing between rich and poor, and we see alarming scarcities of food, fuel and the natural resources on which civilization depends.
At Rio, negotiators will seek to build on the success of the Millennium Development Goals, which have helped lift millions out of poverty. A new emphasis on sustainability can offer what economists call a “triple bottom line” — job-rich economic growth coupled with environmental protection and social inclusion.
Second, Rio+20 should be about people — a people’s summit that offers concrete hope for real improvements in daily lives. Options before the negotiators include declaring a “zero hunger” future — zero stunting of children for lack of adequate nutrition, zero waste of food and agricultural inputs in societies where people do not get enough to eat.
Rio+20 should also give voice to those we hear from least often: women and young people. Women hold up half the sky; they deserve equal standing in society. We should empower them, as engines of economic dynamism and social development. And young people — the very face of our future: are we creating opportunities for them, nearly 80 million of whom will be entering the workforce every year?
Third, Rio+20 should issue a clarion call to action: waste not. Mother Earth has been kind to us. Let humanity reciprocate by respecting her natural boundaries. At Rio, governments should call for smarter use of resources. Our oceans must be protected. So must our water, air and forests. Our cities must be made more liveable — places we inhabit in greater harmony with nature.
At Rio+20, I will call on governments, business and other coalitions to advance on my own Sustainable Energy for All initiative. The goal: universal access to sustainable energy, a doubling of energy efficiency and a doubling of the use of renewable sources of energy by 2030.
Because so many of today’s challenges are global, they demand a global response — collective power exercised in powerful partnership. Now is not the moment for narrow squabbling. This is a moment for world leaders and their people to unite in common purpose around a shared vision of our common future — the future we want.
* This article has been published on NYT on May 23, 2012.
The Conference will focus on two themes which are green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication; and the institutional framework for sustainable development.
During the preparations for Rio+20 seven areas which need priority attention in order to ensure sustainable development were came to the front which are decent jobs, energy, sustainable cities, food security and sustainable agriculture, water, oceans and disaster readiness were.
It is expected to these areas will be elaborated during the discussions within the frame of the Conference themes. In parallel with and between the official events, there will be numerous side events, exhibitions, presentations, fairs and announcements by a wide range of partners.
‘Turkey claims the future’
Twenty years after the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, Rio+20 mobilized the interest of governments and interventions to sustainable development in national and international levels.
Turkey initiated the national preparations to Rio+20 through “Assistance to Turkey for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development 2012 (Rio+20) Preparations” project which is executed by the Ministry of Development and facilitated by UNDP.
Turkey also contributes and supports international processes and events towards Rio+20 such as the Secretary General’s High Level on Global Sustainability and the Global Human Development Forum.
Within its preparatory activities, participatory processes were conducted at national and local level to take stock of developments in Turkey on sustainable development particularly in the last decade.
Green growth as a tool for achieving sustainable development under emerging threats to human development such as climate change, economic crises etc. was intensely elaborated through technical studies and macro-economic models apart from participatory dialogue meetings.
Green growth dialogues eased to build up Turkey’s vision and approach to green growth during forthcoming years. The national vision definition on green growth will be made public during Rio+20 Conference.
Moreover, Turkey identified national green growth best practices implemented in last decade not only to reveal them as models for the country but also as for the international community to be shared during Rio+20.
Since sustainable development and green growth is related to and responsibility of all main stakeholders, private sector, government agencies, local authorities, civil society organizations and academia are invited to submit their implementations for the identification process. Among 181 applications, 24 implementations were selected in which 10 of them were from private sector, 6 from government and local authorities, 5 from non-governmental organizations and 3 from academia.
Lessons learned and outputs of this process will be shared with the international community in Rio+20 by side events, and other communication opportunities.
World renowned Spanish actor and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Goodwill Ambassador Antonio Banderas today launched a public service announcement aiming at inviting people to join the global conversation alongside the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development “Rio+20”.
“Sustainable development is about people. It is about creating jobs and improving lives while respecting the environment. Eradicating poverty, preventing conflicts, empowering women and girls, and building responsible governing institutions are critical components,” says Banderas to illustrate the importance of an event which represents a historic opportunity to define pathways to a safer, more equitable, cleaner, greener and more prosperous world for all.
The 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development, or “Rio+20” is a forum on how to make sustainable development a reality for seven billion people today, and to define the future we want for nine billion by 2050.
“The development challenges we are facing now require us to steep the agenda up to a whole new level,” said UNDP Administrator Helen Clark. “That is what the leaders need to focus on. How are we really going to bring together the economic, the social and the environmental strengths of development to produce something truly sustainable that will improve the life chances and possibilities for the people living in the poorest parts of the world?”
More than 120 heads of state and government confirmed participation at the Rio+20 meeting. The Conference will result in a negotiated political document.
“It is a unique opportunity to define the future we want,” Banderas added.
Antonio Banderas works with UNDP to spur action at all levels of society in pursuit of the MDGs with a particular focus on Africa and Latin America. He has been a UNDP Goodwill Ambassador since March 2010. Banderas was born in Málaga, Spain, and is a much acclaimed actor, writer, singer and producer.
Banderas is one of eight UNDP Goodwill Ambassadors: footballers Marta, Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane, Didier Drogba and Iker Casillas; tennis player Maria Sharapova; Japanese actress Misako Konno; and HRH Haakon Crown Prince of Norway.
According to the survey the most developed provinces are Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Kocaeli and Antalya, whereas Mus, Hakkari, Agri, Sirnak and Siirt are the least developed ones.
Socio-Economic Development Ranking Survey of Provinces and Regions (SEGE) was last published in 2003.
Within the scope of SEGE-2011, the development levels of provinces were measured through variables chosen from different categories.
In SEGE-2003 58 variables in 10 sub categories were used.
In SEGE-2011, 61 variables, mostly from the years 2009 and 2010, in 8 subcategories were used. These variables touch upon demographics, education, health, employment, competitive and innovative capacity, financial capacity, accessibility and quality of life.
SEGE-2011 also constitutes a basis for the new incentive system announced by the government.
Since different sets of variables are used for SEGE-2003 and SEGE-2011, there are not “comparable.”
Variables, which relate to areas that have gained importance in the recent period, such as number of ADSL subscriptions per household, internet banking, trademark and patent rates were included in this year’s survey, while certain variables used before were excluded from it.
Details of the survey will be shared with the public opinion upon its clearance for publication.
Provided that data production and supply is ensured, SEGE surveys can be repeated annually or every two years.
UNDP’s 2011 Human Development Report was first introduced in Istanbul Bilgi University on November 2, 2011, the same day as the rest of the world.
UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative Shahid Najam, Mehment Altan from Istanbul University and Asaf Savaş Akat from Istanbul Bilgi University participated in the introductory meeting in Istanbul Bilgi University moderated by Özlem Gürses.
After the meeting in Istanbul, UNDP Resident Representative for Turkey, Shahid Najam, introduced the 2011 Human Development Report, entitled “Sustainability and Equity: A Better Future for All,” in Mersin on February 9, and in Izmir University of Economics on March 1st.
Following the introduction and presentation in Mersin, Assoc. Prof. Süleyman Değirmen shared his opinions and comments on the content and method of the report. The introductory meeting was moderated by Assoc. Prof. Serdar Ulaş Bayraktar from Mersin University.
In Izmir, Prof. Dr. Turhan Subaşat was one of the discussants at the meeting which was moderated by Prof. Dr. Oğuz Esen from Izmir University of Economics.
The tour proceeded with visits to Çanakkale and Erzurum.
Çanakkale and Erzurum following Mersin and İzmir
At the meeting in Çanakkale on March 16, Asst. Prof. Yavuz Yıldırım and Asst. Prof. Sabri Sami Tan shared their opinions and comments on the content and method of the report.
The introductory meeting was moderated by Prof. Dr. İbrahim Kaya from Çanakkale 18 Mart University.
In Erzurum, Prof. Dr. Fahri Yavuz and Prof. Dr. Faris Karahan shared their opinions and comments on the content and method of the report, following the presentation by UNDP representative, Shahid Najam.
The meeting in Erzurum, held on May 24, was moderated by Prof. Dr. Erol Çakmak from Atatürk University.
According to the 2011 Human Development Index (HDI), Turkey ranks 92nd among 187 countries with a value of 0.699, while it ranks 77th among 146 countries with a value of 0.443 according to the Gender Inequality Index. The report includes other indices such as the Inequality-adjusted HDI and the Multidimensional Poverty Index.
For more information on the report: http://www.undp.org.tr/Gozlem2.aspx?WebSayfaNo=3473
Radio Workshop Responsible and Instructor Halil R. Güven, Radio Coordination Expert Önder Çağlar, staff of Radio Ilef and UNDP Turkey, as well as students participated at the celebration.
Radio Ilef hosted the recordings of many episodes of New Horizons Podcast, which entered summer break following the broadcast of its 50th episode in the last week of May.
The episodes recorded in Istanbul were hosted by Açık Radyo.
Each New Horizons Podcast episode features selected stories on the activities of the UNDP which strives for a more productive, greener, healthier and more aware future.
The episodes, broadcasted in Turkish, are available in Podcast format on iTunes Store.
You can listen to New Horizons Podcast, brought to you by UNDP Turkey Communications Office, on Açık Radyo as well as on university radios on its broadcasting network.
Some radio stations will rebroadcast certain episodes throughout the summer. UNDP Turkey Communications Office plans to resume production in fall this year.
University radios broadcasting New Horizons Podcast
For more information and episode archive: http://www.bit.ly/nhorizons
For The Tortum Lake and the district of Uzundere will host Turkey Championship for the first time.
The rafting routes and the racecourse works of Tortum River are completed within the scope of Tourism Development in the Eastern Anatolia Project (TDEAP).
With the completion of the routes it will be possible for the two rafting agencies entered into service this year; to facilitate activities at the river for tourism oriented rafting.
Besides, six teams consisted of local young will participate to the championship. The members of the teams were supported by various awareness raising activities and trainings under the scope of TDEAP.
The trainings for especially young women and men living in the neighboring districts were held for 5 years since the beginning of the project. It was aimed to create new job opportunities in the region that it is expected that the sportswomen/men of the teams will serve as professional organizers, guides and lifeguards in the tourism oriented rafting activities.
The activities of Tourism Development in the Eastern Anatolia Project (TDEAP) aims to enable the local community to generate an income through the national and international activities organized in the region, to raise awareness for outdoor activities and to spread a wide variety of alternative tourism.
What is TDEAP Project?
TDEAP jointly executed by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Ministry of Culture and Tourism and EFES Company since April 2007, aims to contribute to the living standard of local people by improving tourism activities in the Çoruh Valley.
For more information:
www.datur.com
www.coruhvadisi.com
www.facebook.com/coruhvadisi
For The approval has been issued with the law numbered 6294. President Abdullah Gül also approved the law.
The law has come into force on 27 April 2012, same with the publication date in the Official Gazette.
Here is the link to the official gazette:
http://www.resmigazete.gov.tr/eskiler/2012/04/20120427-1.htm
The Partnership Framework Agreement between the Government of Turkey and UNDP is also gazetted:
http://www.resmigazete.gov.tr/eskiler/2012/05/20120510-2.htm.
For the last five years, Dr.Marinescu has served as the UNDP Iraq Senior Economist and Programme Director for the multi-agency Private Sector Development Programme, assisting the Government of Iraq and its social partners to embark on structural reforms for market building and social inclusion in a complex post conflict environment.
Prior to her employment with UNDP, Simona served as USAID Economic Governance Sector Lead for Social Safety Net and Pension Reforms in Iraq, and before that, as World Bank Social Protection Expert in the Human Development Unit for MENA Region working in several countries, including Morocco, Syria and Iraq.
Simona Marinescu also served as Minister Secretary of State for Labor and Social Protection in Romania during a time of major socio-economic transformations that have preceded the country’s integration in the European Union.
In December 2000, she was elected Senator and President of the Labor and Social Affairs Committee serving for a full term in the Romanian Senate.
Dr. Marinescu holds an MBA in International Relations and a PhD in Economics from the Academy of Economic Studies ASE Bucharest.
She holds a Diploma in Leadership from Harvard University and a Certificate in “Modern Labor Administration for Development” from the Mediterranean Institute of Management of Cyprus.
She was the editor in chief of two national newspapers specialized in labor market and social affairs.
Technology and Entrepreneurship Program is implemented in partnership with Turkey’s Ministry of Development, the United Nations Development Program, Intel and Habitat Center for Development and Governance.
Technology and Entrepreneurship Program shows young people how to utilize technology to improve a commercial idea by introducing the basic concepts and processes of entrepreneurship.
Young people learns to do research for the create commercial idea as using the internet tools and office applications, to formulate an idea, to present and perform their ideas to create a business plan.
Within technology and Entrepreneurship Program, 88 City Council Youth Assembly and NGO volunteers in 26 provinces trained as a young instructor. The Project aims to give education to 5.000 young people via volunteer instructors in a year.
The local training will be held in computer labs, young people receive education from Technology and Entrepreneurship curriculum, which is formed total of 16 sessions, is part of Intel Learn Program in the international arena.
Project provinces
Technology and Entrepreneurship Program will be implemented in 34 cities of Turkey: Adana, Adıyaman, Antalya, Ankara, Aydın, Batman, Hatay, Çankırı, Denizli, Diyarbakır, Düzce, Edirne, Eskişehir, Gaziantep, İstanbul, Uşak, İzmir, Kilis, Kocaeli, Kütahya, Mardin, Samsun, Siirt, Sivas, Şırnak, Trabzon, Yalova, Afyon, Bartın, Bursa, Çanakkale, Çorum, Şanlıurfa, Zonguldak.
Since the beginning of the programme 560 young people from 21 different cities completed the training. Participants had 53 hours trainings in 16 modules.
Technology and Entrepreneurship Program Curriculum:
1. Technology Literacy, Critical Thinking, Collaboration, Entrepreneurship
2. Business Idea Generating
3. Collect Feedback
4. Analyzing Survey Data
5. Analyzing a Business Idea
6. Making a Final Decision on Your Business Idea
7. Calculating Startup Costs
8. Pricing
9. Prepare Your Budget
10. Developing a Marketing Strategy
11. Branding and Advertising Your Business
12. Creating a Web Site For Your Business
13. Understanding the Basic Business Activities
14. Organizational Structure
15-16. Developing a Business Plan
üler Sabancı was nominated by the board’s nomination committee which takes into account suggestions from the Global Compact Local Networks and other stakeholders.
With more than 7.000 business participants and other stakeholders in over 130 countries, the world's largest corporate sustainability initiative the Global Compact Board is chaired by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
The board is designed as a multistakeholder body providing ongoing strategic and policy advice to the initiative including the evolving agenda of UN-Business relationships.
The new appointments will bring the total number of board members to 31, representing 13 countries from all regions of the world and a wide range of industrial sectors.
Sabanci Holding has been an active partner of the UN since 2006 when the company committed 1.5 million USD in the “UN Joint Project to promote and protect human rights of women and girls”.
Having undersigned the UN Global Compact in 2007, Sabancı Holding has also hosted the Annual Local Network Forum in 2009 and in 2011, became the first Turkish company to undersign the United Nations Women's Empowerment Principles, which is initiated by the Global Compact.
The first Global Compact Board Meeting for the 14 new members will be held on 20 and 21 June 2012 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, under the framework of the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.
Along with the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Mr. Özgür Özaslan, Kars Deputy Governor Mr. Murat Demirci and UN Turkey Resident Coordinator Mr. Shahid Najam; representatives from the UN Agencies that composed of the UN Joint Programme and local stakeholders also participated in the meeting.
During the meeting information about Kars Tourism Strategy, The Grant Programme, Tangible and Intangible Cultural Heritage of Kars, Children’s Museum Room and newly launched Kars tourism web site were shared with the contribution of the local stakeholders who actively participated in the Joint Programme activities.
The closure meeting ended with a special ceremony in which appreciation plaques were given to the local stakeholders.
UN Joint Programme on Alliances for Cultural Tourism in Eastern Anatolia
The United Nations (UN) Joint Programme “Alliances for Cultural Tourism in Eastern Anatolia” started in November 2008 with the following objectives: to develop Kars’ tourism industry enhancing its cultural and natural assets and to foster the creation of cultural tourism-related jobs and income-generating activities.
During its course, the UN Joint Programme carried out numerous capacity-development activities in the province of Kars, aimed at creating a participative governance model for the safeguarding of the cultural heritage, developing sustainable cultural tourism, promoting integration and gender equality, and increasing the income level of the people of Kars.
Financed by the Spanish Government through the Millennium Development Goals Achievement Fund, the UN Joint Programme was implemented by four partner UN agencies (UNDP, UNESCO, UNICEF and UNWTO), in close collaboration with the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism as national implementing partner.
Within the three years of implementation of the UN Joint Programme, various activities were realized under the following headings:
For further information on the UN Joint Programme Alliances for Culture Tourism in Eastern Anatolia please visitwww.kultur.mdgf-tr.org
Also check www.visitkars.com for all the information you need about Kars.
The web portal will introduce Kars’s tourism assets and products, and will provide local and international guests who planned to visit Kars with information on the history, economic structure, culture, touristic and historical places, accommodation, board and shopping.
Based on the action plan that was developed under the UN Joint Programme, the website includes detailed information on culture, winter, and nature tourism, which were previously specified as three important tourism areas; as well as photographs; alternative routes, an introductory film and an events calendar.
For all the information you need about Kars visit http://www.visitkars.com/en/
The Yenice Forests that harbor Turkey’s most important block forests is one of Turkey’s nine forest hotspots with its monumental trees, old growth forests, canyons, river ecosystems, and wildlife and species richness.
As a part of activities for disseminating the experiences gained through the project, a workshop on “Developing Sustainable Tourism for Yenice Forests” was organized on 24-25 May 2012 in the Yenice district of Karabük province.
During the workshop that aimed the preparation of a road map for developing sustainable tourism in forest ecosystems in Yenice Forests setting out from the example in the Küre Mountains National Park; expert presentations were made, strengths and weaknesses for sustainable tourism in the region were identified, a list of actions were determined through effective discussions and a field visit was realized.
The workshop was attended by a total of 34 people including experts and officials from the General Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks and the General Directorate of Forestry at the central and local level, the Management Unit of the “Enhancing Forest Protected Areas Management System in Turkey” Project, representative of the Karabük University, officials from the Yenice District Governorate and Municipality as well as representatives of non-governmental organizations, a representative from the Central Union of Turkish Forestry Cooperatives and the chairman and members of forest cooperatives in the region.
Participants established a 25-year vision for the Yenice district and its forest: http://www.yenice.gov.tr/
At the end of the workshop, priority activities of the Yenice Forests Sustainable Tourism Development Strategy preparation process for sustainable tourism practices that can bring additional financial revenues for local communities were identified and a draft road map was prepared.
For more information on Yenice district and its forests visit: www.yenice.gov.tr
The studies realized in the Küre Mountains National Park were presented to participants through one oral presentation and three posters during the symposium organized in the context of the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity (2011-2020) and 22 May International Biodiversity Day celebrations. The national park and studies conducted within the park were also introduced effectively at the Ministry of Forestry and Water Works 10th Regional Directorate’s stand and drew the attention of participants.
In addition; the books “Towards Effective Protected Area Systems: An Action Guide to Implement the Convention on Biological Diversity Programme of Work on Protected Areas", “Sustainable Financing of Protected Areas: A Global Review of Challenges and Options” and “Natural Solutions – Protected Areas Helping People Cope With Climate Change” published in the context of the project were distributed to all participants.
The report has been prepared within the scope of the UN Joint Programme “Growth with Decent Work for All: National Youth Employment Program and Pilot Implementation in Antalya” by coordination of Associate Prof. Dr. Helga Ritterberger Tılıç.
The launch event was attended by the representatives of relevant public agencies, social partners and international organizations as well as academics; at which the results of the research on the role of migration in labor market adjustment and the effects of migratory flows on occupational changes in the labor market structure were disclosed.
24 members of the Provincial Employment and Vocational Training Board (PEVTB) in Antalya along with 5 UN Joint Programme team members visited Amsterdam, Eindhoven and the Hague in order to enhance the capacity of the PEVTB.
As part of the study tour, first visit was paid to the General Directorate of Uitkeringsgerechtigde Volledig Werklozen (UVW), the Dutch equivalent of İŞKUR.
There, the study tour participants received information about the organisation of (regional) labour market policy in the Netherlands, structure of UWV (Werkbedrijf) and political mandates.
The representatives of institutions presented strategy, structure and character of the region. They also introduced the redesign of UVW Werkbedrijf and e-services Approach to young job seekers, and their approach disabled job seekers.
Eindhoven experience
In Eindhoven, the board members had reception with Deputy Mayor of the city of Waalre. The services, service point education and working, the employment cooperation Philips model were introduced.
The board also visited UVW Work square in Eindhoven. There, it was decided that Industrial cluster VDL Group Eindhoven would give migration management training and statistical evaluation presentations to İŞKUR in the following months.
The UN Joint Programme aims at reducing youth unemployment and increasing the participation of young women in the labour force. The target is to increase the percentage in placements of young unemployed people into decent jobs.
The UN Joint Programme started at the end of 2009 and will end at the end of 2012. It is funded by the MDG Achievement Fund entrusted to United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) by the Government of Spain, in cooperation with İŞKUR (National Employment Agency) and United Nations Organisations ILO (International Labour Organization), IOM (International Organization for Migration), FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations) and UNDP.
The European Report on Development (ERD) for 2011/2012, issued in May, examines the constraints on water, energy and land and how they interrelate.
It also considers how these resources can be managed together to promote growth in developing countries that is both socially inclusive and sustainable.
The report states that a combination of public and private action is required to respond to the challenges and urges the international community to radically transform approaches to managing water, energy and land (WEL) in order to support inclusive and sustainable growth in the poorest developing countries.
The ERD is an independent report published annually that bridges the gap between policy and research and contributes to the EU's perspective on major development issues. Its messages and conclusions do not necessarily reflect the EC position.
Information and Experience Sharing Platforms are organized within the context of the Joint Program on Fostering and Enabling Environment for Gender Equality in Turkey, being implemented under the partnership of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Turkey and Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA) Equal Opportunities Commission for Man and Woman.
Platforms, which will contribute to the introduction of “For a More Just World, Stand by Me” theme Campaign through the strategy to be followed and activities to be carried out, are considered to be an important opportunity in terms providing a stage where the present situation, needs and activities carried out up-to-date on gender equality.
Information and Experience Sharing Platforms will be carried out in 12 Sub Regions (NUTS I), in order to ensure the introduction of the campaign at both local and national level and raise awareness on gender equality among society and concerned institutions. In this context, the first Information and Experience Sharing Platform was realized in January 2012, in İstanbul, in April 2012, in Bursa covering Eskişehir and Bilecik provinces, in Balıkesir covering Çanakkale and another one was realized in Tokat covering Çorum, Amasya, Samsun in May 2012 and will be continued in June in Ağrı and Gümüşhane Regions.
Dreams Academy’s aims are to support disabled and disadvantaged women and men to become productive individuals and enable their full and equal participation in social life. Dreams Academy’s latest sub-project Dreams Kitchen was developed with financial support from the Istanbul Rotary Club.
While supporting Dreams Academy’s ultimate aim of social inclusion, Dreams Kitchen also provides an income generation model. Dreams Kitchen serves as a training and production workshop which will provide catering services for its customers.
Meanwhile participants with different disabilities and social disadvantages will gain vocational skills and employment opportunities.
Working as a social business, the income generated from Dreams Kitchen will be used for extending project activities and reaching out more participants.
After pilot workshops were started in April, Dreams Kitchen was launched on 8 May 2012 with a party organized in ‘The Hall’.
The event included performances of Social Inclusion Band’s volunteer musicians, as well as DJ Funshine and DJ Matto.
Throughout May, TV stars such as Yasemin Ergene, Melike Güner, Gamze Topuz and Gürkan Uygun participated in workshops and provided volunteer support for the Project.
The seminar was held in Mersin Chamber of Commerce and Industry and presented by UNDP-Rotary Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Committee President, Tülin Seçen.
“Corporate Responsibility for a Sustainably Competitive Turkey Project” was initiated with an agreement signed between UNDP and Rotary in July 2011.
The seminars constitute a platform for information exchange on the process of membership to UN Global Compact and firms’ responsibilities to be fulfilled during this process.
The project involves the creation of a country-based CSR road map, outlined with the support of participatory firms, and support to the related policy making process.
100 CSR seminars in 81 provinces are to take place under the project.
Podcast 49 | 21 May 2012 - An outstanding project in the field of CSR (audio in Turkish) (transcript in Enlish)
Podcast 38 | 05 March 2012 - Corporate Social Responsibility (audio in Turkish) (transcript in English)
Arguing that action focused on agriculture alone will not end food insecurity either, the Report calls for new approaches covering multiple sectors; from rural infrastructure to health services, to new forms of social protection and empowering local communities.
Ensuring that the poor and vulnerable have greater voice through strengthened local government and civil society groups is also needed to ensure food security for all.
The quickening pace of change and new economic vitality on the continent make this an opportune time for action, the Report says.
The Africa Human Development Report can be downloaded from http://www.afhdr.org/
“Creating productive employment for Africa’s rapidly growing young population is an immense challenge but also the key to future prosperity,” say the authors in the foreword.
Co-written by the African Development Bank, the Development Centre of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the report says youth are an opportunity for future economic growth.
Between 2000 and 2008, despite world-topping economic growth rates, and a better educated youth, Africa created only 16 million jobs for young people aged between 15 and 24.
Today, youth represent 60 percent of the continent’s unemployed, and of these 40 million young people, 22 million have given up on finding a job, many of them women.
The annual 2012 African Economic Outlook covers economic, social and political development in 53 of the continent’s 54 countries.
It is published with financial support from the European Union and the Committee of African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP).
For the whole report, including statistics and specific country performances, please visit http://www.africaneconomicoutlook.org/en/
[BAGLANTILAR]
The workshop has been held at the General Directorate for Renewable Energy of the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources.
The Workshop was intended to reach agreement between relevant stakeholders on the recommendations and next steps included in the reports prepared by International Consultants working for the Energy Efficient Appliances in Turkey Project (EE Appliances) on Market Monitoring System, EU Eco-design and Energy Labeling Regulations and Testing and Conformity Assessment Infrastructure.
The workshop was attended by nearly 40 persons from private and governmental sectors.
All amendments to existing laws and regulations, market monitoring system and investment plan for strengthening the testing and conformity assessment infrastructure as well as Proactive Market Surveillance Plan to be implemented during the Project period proposed by EE Appliances project have been agreed by all relevant stakeholders.
he system was established for monitoring the annual sales volume by energy classes and sales weighted average energy consumption, energy consumption and GHG emissions caused by household appliances covered by Energy Efficient Appliances in Turkey Project (EE Appliances) and subject to eco-design and energy labeling regulations in Turkey for developing and implementing more effective EE policies in Turkey.
The Market Monitoring System will be a first not only in Turkey but also in Europe provided that necessary data is collected and the system is operated correctly.
Training of relevant personnel is important so that the Market Monitoring System is understood and operated correctly.
All staff from the Measurement Evaluation Monitoring and Audit Department attended the training.
The training programme was attended by Electrical and Electronics Industry Division under DG for Industry who are responsible for transposing the EU regulations and staff of DG for Safety and Inspection of Industrial Products who are responsible for Market Surveillance of products.
By this training programme, the headquarters staff of MoSIT are provided with training on EU Eco-design and Energy Labeling Directives for the first time.
The training will ensure sustainability of in-service training for updating of Market Inspectors of Provincial Offices of MoSIT which MoSIT conducts regularly.
This training will be reinforced by the Training on Management of Market Surveillance Programme scheduled in June 2012 and to be delivered by national measurement Office (NMO), the British Market Surveillance Authority.
More than 60 Market Inspectors working at different Provincial Offices of MoSIT attended the training.
By this training programme, the market inspectors of MoSIT are provided with training on implementation of EU Eco-design and Energy Labeling Directives for the first time.
It is important for ensuring compliance of market place with applicable regulations to check whether the energy efficiency values and energy classes declared on the products placed on the market are true or not.
Therefore, these inspections carried out by the MoSIT must be carried out by market inspectors who have sufficient training on implementation of applicable regulations.
Initially this training was designed to be delivered to 200 market inspectors in 3 groups.
However, it was later decided to add one more group considering increasing demands from both headquarters and provincial offices of MoSIT.
The time schedule for the trainings of other groups is as follows:
Group 2: 28-30 May 2012
Group 3: 11-13 June 2012
Group 4: 18-20 June 2012
The participants of the two-year project, which jointly led by the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, UNDP, XPS Association and B-Plas company, tried new approaches to XPS production.
Foam materials of a homogenous cell structure, used and produced for heat insulation, are called XPS.
B-Plas’ production lines were used at the pilot manufacturing phase. The parties of the project participated in different application activities and meetings in Bursa, Ankara and Istanbul.
During this process, the technical outcomes of the project were shared with member firms of the XPS Association.
The XPS Association aims to draw attention to energy efficiency in buildings in Turkey through heat insulation.
The association also targets information exchange among insulation sector on production in line with EU standards.
Turkey conducts many projects with UNDP on decreasing greenhouse gas emissions as a requirement of the protocols, to which it is a party.
In this episode, we talk about the process that led to the certification of Küre Mountains National Park as a member of PAN Parks, and the selection of the project implemented in this national park as an example of best practice to represent Turkey in Rio+20 Conference.
UNDP Turkey: Hello, this is the New Horizons Podcast of United Nations Development Programme Turkey. In this week’s programme we talk about the process that led the certification of Küre Mountains National Park as a member of PAN Parks, and the selection of the project implemented in this national park as a best practice to represent Turkey in Rio+20 Conference. So we will be talking about this project and also why this project has been chosen as one of the 25 best projects in this category. Our contributor today is the Deputy Manager of Enhancing Forest Protected Areas Management System in Turkey Yıldıray Lise. Welcome.
Yıldıray Lise (Y.L.): Hello.
UNDP Turkey: We have spoken with you before on this same subject twice before. So we are now at the stage of applying best practice from before the Rio 20+ conference, and the Küre Mountains National Park was a candidate to join the important network of PAN Parks. They were accepted into the network in April 2012. Let’s talk about Rio 20+. It takes place in June and out of the best practice projects from Turkey that are going, yours is one of them. Why was it chosen?
Y.L.: Our project began in 2008 with the support of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and it is carried out by the General Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks and General Directorate of Forestry which are part of the Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs, United Nations Development Programme Turkey and the Society for the Protection of Nature in Turkey. As you mentioned, this project has many sections including environmental issues, social and economic issues. So we were working in a protected area, a national park but we also worked on many areas such as the local population’s development including sustainable tourism and the sustainable use of resources. And we felt that we have been successful in doing this, so with the support of the Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs, we applied for Rio 20+ and it was accepted. As I mentioned, the different areas we cover such as social, environmental and economic areas also got a prize for being a good example project.
UNDP Turkey: This project has been running since 2008, it covers many different areas as you mentioned and it gained a place among the other 25 chosen projects in Rio, as well as joining the PAN Parks network. Lets talk about the PAN Parks network, then we will return to Rio. There were some criteria that had to met in order to join PAN Parks, I have them here in front of me but we can summarize them. They may give an idea of how far this project has come to our listeners.
Y.L.: Actually they both have overlapping criteria and they both have similarities. PAN Parks network means a network of protected areas. It is a certificate system given to the elite protected areas in Europe and if we include Küre Mountains National Park, there are currently 13 protected areas in Europe. This network has 5 basic criteria to be met. The first, the area must have a rich natural heritage, of course Küre Mountains National Park is both locally and nationally important. The second, the area must be managed in accordance with well set out plans. Third, there must be provisions made for future visitors, we made plans to erect a visitor centre and put these plans into action. The fourth, there must be a sustainable tourism strategy in place, not just within the park but also the local area and this is one of strongest features of the PAN Parks network. As nature has to be protected, there must be a plan for sustainable tourism in place. We worked for many years on this area and we designed plans. Our actions have particularly focused on these social and economic areas, and this is what made us stand out at Rio 20+. The fifth is making local connections. So after the park has received its certificate, the businesses around the park may also receive a certificate within a certain amount of time if they reach certain standards, for example accommodation, restaurants, transport or guided tour businesses. We have started running in this period of time a general participation group of PAN Parks and we have put into practice some local standards that need to be met. So we can see that the PAN Parks project has environmental, social and economic benefits.
UNDP Turkey: The Küre Mountains National Park is the only national park in Turkey that is currently part of the PAN Parks network isn’t it?
Y.L.: Yes.
UNDP Turkey: You told us the criteria; it must have a rich natural heritage, it must have a plan for nature preservation, there must be plan in place for visitors, you must emphasise sustainable tourism and make local connections if you want to be part of the PAN Parks network.
Y.L.: Yes.
UNDP Turkey: This is a relevant question; Küre Mountains National Park now has a PAN Parks certificate but what does this bring to Turkey? We would like an answer to this question.
Y.L.: Of course. We need to think about it like this, this is a matter for national pride, because we have been accepted into a network that has very few members even in Europe and it’s a chance to showcase our principles there as well. It’s also important to be following international standards for management and to be seen to be following these, and also to establish sustainable tourism there. As we mentioned earlier, we can say that this project will have great effect on the local and regional economy because of tourism, starting from guesthouses up to the whole tourism sector. And as the area becomes more well known, we also expect a rise in tourist numbers in the long term.
UNDP Turkey: How many national parks are there in Turkey?
Y.L.: There are 41 national parks in Turkey at the moment.
UNDP Turkey: So these pillars of your project, could they be applied to all of the national parks in Turkey and achieve the same results?
Y.L.: Some of these parks are small, some are larger, but of course we now have some experience. We have already started working towards applying our work to other national parks in association with the General Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks. Of course it may not be possible to apply all our techniques to the smaller parks. One of the PAN Parks criteria is a minimum of 10,000 hectars and it must be untouched nature, with minimal human intervention, and only about 5 to 10 of the national parks in Turkey come under these criteria. But we are still working towards applying some of the other principles in these places too.
UNDP Turkey: So you would only be able to apply all of these plans in about 5 or 6 of the national parks here. And you say that work has already begun in these parks. Which ones for example?
Y.L.: We have started working on a plan for Kaçkarlar, we may be able to start work there soon. There is also Aladağlar. These two areas are places that are close to the standard needed to achieve the PAN Parks certificate, with a little bit of work they can achieve this.
UNDP Turkey: You are reaching the end of your project and you have achieved your important aims. Will you continue to have the support of UNDP for this project or do you have any more new projects on the horizon at the moment?
Y.L.: Our project was funded by Global Environment Facility and they do not give funds to the same project more than once. But we must also mention that in 2000 the National Park was announced, and the Small Grants Program of the Global Environment Facility has continued to support the civil society organisations in the area, and I’m sure they will continue to do in the future. The WWF in Turkey is also working with the National Parks Organisation and non-governmental organisations in the area. Recently, there have been newly started regional development agencies in the regions of Bartın and Kastamonu. There are two different agencies working there. They have some priorities for themselves, and we have promoted our projects results and they are helping us in applying for other grants and supporting us in this, and they continue to support our work by following the mechanisms that we have put into place.
UNDP Turkey: So by following your plans, by learning from your experiences and by seeing the results of your project, this is a very good example for others. And this should be noted that it is not just an example for Turkey, but also for many other countries that can follow this same program, and as we mentioned that the beginning, it has been chosen as one of the 25 best projects at the Rio 20+ United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. You received an award on the 20th of April, the vice president of the General Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks Mr. Mustafa Akıncıoğlu received this award on the behalf of the Ministry of Forests and Water Affairs. There are 24 other projects as well. These are all examples for the private sector, public agencies, universities and civil society organisations. So you received this award but what does this mean for you? Are you going to present this project in Rio? What kind of plan do you have for the future?
Y.L.: There will be national presentations on behalf of the Government of the Republic of Turkey. We are preparing ourselves to present our project there if we get the time and the chance to do so, as we are quite busy at the last stages of our project. We want to present our project ourselves, but they will be presented in Turkish and in English by the representatives and it has received great interest from everyone so it will have a great audience.
UNDP Turkey: OK, so do you have any other activities aside from Rio20+ where you are promoting your project?
Y.L.: Yes we do. So we are in constant correspondence with UNDP regional offices, for example in Bratislava or wherever, and we have promotions of our project in the literature that they produce and so on. But I think one of the most important points here is that the Küre Mountains National Park is the only national park that has its own website. We share all of our projects and our publications here in English and Turkish as well. We use social media available to us here such as Twitter, YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr and Facebook, and spread our project effectively using these. Sometimes people find our project through one of these sites and write to us saying ‘We are producing a book. Could you contribute your project in this section of our book?’ and we work on this too.
UNDP Turkey: Anyone who wants to see can go to kdmp.gov.tr, Küre Mountains National Park and can find information on this project. What is the best time to visit the Küre Mountains National Park that has been chosen to represent Turkey at Rio20+ and has achieved a place in the PAN Parks network?
Y.L.: Let’s say May and September-October time.
UNDP Turkey: So from the beginning of summer to autumn Küre Mountains are waiting for visitors to come and see the park. Thank you very much for joining us. Our contributor today was Yıldıray Lise, the Deputy Manager of Enhancing Forest Protected Areas Management System in Turkey. We have come to the end of this episode of the New Horizons Podcast of the United Nations Development Programme Turkey. This program has been recorded at the studio of Radyo İlef of Ankara University Communications Department. You can follow our program on Açık Radyo (Open Radio) on FM frequency, on university radios in our broadcasting network, on iTunes under podcasts and on undp.org.tr. Our username for social media is undpturkiye. Hope to see you soon, good bye!
UNDP Turkey: Hello, this is the New Horizons Podcast of United Nations Development Programme Turkey. This week, we will be talking about the concept of corporate social responsibility and linked to this, talk about a project designed to make small and medium enterprises (SMEs) more competitive. Our contributor this week is Tülin Seçen, from the Marmara Rotary Club that is working with UNDP, she is the term president of the Marmara Rotary Club, the Committee President of the Sustainable Competition in Turkey Project and also the president of the Management Consultants Association. Tülin, we want to talk a bit about this project, what is the Sustainable Competition in Turkey Project and what are its aims?
Tülin Seçen (T.S.): Sustainable Competition in Turkey Project is aimed at the businesses in the economy: that small, medium and large businesses are in line with the principles of corporate social responsibility, that they become better at it and they practice sustainability and that what they produce has no negative impact on society.
UNDP Turkey: You lead the way for the Rotary Clubs to sign up to the UN Global Compact. We have to thank you for this. You didnt just sign up to it: you started a project, that you just mentioned, in order to promote the principles of it and the concept of corporate social responsibility in Anatolia. Can you tell us a bit about the activities that this project carries out? What are the specifics of this project?
T.S.: Our primary goal with this project is to promote understanding in small and medium enterprises of the principles of corporate social responsibility, and to lead the way in implementing these principles, using activities to make changes to the structure of their enterprise and make them more sustainable. Within this remit, we are working with the chambers of Commerce and Industry of all the regions of Turkey, we are giving our all to let their members reach their maximum output potential. We invite these members to us on certain days to meet with members of our committee who are educators, to help them to understand the concepts of corporate social responsibility and the UN Global Compact, to look into if there are appropriate businesses that could sign up the Global Compact, and then we help them to implement these principles into the actions that they take.
UNDP Turkey: We see this concept of corporate social responsibility more and more in our lives now. We could say that more is known about it nowadays. If we analyse the UN Global Compact a little more, it means that businesses and organisations, including universities and many other organisations, are making a commitment to adhere to the principles that are set out in the compact. Lets explore this. The Rotary Clubs in Turkey have entered into this competition and due to this project you have been doing, many SME’s in Anatolia have come to understand this concept and hopefully, have committed to taking on some of the principles themselves. Where have you been to so far and what kind of training have you been giving in Anatolia?
T.S.: Up to this moment, we have been promoting to the automotive subsidiary industry what the Global Compact is, what corporate social responsibility is and what businesses have to do in terms of these concepts. We have arranged seminars in Gaziantep, for the members of the Gaziantep Chamber of Commerce.
UNDP Turkey: The first one in the automotive subsidiary industry was in Gebze, then you went on to Gaziantep?
T.S.: Gaziantep, Eskişehir… We had a collaboration with the Eskişehir Chamber of Industry. Then we collaborated with the Chambers of Industry and Commerce in Antalya and Adana. We collaborated with the Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Kastamonu, Samsun and Edirne. Aside from this, we also made efforts to spread these activities into the tourism industry.
UNDP Turkey: This program of raising awareness of corporate social responsibility, ensuring sustainable development and looking to support achievements of communities, you give these training programs to businesses in Anatolia for free. Which regions and cities are next for your project?
T.S.: We are planning to put on 50 seminars by the end of 2012. OF we course we need to plan all of these seminars very well and we put all our efforts into this, because we put on the seminars on a voluntary basis, we have to coordinate these timetables with the plans of the Chambers of Commerce and Industry in different regions. Our plans will continue first at Mersin Chamber of Commerce and Industry, then Istanbul Chamber of Industry, Istanbul Chamber of Commerce, and then the Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Konya and Kayseri, this is what is planned for the future.
UNDP Turkey: You are planning on continuing this project until April 2013, aren’t you?
T.S.: Yes, but it may carry on longer than that.
UNDP Turkey: So you have chosen a voluntary Committee for Corporate Social Responsibility from members of different Rotary Clubs, and the committee forms strategies on how to implement this principles. And we also know that the members of this committee also volunteer as educators, as you pointed out earlier. We know that these educators and members of the committee are senior, experienced people in the business world, academicians, entrepreneurs and professional administrators. As you know these individuals yourself, could you perhaps give us a few examples of who they are?
T.S.: I need to say that this project brings together perhaps the world’s two largest and most important civil society organizations; UNDP and the Rotary Clubs. Rotary Clubs are made up of the business world’s most outstanding and top level individuals. They are a group of people that use their funds for the benefit of society. This project overlaps with the mission of Rotary, our members adopted this project and wanted to be the pilot project in Turkey and set an example with it. We have a Committee for Education and Consultancy made up of 20 members, they have been trained and are carrying out this job successfully. Within this committee we have our dear friend Semra Baysan. I actually work and organize many projects, many training programs and do consultancy work as well. We have Özcan Albak, Osman Taşlıca and Ulya Selçuk. These people are very active in the training and consultancy projects, and also support the work of our committee.
UNDP Turkey: You mentioned that the mission of Rotary overlaps with UNDP programs. There may be some people who don’t know about Rotary. Let’s just give a few sentences of information about Rotary. What is its purpose? What is its mission? What is your motivation for being part of this project?
T.S.: We can describe our mission as wanting to give back to the society what we have taken from them. Like I mentioned, our membership consists of individuals who have reached the top levels of their fields, intellectuals and those who have made it their living to accumulate, and they wish to create projects that are sustainable and beneficial to the whole society. I actually want to raise awareness of corporate social responsibility in Turkey, and in the world to spread this kind of structure in business, this is the scope of our mission. International Rotary’s aims are all encompassed within the UN Millenium Development Goals.
UNDP Turkey: Rotary continues to participate in this project with a strong motivation for its aims and continues to give training all over Turkey. In partnership with the UN and the regional Chambers, it hopes to be a model for the rest of the world with this project. This project will put on 100 seminars on corporate social responsibility in Turkey’s 81 regions until 2013, and will encourage SME’s to include corporate social responsibility ideals into their structures and sign up to the UN Global Compact. Our contributor today joined us by telephone from Istanbul. Tülin Seçen is the President of the Sustainable Competition in Turkey Committee of the 2420. Rotary Club and the term President of the Rotary Marmara Club. This program has been recorded at the studio of Radyo İlef of Ankara University Communications Department. You can follow our program on Açık Radyo (Open Radio) on FM frequency, on university radios in our broadcasting network, on iTunes under podcasts and on undp.org.tr. Our username for social media is undpturkiye. Hope to see you next week, good bye!
In this week’s program, we are discussing the unemployment of women in Turkey, and the underlying reasons behind this.
UNDP Turkey: Hello, this is the New Horizons Podcast of the United Nations Development Programme Turkey. In this episode we are discussing women’s unemployment in Turkey and our contributor today is Canet Tuba Sarıtaş, a researcher from Hacettepe University’s Sociology Department. Welcome.
Canet Tuba Sarıtaş (C.T.S): Hello.
UNDP Turkey: You recently carried out a research project in Middle East Technical University. The Project was entitled ‘Young Women’s Contribution and Stock: An Analysis within the context of the Government, the Labour Market and Family’. This project was focused on women, actually on young women’s unemployment in Turkey. Let’s get going on the subject now. Your project focuses on the unemployment of young women. Why are young women unemployed in Turkey, especially educated ones?
C.T.S.: Yes, actually perhaps we should take a completely different starting point for this subject. So first we need to look at something, I actually based this project on a model, and when I was researching the reasons for unemployment, actually what this really uncovered are the things that need to be done. Firstly at the micro level, we look at what happens when a woman comes face to face with her prospective employer, and what kind of negotiating happens in this situation, because I believe it is a kind of negotiation going on. An unemployed woman has her own criteria when she is looking for work, while the employer has his own perceptions of her and certain priorities. Firstly we have to focus on this negotiation stage, that’s what I focused on. But we have to see this negotiation in the wider context, of the government, the family structure and the labour market and how they have transformed especially since the 1980’s, and understand and analyse it in this way. Therefore, in this setting I carried out a cause analysis and this also has to be undertaken within the framework of this.
UNDP Turkey: Ok, so a young woman, recently graduated, and a young man, also newly graduated. They have the same level of education and they go a prospective employer to discuss employment. What are the factors that put the young woman at a disadvantage do you think, according to your research?
C.T.S.: So, first if we may, let’s look at what the employer uses as his criteria when a young unemployed woman comes before him. I spoke with young unemployed, people and I also spoke to employers within this project, and the unemployed young women told me this: they do not want to take roles where they would leave work at a late hour, they do not want to work the late shifts, they do not work to work in very male dominated workplaces, they are reluctant to take a role where they are forced to work alone with a male employee, they are reluctant to go on work trips where this may be a necessity, and so we can understand that what they actually want is a regular, desk-based, safe job. So this personal security issue is actually more important to these young women than how much they would get paid for the job. If they are married and have children then they of course have further criteria that have to be met, for example to be able to be free on the weekends, and whether they are able to afford the costs of childcare. So whether there is childcare provided, or if there isn’t, how much childcare will cost and if they will be able to afford it on the amount that they would earn from the job is of utmost importance. This is one of the most important factors when a woman is deciding whether to take the job or not, and if I may say I think that this kind of flexibility is not usually compatible with the demands of private sector jobs.
UNDP Turkey: From the point of view of the employer, are these the kinds of reasons that they might prefer to employ a young male instead? The fact that they can work at late hours, at the weekends, put in overtime etc.?
C.T.S.: Of course when a young male comes to look for a job, childcare, being married, having children, leaving early or staying late, the distance their home is from their workplace, these kinds of issues are not important criteria for them. And this is a very important point; this is where the divisions between the sexes are most visible. And we have to look at how employers see the situation: they assume that because of these types of issues young women are more choosy about the job offers they accept, employers may say that ‘we offer these jobs, but young women do not apply for them anyway’, that is how they see it. Also, they do not see the labour offered by women as mobile or flexible. We mentioned the problems women have with travel arrangements. Employers describe these women as unprofessional and being lead by their emotions. For young women, there are three elements that are much discussed. The first is a lack of continuity, they are seen as wanting to come to work late and leave early, they take a lot of absences: a lot of excuses such as ‘I have to drop my children off to nursery’, ‘I have to pick my children up’, ‘I have to go to a meeting at my child’s school’, ‘my child is ill’, or then constantly being off from work owing to illness, these are the kind of things that employers talk about.
UNDP Turkey: You took statements from these different people. We can’t say that all these statements are completely objective. Some of them are obviously subjective observations and –
C.T.S.: These don’t apply to everyone of course, but we need to reflect all kinds of opinions in our data. These are all reasons and opinions, and we need to show all of them, not just the ones that are the same or the most prominent ones.
UNDP Turkey: You are including everything, even stereotypes, into your work.
C.T.S.: Yes.
UNDP Turkey: In your model of work, you talk about the ‘M’ shape, in your work you liken to trajectory of a woman’s career to the shape of an ‘M’. Can you please explain this?
C.T.S.: Actually its one of the reasons I am focusing on the unemployment of young women. Because the participation of women in the Turkish workforce takes a turndown like the shape of an ‘M’. What I mean by that is this: women, especially young women participate in the labour market vigorously, but then owing to marriage or childbirth, they withdraw from the labour market, returning when the child has reached a certain age. But this percentage, meaning the amount of young women that enter the labour market is declining, and we can say that the large portion of female workers are in fact young women, so therefore the unemployment rates of young women carries a great importance, so I think we need specific legislation for this issue.
UNDP Turkey: Because after a certain amount of time, a lot of these women withdraw from the labour force. The ‘M’ shaped graph shows this. As we move to the right of the graph, the top of the ‘M’ becomes smaller, because the amount of women returning to the workforce is diminishing, isn’t it?
C.T.S.: Yes, because the employers see it in this way: Young womens’ labour is a fleeting resource. Because the childcare is issue is very important, especially in Turkey the care of children is very important. As I mentioned earlier, women are likely to accept a job offer if the workplace offers childcare, but the amount of workplaces that offer such a service is very low. And if there is no childcare provided, again as a mentioned earlier, they will look to the amount of money they will earn in terms of if it will be enough to pay for outside childcare, or they will try to come up with another solution of leaving a child with grandparents for example, as the wages earned by women are not usually enough to cover private childcare.
UNDP Turkey: Can we say that this is research that focuses primarily on the urban workforce, the service and industrial sectors? Or are there some parts that also apply to more rural communities?
C.T.S.: We looked into urban unemployment especially because rates of unemployment are high there, female employment is quite high in the agriculture industry, of course in the last term we have seen this decrease as well, but generally we can say that we have focused on unemployment in sectors outside of the agriculture industry, especially in cities because we can see that they are actually disadvantaged when compared to the previous group. For example this month, the results of the workforce household surveys were released. These were results from January 2012. We can see that the unemployment rate for women outside of the agriculture industry, the rate was 23.6%, and it was 23.2% in cities. Therefore, we can see that unemployment of women in cities, and the unemployment of women outside of agriculture are very significant. We can see that there is a problem with creating jobs in cities and that this needs to be addressed.
UNDP Turkey: It might be useful to compare the rates of unemployment of women and men.
C.T.S.: For example unemployment of young men in cities is at 18.8%, compared to 23.2% for women. There is a significant gap between them, a serious matter of gender inequality. When we look at unemployment for women, it is at 15.2%, compared to 23.2% for young women. Young women are more disadvantaged compared to older women. And we said it earlier, young women contribute more to the labour market, they are more likely to be looking for work. And we also mentioned education; we can talk about that as well. Education is very important. We have a significant population of educated people. Being educated motivates you to join the workforce, to contribute to the market and is an encouraging factor.
UNDP Turkey: You came to these conclusions using your research model and you use the averages of this as a base, but are there any people that disagree with you? For example, are there women that live in Turkey’s cities that have come to you to say ‘I haven’t encountered any of these problems in my career, I have been able to work and compete with male colleagues on the same level’, or have you always got the same results, the same agreements and the same responses?
C.T.S.: Well in general these are the things that come up, regardless of the level of education and the socioeconomic situation these same criteria tend to be valid. Even a highly qualified and educated woman would be reluctant to work in a male dominated environment and we did survey job seeking women with Masters level degrees within our research. They may be nervous before they even start work, when they go to the job interview, they don’t trust the advertisement in the newspaper for example, if they see an advertisement on the internet they want to check the company’s website, they would only go to a job interview if they felt comfortable in the area that the workplace was in, so even people with a high level degree do this kind of thing. And if we look at it from another angle, one of our interviewees was a widow with a young child, 2.5 years old; she was in a difficult position financially. We might expect her to have no criteria whatsoever, but for her these criteria were actually much more important: because she was a widow, she had no husband and societal pressure as well as pressure from individuals from her family was applied to her job seeking. When a job interview would come up, many questions would be asked such as ‘where is the job, who is it exactly, what kind of place is it?’, sometimes with a male relative, a father or brother would accompany the woman to the interview, and this of course says to the employer that the woman is passive, she cant do anything by herself, so this adds another level of disadvantage onto her already difficult task. And so this is a critical point. The labour of women and the weight that it is given is not just decided in the interview, it is also a family and cultural matter.
UNDP Turkey: From every socioeconomic level, every geographical region and every age group, we can say that women all encounter these problems at one level or another. It is of course important to recognise these problems but it is also as important to concentrate on solutions to these problems. I wonder what kind of political solutions in order to reduce these issues could come to light after this research, or then out of the ones that are already in place, which of these is actually addressing these problems? Is there any part of your research that looks into this?
C.T.S.: When we look to legislation, for example the 5th part of the discrimination Work Law states: we cannot discriminate against anyone on the basis of gender or on biological factors. But at the moment, this law does not cover the discrimination that takes place at the recruitment stage. I think that this needs to be addressed because this is a point at which we have a great deal of problems. The 88th part of the same law is being looked at to cover the issues of childcare and the damages caused by this problem. Every workplace with 150 or more female employees is obliged to provide childcare facilities, but when you are looking to implement this law, the employers take on only 149 female employees and this is then also discrimination. This should definitely be implemented according to the total numbers of workers in a workplace.
UNDP Turkey: Meaning you are emphasizing the fact that ‘childcare is not only the duty of women’ and –
C.T.S.: Absolutely.
UNDP Turkey: Workplaces with 150 or more employees must have childcare facilities. Of course when we talk about care facilities, we are not just referring to children –
C.T.S.: Pensioners and the disabled, yes.
UNDP Turkey: Pensioners and the disabled, isn’t it? Women take on the burden of looking after these people at home and this is important as well. We have a lot more to talk about, we have run out of time but we have to say that legislatory advice is also found on this research project, and also that some of the research carried out, for example in legal regulations put into motion for women and for these types of problems to be eliminated are found in the report, we must also highlight this. Thank you very much for participating in our program.
In this episode, we are talking about the 'Use of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency' Project in Southeastern Anatolia Region.
UNDP Turkey: Hello, this is the New Horizons Podcast of the United Nations Development Programme Turkey. This week we will be talking about the Use of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Project in Anatolia Region. Our contributor, Pelin Rodoplu, from the UNDP is a Regional Competitiveness expert. Welcome.
Pelin Rodoplu (P.R.): Hello.
UNDP Turkey: The name of your project looks quite technical. ‘Increasing the Use of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency in Southeastern Anatolia’ Project. It’s a long name, but as we explore this I think we will understand how relevant it is to us. Let’s try to start from the very beginning. From 2007 until now, in the GAP region (Southeastern Anatolia Project region) there was an agenda of competitiveness and this project among others is now in operation. Let’s begin there. What does it mean when we say there is an agenda of competitiveness?
P.R.: We can say that the agenda of competitiveness has been a touchstone for the GAP since 2007. As you know, the GAP Development program has been ongoing since 1989 but the cooperation with UNDP started in the 2000’s. In the last phase of the Entrepreneurs Support Centre Project that began in 2002, we found that we needed to create a project that brought the strongest elements of the region forward, and this is how we came to the competitiveness agenda. The competitiveness agenda of 2007 brought about the vision of a sustainable cradle of civilization.
UNDP Turkey: Now, when we say ‘competitiveness agenda’ or more specifically ‘competitiveness’, a region or area must have features about it that make competition easier, and these features that stand out must be looked at closely. What are the points that stand out for the GAP region?
P.R.: The important points we found in the GAP region: organic farming, organic textiles, ecotourism, renewable energy and energy efficiency and the use of these technologies, as well as the production of these technologies in the GAP region were things that stood out to us. This is quite a broad vision and it ties in with our ‘green growth’ strategy. It aims are for sustainable economic development and also social equality to spread and become more inclusive. We can set out the broad vision for the GAP region like so.
UNDP Turkey: So actually we have reached green growth without specifically aiming for it as well. Because one of the most interesting points, you mentioned organic farming, organic textiles, ecotourism and energy, but the production of renewable energy in the GAP region has been defined and envisaged to be competitive there. So there is a vision to have green growth in the region.
P.R.: That’s correct.
UNDP Turkey: So organic farming and organic aggregation is one part of this. So is ecotourism. What kind of energy production are we talking about here?
P.R.: We have a lot of alternatives when it comes to renewable energy. It encompasses everything from hydroelectric dams to solar energy, biomass and biowaste. We also have to mention wind power, but when it comes to the GAP region, we can see that solar energy has a lot of potential farming and irrigation usage, so we can see that in the GAP region we should be concentrating on pushing solar energy and increasing energy efficiency there.
UNDP Turkey: Since the start of the GAP project, we see that there has been a lot said since the 1980’s about developments in the field of energy production, but we have also heard some opinions that there has not been much advance in irrigation technologies. In this case, you are giving weight to the ideas behind combining energy production and irrigation within your competitiveness agenda, aren’t you?
P.R.: Yes. Actually if we think of the systems as whole, we can make the system more efficient and it will be contributing to sustainable economic development in the long term as well.
UNDP Turkey: A region that has the potential to produce enough energy to fulfill the needs of the whole of Turkey will have to use the resources of solar and perhaps wind power to fulfill its irrigation needs, as it already has the resources in the region, water and sun.
P.R.: Exactly.
UNDP Turkey: We have reviewed the first stage of the ‘Increasing the Use of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency’ Project in the Southeastern Anatolia Region. This has been spread over the last 3 years. And now the second stage. What has changed between the stages? The first stage was perhaps research, and now are we moving on the implementation?
P.R.: They are both projects that are continuing within the agenda of competitiveness. In the first phase, as we mentioned, the main target was to increase sustainable competitiveness and also support social equality. In the first phase we also looked at what resources there are for renewable energy and how we can increase energy efficiency, we benefited from international experts as well as the local population and so we could then form a strategy and an action plan that is integrated, covers the whole region and encourages participation. This is probably the most important point that we have from the first phase.
UNDP Turkey: An action plan?
P.R.: Yes. An action plan for how to carry out these strategies. Let me emphasise this now, a strategy is not something that can be implemented by just one organization. Because this is a regional project and all the relevant participants have a place in the scheme. And then we came to a consensus on the strategy and the action plan.
UNDP Turkey: Let’s look at the participants. There are governmental organizations, universities, local development agencies are involved and civil society organizations are also supporting this. So the second phase is now the implementation phase.
P.R.: Yes. Actually the first phase was more to develop the strategy and the action plan, and to benefit from international experiments we carried out a lot of work and one of the most important things we gained from this was the formation of the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Centre.
UNDP Turkey: I was just about to come to that. Harran University.
P.R.: We worked with Harran University and we came up with a project proposal for the Development Department, and the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Centre, to work from Harran University for the benefit of the whole region was approved.
UNDP Turkey: This really is quite hard to say, isn’t it? Renewable energy and energy efficiency. The centre that was founded in Harran University, those of us that followed the news closely may remember that it was quite well publicised in the media. The centre was founded in Harran University with the collaboration of the Danish Technology Institute.
P.R.: It is going to be founded with the help and financing of the Ministry of Development.
UNDP Turkey: So that is where the funding is coming from.
P.R.: It is national funding. But in another area of this project for this centre to be founded and for it to be successful, we had come to decision that we must be linked to international networks and this is how the GAP YENEV centre was founded.
UNDP Turkey: It’s YENEV, isn’t it? Renewable Energy Centre.
P.R.: The Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Centre made a deal to cooperate with the Danish Technology Institute. This is also quite recent. In March we had quite a large group go to Denmark, in this group there was the Deputy Minister of Development and the GAP President as well as of course the Rector of Harran University and they signed a contract for cooperation. Within this, there is the plan of developing the centre and also plans to design the building of the centre as eco friendly and zero carbon emissions.
UNDP Turkey: They are starting with their own building of course.
P.R.: Yes. They want it to be a model building. The experiences of the Danish technology Institute are very important here. In Europe and especially in Denmark, they have been working for years on renewable energy and energy efficiency –
UNDP Turkey: I was going to ask that. Why were they chosen. You probably researched that and chose them on that basis.
P.R.: Of course.
UNDP Turkey: We are now in May, when will this centre start to be built and begin to spread the benefits of it to the region?
P.R.: We are aiming to finish the contracting work for construction by the end of the year and within three years, we hope that all the building work will finish and we can start with our plans and begin to be productive for the region and maybe beyond to the Middle East.
UNDP Turkey: Thank you very much for contributing to our program. For more information about these projects go to gap.gov.tr, and as it is also a partner of UNDP, you can also find information on our website undp.org.tr. Pelin Rodoplu joined us as the Regional Competitiveness Expert, we have come to the end of the New Horizons Podcast of the United Nations Development Program Turkey. This program has been recorded at the studio of Radyo İlef of Ankara University Communications Department. You can follow our program on Açık Radyo (Open Radio) on FM frequency, on university radios in our broadcasting network, on iTunes under podcasts and on undp.org.tr. Our username for social media is undpturkiye. Hope to see you next week, good bye!