Issue: 51
The line of clothes and accessories, the Argande Collection, debuted on the runway in February during Istanbul Fashion Week. The collection is also available in 17 stores in seven provinces in Turkey.
With the voluntary support of the fashion designers and MUDO, 145 women in Turkey’s South East Anatolia region developed the fashion line. The women drew inspiration for their designs from traditional Anatolian motifs such as myths, spring festival ceremonies, wedding traditions and nature. The name Argande also derives from the name of a beautiful goddess and ruler of ancient Mesopotamia.
To apply business techniques with the regional motifs, the female entrepreneurs received training in business skills such as sales and marketing, and in technical skills such as design, cutting and sewing. SIDA provided financing for such things as machines and material. The designs were then produced in ateliers, or workshops, set up in multi-purpose community centers (ÇATOM) in Batman and Mardin Ömerli. The collection is being sold at Istanbul’s prestigious shopping mall, Istinye Park, as well as in stores in Ankara, İzmir, Antalya, Bursa and Mersin.
At the moment, just 3 percent of women in Anatolia generate income from labor, while in Turkey, overall, 19 percent of women earn income. This Argande initiative helps change this trend and generate economic impact, with all proceeds from sales transferred to the women designing and producing the product.
“The project has changed the lives of hundreds of women in the South East,” MUDO Board Member Ömer Tavlioğlu said. “Not only do the designers have good pieces but you also get a sense of doing something good. We do not get any of the profits and we do not charge any fees.”
Fashion designer Hatice Gökçe added that the Argande Collection also revived two forgotten traditional fabrics, the woven fabric kutnu and the 100 percent wool woven fabric selşapik. "Selşapik is a very special fabric,” she said. “There were only four craftsmen producing it in Şırnak, with Argande, this number rose to 20.”
The designers participating in the project included Alex Akimoglu, Banu Bora, Rojin Aslı Polat, Hakan Yıldırım, Zeynep Tosun, Günseli Türkay, Aida Pekin, Ezra Çetin, Tuba Çetin, Rana Canok, Berna Canok Özay, Deniz Yeğin, Simay Bülbül, Gamze Saraçoğlu, Özgür Masur and Mehtap Elaidi. The MUDO company provided support in marketing the brand. Photographer Gencer Baybek, make-up artist Derya Ergun and the face of the brand, model Ahu Yagtu, also donated their services pro bono.
The project, Innovations for Women’s Empowerment in the GAP Region, was implemented jointly by UNDP Turkey and the GAP Regional Development Administration and with financing from the Swedish development agency, SIDA.
“Neither the photographer nor the face of the brand received money from the shoots, and all the persons who contributed their efforts did so on voluntary basis,” project manager, Gonul Sulargil, said. “We bought the machinery at the ateliers with the funds allocated from the project budget. There is no project like it in the world. We are now trying to make sure that it is sustainable.”
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This Year is about YOUTH. In an effort to harness the energy, imagination and initiative of the world’s youth in overcoming the challenges facing humankind, from enhancing peace to boosting economic development, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution on 18 December 2009, proclaiming an International Year of Youth starting on 12 August 2010. The Year will coincide with the 25th anniversary of the first International Youth Year in 1985 on the theme Participation, Development and Peace.
The General Assembly called on governments, civil society, individuals and communities worldwide to support activities at local and international levels to mark the event. Under the theme ‘Dialogue and Mutual Understanding,’ the Year aims to encourage dialogue and understanding across generations and promote the ideals of peace, respect for human rights and freedoms, as well as solidarity. It encourages young people to dedicate themselves to fostering progress, including the attainment of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which seek to slash a host of social ills, ranging from extreme poverty and hunger to maternal and infant mortality to lack of access to education and health care, all by 2015.
In order to make international dialogue more accessible and user friendly, a Facebook page has been launched in which interested participants can share their ideas and discuss topic relating to the Youth Year. The page will also act as a site for the launch of the second activity of the year: a youth consultation on low cost activities for the Year. Young people are encouraged to post their suggestions for low cost activities that they can organize in order to celebrate the International Year of Youth: Dialogue and Mutual Understanding. Suggestions need to be submitted by 15 March 2010; the most creative suggestions will be advertised on Twitter and in the newsletter Youth Flash!
Furthermore, several international events are already scheduled throughout the year. They include the Fifth World Youth Congress, to be held from 31 July to 13 August 2010 in Istanbul, Turkey, and the World Conference for Youth, in Mexico City from 24 to 27 August. Both gatherings will focus on youth and sustainable development in the context of the Millennium Development Goals. The inaugural Youth Olympic Games in Singapore (14-26 August), will aim at inspiring youth around the world to embrace, embody and express the Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect.
The 5th World Youth Congress in Turkey will welcome 1000 young people from around the world to meet during Istanbul's year as the European Capital of Culture. The participants will decide, train, perform, discover, volunteer, present and represent in the featured campus of Yıldız Technical University in Istanbul. For more information please visit the 5th World Youth Congress website. UNDP Turkey’s 2008 national Human Development report Youth in Turkey which offers guidance on how employment, education and health policies for youth need to be reshaped to ensure that these policies are people-oriented and better prepare the country for the coming demographic challenges, was highly influential leading to the formulation of the country’s first ever youth policy.
The UN General Assembly on 17 December 1999 in its resolution 54/120, endorsed the recommendation made by the World Conference of Ministers Responsible for Youth (Lisbon, 8-12 August 1998) that 12 August be declared International Youth Day. It is a great opportunity to rally support and get key actors involved - Governments, non-governmental organizations, academic institutions, businesses, and young people - to focus on what has been done to further the World Programme of Action for Youth.
As Nicola Shepherd, focal point on youth at the UN, said, "The international year is about advancing the full and effective participation of youth in all aspects of society. We encourage all sectors of society to work in partnership with youth and youth organisations to better understand their needs and concerns and to recognise the contributions that they can make to society.” Let’s take this opportunity presented to us by the Youth Year to fully appreciate the importance that youth play in society and learn to utilize their different perspectives and imagination for generating different solutions to global issues.
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Prepared with the collaboration of UNDP’s Regional Centre in Bratislava, and local experts in six UNDP Country Offices in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Poland, Turkey and Ukraine, the report addresses the challenges of transition and development processes in the region that have been occurring without the full participation of women and has led to the weakening of women’s position in political and socio-economic life.
The report titled “Enhancing Women’s Political Participation: A Policy Note for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States" focuses on the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Poland, Turkey and Ukraine.
The report is based on research identifying the possibilities for programming changes that can potentially increase UNDP results on gender mainstreaming and women’s empowerment. National statistical data, reports prepared by NGOs and think tanks, reports of international development institutions and agencies,Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) country comments and recommendations, and their implementation were also analyzed as part of the research. As a result of research and analysis, Issue Papers from six countries were drafted and presented at the International Stakeholder Conference on Women and Government held in İstanbul in 2008.
Topics discussed at roundtables throughout 2008 included: women’s empowerment initiatives in UNDP: lessons learned, opportunities, challenges faced to enhance and promote women’s participation in politics; and setting the agenda for women’s political participation in relation to the role of political parties, media and civil society. The International Stakeholder Conference on Women and Government conference, organized as a joint effort of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in association with Turkish International Cooperation & Development Agency (TIKA) under the Framework of the South-South cooperation Project, aimed to provide a platform for exchange among women and men from the region to create opportunity to identify the issues related to women and governance and explore ways to address them while taking into account good practices and lessons learned from other countries. Around 130 participants from more than 20 countries around the region as well as those from outside the region shared valuable knowledge and experience of good practices and lessons learned including actions to support women’s participation and the promotion of greater gender equality in governance.
Using a wide scope of research, the report aims to identify and analyze the reasons for women’s low political participation (such as electoral systems, stereotypes, historical legacy etc.) and propose concrete actions to address them. Another important aim of the report is to mobilize local stakeholders and partners in order to collect information and support the building of a broader Gender Community of Practice (CoP) that consists of policy makers, academics, NGO activists and UNDP Gender Focal Points in country offices of the region.
UNDP has a two-pronged mandate for working towards gender equality: gender mainstreaming and women’s empowerment. The integration of a gender perspective into programming and policy-making – Gender Mainstreaming – has become a key UNDP priority. A comprehensive strategy aimed at achieving greater gender equality, Gender Mainstreaming is attained by integrating a gender perspective into existing mainstream institutions and all programmatic areas or sectors (e.g., trade, health, education, environment, transportation, etc.). Gender mainstreaming makes a gender dimension explicit in all policy sectors. Gender equality is no longer viewed as a “separate question,” but becomes a concern for all policies and programmes. Furthermore, a gender mainstreaming approach does not look at women in isolation, but looks at men and women—both as actors in the development process and as its beneficiaries. Women in Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States region encounter gender-based inequalities, some of which have emerged due to the policies of the transition period while others are due to the re-emergence of certain conservative ideologies and hidden biases that disadvantage women.
For this reason it is important for policy-makers and practitioners to embrace a gender mainstreaming approach in the design and implementation of policies in this region so as to better address the gender-based inequalities and forms of social exclusion.
Advocacy and monitoring tools for gender-related human development analysis and policy discussions are determined according two UNDP measures. While the Gender-related Development Index (GDI) measures achievement in the same basic capabilities as the Human Development Index (HDI) does, but takes note of inequality in achievement between women and men. The Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM), on the other hand, is more relevant to the policy note as it evaluates progress in advancing women's standing in political and economic forums. It examines the extent to which women and men are able to actively participate in economic and political life and take part in decision-making. GEM is concerned with the use of women’s capabilities to take advantage of the opportunities of life. According to the latest GEM, based on 2007 data, Turkey ranks the lowest among the six countries on which the report takes into consideration, despite having a higher ranking on the HDI compared to Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan for instance. Standing 101st out of a total of 109 countries, Turkey still has a long way in achieving gender equality, especially in politics. "Enhancing Women’s Political Participation: A Policy Note for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States" will highlight Turkey’s recent achievements in the field of gender equality during the past decade, however, the policy note will also present a bleak picture of the long road ahead to adopt more comprehensive and effective measures to increase women’s participation in politics as is reflected in the country’s GEM ranking.
The publication "Enhancing Women’s Political Participation: A Policy Note for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States" will be available for dissemination from March 2010 onwards. Launches and presentations of the publication are envisaged both at national level and in a UNDP side event to the 54th session of the Commission on the Status of Women.
In his message for 8 March International Women’s Day, celebrated this year under the theme "Equal rights, equal opportunities: progress for all", United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that equality for women and girls is a social and economic imperative and continued: ”Until women and girls are liberated from poverty and injustice, all our goals -- peace, security, sustainable development -- stand in jeopardy.”
Crediting the resolute efforts of civil society, the Secretary General highlighted important progress around the world such as increase in primary education for girls and women’s empowerment efforts in business and the government. A growing number of countries have legislation that supports sexual and reproductive health and promotes gender equality.” said Ban Ki-moon.
Gender stereotyping and discrimination remain common in all cultures and communities. Early and forced marriage, so-called ‘honour killing’, sexual abuse and trafficking of young women and girls are still disturbingly prevalent.
Ban Ki-Moon explained that the United Nations must lead by example. “Emphasizing that women are central to peace and security, we are working to deploy more women military and police officers in our peacekeeping operations. We have more women in senior United Nations posts than at any time in history, and we hope soon to have a dynamic composite entity within the UN system to provide more coherent programming and a stronger voice for gender equality and women’s empowerment. I urge the General Assembly to create this new entity without delay” he said on his message on for International Women’s Day.
The Secretary General’s 2008 campaign 'UNite to End Violence against Women', a multi-year effort aimed at preventing and eliminating violence against women and girls in all parts of the world and the recently launched Network of Men Leaders are striving to expand UN’s global advocacy for gender equality.
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Finding, interviewing, and documenting the tales of the Yörük communities scattered in the rural parts of Ankara, Konya, Antalya, Mersin and Balıkesir, the "Lost Tales" joint project of Atlas Magazine and Buğday Derneği supported by UNDP and Coca-Cola Turkey’s LifePlus Youth Programme, received Doğan Media Group’s prestigious Most Innovative Social Responsibility Award.
Since 2003, Doğan Media Group’s Innovation Awards support the implementation innovative projects. This year, the Most Innovative Social Responsibility Award was given to Atlas Magazine for publishing 'Lost Tales' as well as advertising the project to continually generate public interest. The project has acted as a bridge between the project team and readers. 'Lost Tales' set an example of collaboration between media and the civil society with respect to social responsibilities.
During the making of 'Lost Tales' the project team travelled ten thousand kilometres and visited around 100 dwellings to record 50 Yörük tales. These tales were then gathered in a book and published in Atlas Magazine. Furthermore, the Köse tale was brought to life utilizing stop-motion technique. Following the Köse film presentation at the Altın Portakal Film Festival and receiving second place in the Fourth Annual JCI Istanbul Crossroads International Short Film Festival, 'Lost Tales' was awarded by Doğan Media Group in the field of social responsibility.
The project also significantly preserved the cultural heritage of the Yörüks. The Yörük tales told straight from the mouths of storytellers, and the animation feature based on the Köse tale that the project team brought to life utilizing stop motion technology, was published on Atlas Magazine’s webpage.
Founded in 2005, the LifePlus Youth Programme, run by the UNDP in cooperation with and support from Coca-Cola Turkey, was established to support innovative and sustainable project ideas of youth which reflect youth's dynamism and encourages partnerships for addressing development challenges. With this Project, it is aimed to support youth platforms for their innovative approaches to contribute to the efforts for improved conditions in the cities to make their environment healthier, more convivial and more socially livable for increased social interaction and the betterment of community relations as a way to enhance collective well-being and social capital. The Life Plus Youth Programme led Coca-Cola to establish the Life Plus Foundation in August 2009.
The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs’ Report on the World Social Situation 2010 titled Rethinking Poverty published in January 2010 stresses that poverty is multifaceted, multidimensional and subject to volatility, encompassing time and relativity dimensions. As such, the report argues poverty “cannot be defined by a single expenditure criterion that separates the poor from the non-poor”.
Rethinking Poverty advocates the formulation of more responsible development and counter-cyclical macroeconomic policies to reduce poverty that puts decent jobs at the centre of development strategies to improve the lives of current and future generations.
Affirming the urgent need for a strategic shift away from the market fundamentalist thinking, policies and practices of recent decades towards more sustainable development- and equity-oriented policies appropriate to national conditions and circumstances the report proposes that it is time to rethink the way we understand poverty, how it is measured, and the policies used to address it.
Poverty is the principal cause of hunger and undernourishment. According to most recent estimates of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO, 2009), the number of hungry people worldwide is 963 million or about 14.6% of the estimated world population of 6.6 billion, representing an increase of 142 million over the figure for 1990-1992.
The new report proposes a universalist approach which extends to those faced with deficits within any dimension of well-being, whether in a state of money poverty or not. Thus, this alternative strategy to the income poverty line addresses all deficits in specific dimensions through the provision of access to all people in the form of rightful entitlements.
Approaches to poverty reduction should be developmental and holistic, integrating economic and social policies to achieve people-centered development outcomes. Rethinking Poverty asserts that social policy should focus on the determinants of wealth and income distribution as well as generating decent employment. An employment strategy aimed at promoting decent work should be fundamental for any equitable and sustainable development strategy, while macroeconomic policy must include employment creation argues the report.
Considering its impact on poverty reduction, inequality and growth, Rethinking Poverty also presents the development of human resources as integral to a comprehensive development strategy and advocates that public social expenditures in education and health are critical for human resources development. Furthermore, social protection systems are presented as essential to eradicating poverty. According to the report, these systems should be implemented to cover basic risks against ill health, ageing and unemployment to mitigate the vulnerability of the poor.
Finally, the report underscores the importance of the international community in promoting more effective investment efforts to contribute to solidarity and equity through increased aid and opening up markets to products coming from developing countries.
Fifteen years ago, global leaders at the World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen described poverty eradication as an ethical, political and economic imperative, and identified it asone of the three pillars of social development. Poverty eradication has since become the overarching objective of development, as reflected in the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals which set the target of halving global extreme poverty by 2015. Judging from statistics, there has been some success in reducing global poverty levels. According to the World Bank, the number of people living on less than $1.25 a day in developing countries declined from 1.9 billion to 1.4 billion between 1981 and 2005 at 2005 purchasing power parity. In addition, the proportion of people living in extreme poverty dropped from 52.0 to 25.7 percent during this period.
Improvements in overall poverty levels have largely depended on growth. Countries or regions that have experienced strong growth during the last two decades have managed to reduce poverty levels, particularly in urban areas. It is the success of China and East Asia, and to some extent India, that has largely driven global poverty trends downward. However, not every region or country has recorded such remarkable progress. The absolute number of people living in poverty has gone up in several countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and Northern Africa, as well as in Central Asia.
Editor: Aygen Aytaç
Assistant: Ece Ergen
Interns: Begüm Kalemdaroğlu, Elif Ostaş
© 2010 UNDP Turkey
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