Issue: 31
That's according to a new report launched in New York on 3 June 2008 by the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, as it called on governments, international institutions and civil society to put legal empowerment front and centre in the fight against global poverty. In this context the report also calls on UNDP to take the lead and work with other UN agencies to develop a coherent multilateral agenda for the legal empowerment of the poor.
"The lesson is clear. When democratic rules are ignored and there is no law capable of providing shelter, the people who suffer most are those who can least afford to lose," said former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright who co-chairs the independent Commission, which is supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). "Creating an infrastructure of laws, rights, enforcement and adjudication makes the difference between vulnerability and security, desperation and dignity for hundreds of millions of our fellow human beings".
The Report, entitled 'Making the Law Work for Everyone' highlights that half the people in urban areas worldwide live in squatter settlements and work in shadow economies. An even larger numbers live in isolated rural areas with limited secure access to land and other resources. They operate outside the law: they enter into informal labour contracts, run unregistered businesses and often occupy land to which they have no formal rights. In the Philippines, 65% of homes and businesses are unregistered, in Tanzania 90%. In many countries the figure is over 80%. The informal economy accounts for over a third of the developing world's economy.
“Poor people already have agreements among themselves, social contracts, and what you have to do is professionally standardize these contracts to create one legal system that everybody recognizes and respects." said Hernando de Soto, Commission Co-chair.
No modern market economy can function without law and to be legitimate, power itself must submit to the law, stresses the Commission. It identifies four crucial pillars which must be central in national and international efforts to legal empowerment of the poor: access to justice and rule of law, property rights, labour rights, and 'business rights'.
Co-chair Albright says, "legal empowerment of the poor is vital to reducing long-term vulnerability. Only when the poor have legal protection for their property, security of tenure and access to affordable credit will they make the necessary investments for increased growth and productivity. Unlocking the hidden energies and creative potential of the poor is at the heart of the Commission's work — and should be at the heart of any effort to eradicate poverty."
When the laws of society present a barrier to the poor, then the idea of the law as a legitimate institution of democratic governance is injured, warn the commissioners. In contrast, by expanding legal protection, more citizens develop an increased stake in the maintenance of a peaceful social order and the stability of the local government. The Commission argues that strategies that expand legal empowerment to the poor have an impact on the broader issues of stability, peace and democratic governance.
"Governments exist to serve the needs of their citizens. Expanding the blanket of legal protection to the poor serves to strengthen — particularly in the eyes of the poor — the value and legitimacy of the local government." Co-chair, Hernando de Soto continues,
The Commission's report concedes that, "making poverty history cannot be accomplished through Legal Empowerment alone, but it is hard to see how it can be done without it." The report dwells on the importance of law and explains the four pillars of legal empowerment. It calls for an agenda for change regarding access to justice, property rights, labour rights and business rights and gives recommendations for implementation strategies.
Regarding the report, UNDP Administrator Kemal Derviş said: “we now understand better the role of the state in terms of the legal and institutional framework; development strategies are not about choosing between state-led and private-led development. Rather it really is about how to bring the two together to provide framework that affords opportunities for all. UNDP is delighted to respond to the Comission’s call. In the months ahead we will draw attention to this crucial agenda and work with partners at all levels and from all sectors”.
The Commission is comprised of 21 Commissioners, including former heads of state and government, cabinet ministers, jurists, economic researchers, and other senior policymakers from the North, South, East and West. Over three years, the Commission conducted 22 national consultation processes with representatives from local governments, academia, civil society and grassroots movements and launched five technical working groups which submitted specialized reports.
Madeleine K. Albright is the former United States Secretary of State and the former US Permanent Representative of the United Nations. She is currently a Principal of the Albright Capital Management LLC, on investment advisory firm focused on emerging markets.
Hernando de Soto is President of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy and author of the seminal works The Mystery of Capital and The Other Path.
UNDP’s work on legal empowerment of the poor
Legal empowerment of the poor is a concept that is already strongly anchored in the new Strategic Plan 2008-2011. UNDP’s ongoing efforts in areas such as promoting access to justice, inclusive markets, better inheritance and property rights for women, as well as securing labour rights is guided by the belief that legal empowerment is essential for human development.
Effective reforms for legal empowerment of the poor can be a powerful complement to more established policies and strategies for achieving the MDGs. It is an agenda that brings two of UNDP’s critical areas of work – democratic governance and poverty reduction – more closely together.
This article is a compilation of UNDP articles.
The Project aims to contribute to increased efficiency of the criminal justice system through provision of technical know-how and capacity building for the practices of the Ministry of Justice in the areas of restorative justice and victim offender mediation in Turkey.
Within the broader framework of a capacity building strategy being initiated by the Ministry of Justice, the project will contribute to the institutional capacity building through training of trainers in the field of restorative justice in general, victim-offender mediation in particular and contribute to broader application of this alternative dispute resolution mechanism through awareness raising programs.
The workshop was inaugurated by Deputy Undersecretary Mr. Ahmet Kahraman, Criminal Affairs General Director Mr. Nizamettin Kalaman, Head of Training Department Mr. Özcan Avcı and UNDP Turkey Deputy Resident Representative Ms. Ulrika Richardson-Golinski.
During the meeting, issues of the place and importance of mediation in the Turkish criminal justice system were taken up as well as the experiences, gains and challenges of the use of mediation practices in Turkey and the relation between restorative justice and criminal law. The findings of the survey that had been previously conducted on mediation and it’s implementation were also shared with the participants and small workshops were organized.
To receive further information on the project, please click here.
The conference was inaugurated with Prof. Dr. Murat Güvenç - member of the Board of Trustees at Bilgi University - signing the Global Compact on behalf of Bilgi University.
Among the participants were academics, state institutions officials and NGOs as well as representatives of the private sector from every sector at every scale, including representatives of approximately 100 Global Compact member firms.
Following the signing ceremony, issues such as the revision of the mission and membership structure of the Executive Council, corporate social responsibility (CSR) implementations, monitoring and CSR reporting were taken up. Programme Manager at UNDP’s private sector office in Istanbul Hansin Doğan on the other hand delivered a speech and explained the Global Compact’s current situation. Doğan presented the Global Compact Turkey Network activities and shared his experiences from the recent Regional Global Compact Network meeting in Athens and touched upon the opportunities and challenges of the Global Compact efforts.
During the meeting workshops were also organized in which participants took up a wide variety of issues such as measures to be taken to make the Executive Council more effective, sharing of good examples among Global Compact members, monitoring Global Compact reporting, corporate social responsibility and the organization of the Global Compact Turkey Network.
Hemite, a village in Osmaniye, in southern Turkey is interpenetrated with wastes... The animal excretion that is being left in the village uncontrolled has significant impacts on human health and the environment. Agricultural and animal wastes are mixing into the Ceyhan River via surface and ground waters. Uncontrolled stacking of animal excretion by households who live on great cattle raising because living spaces are very cramped and because there is no place to store animal excretion, is posing a threat on the villagers and children in particular. The Hemite and Surrounding Villages Communal Development and Initiative Association has therefore come to the village’s rescue in order to collect animal excrements in a controlled way and to obtain good quality bio-fertilizer and biogas and has developed the “Production of Biogas and Biomass from Systematically Collected Cattle Manure” project through the support of the Small Investments Fund established by Baku-Tfilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline Company (BTC) and UNDP.
When great cattle excretion is discharged into the environment without any treatment, a bad odour and harmful bacteria start to form. Resources that are left in the nature, cause air and water pollution and the gas formed during their degradation cause global warming and climate change once they reach the atmosphere. Moreover, stacking animal excretion on surface and in open, prevents the necessary reactions that convert wastes into fertilizers from taking place and certain minerals get lost by leaking through soil.
The fertilizer value of animal excrements that will be used in a proper biogas unit will increase by 2. Moreover, when biogas is burnt, the heat energy that is formed is 4.5 times more than cow dung and 2,5 times more than wood. The biogas that will be formed at the biogas unit established for this reason, will also be converted into electrical energy and will be used to increase the productivity of the milk storage unit in the village. Bio-fertilizer that will be another output of the reactor will be sold. In this context, the project aims to develop businesses and ecologically sustainable production through the use of alternative energy.
The Head of Hemite and Neighbouring Villages Communal Development and Initiative Association and the project coordinator Mehmet Özer further explained the objectives of the project to New Horizons.
Mehmet Özer (M.Ö.): The reason for why we developed this project is because the living space in our village is very limited. The locals of this village mainly live on animal husbandry and because they don’t have gardens, they live cramped with animal wastes. Our children too face health risks because their playing areas are also almost non-existent. Our goal is to spare people, children and the environment from such an unhealthy atmosphere and to minimize the threats posed on environment by collecting animal wastes in a regular manner. In addition, as you know Turkey is a country that is dependent on foreign countries for it’s energy supply, in other words we have a deficit of energy. Therefore we want to produce our own energy using this biogas establishment. Our agricultural cooperative has a milk cooling tank and a compound feed unit and we will produce energy for these establishments. Moreover our farmers and producers will be able to benefit from the bio-fertilizer that we will produce by drying these wastes. We will provide veterinary services to the animals of whose excretion is collected and this will reduce the costs of the producers in maintaining their animals’ health. We will provide animals with regular vaccination, controls and general health care. In fact we have already started our veterinary services.
UNDP Turkey: But how will you encourage the locals to collect manure? In other words how will you ensure that villagers collect animal wastes rather than discharge these in the environment?
M.Ö.: Empty barrels will be distributed to households and a person with a tractor will come by every day, will collect the full barrels and trade them with new empty ones.
UNDP Turkey: Where will the full barrels be collected?
M.Ö.: The barrels will be collected in the reactor that will be established. There, we will mix these with water and produce gas.
UNDP Turkey: What are the activities that have been realized so far in the context of the project as well as future activities?
M.Ö.: Until now, we established a compound feed unit with the agricultural development cooperative. We held one-on-one discussions with animal owners and explained them what services we will provide and how they will collect wastes in barrels. We vaccinated animals to protect them against diseases. We took hair samples from animals and conducted studies to increase their milk, we added the necessary minerals to their feed and conducted tests on 3 or 5 of the animals. We observed a particular increase of milk in the animals that were tested on. For example, the milk that did not contain added minerals was not too productive but with the minerals the productivity of the milk increases by 1,5 times.
UNDP Turkey: Ok. When will the construction of the reactor start?
M.Ö.: The construction will start at the end of June and will be completed at the end of July. Then there is a two-month testing period and I believe that the reactor will start to operate in full capacity by the end of August or September.
UNDP Turkey: How will you maintain the sustainability of the project? In other words will barrels be collected every day from now on?
M.Ö.: Ofcourse, everyday. Because we have hired someone for this job. He will collect barrels everyday with his tractor. We already held one-on-one discussions for this. They will not do any other job apart from this. They will collect animal excrements every day, will empty these into the tractor and will empty the liquid bio-fertilizer that will be produced in the pools. We don’t have any problems in this regard. In fact the number of animal owners that say “collect our manure” has already increased. In addition, there are other villages who are members of our association as well, our neighbour villages and we might collect manure from them in the future too.
In the context of the project, training will also be organized targeting great cattle breeders that teach them how the biogas reactor works. Moreover, the outputs of the project will be shared with all relevant institutions via meetings that will be held. The project that will be implemented in three villages – Hemite, Sakarcalı and Orhaniye – ends on 31 July 2008. Other institutions that support the project are Par Consultancy and Gökçedam Agricultural Development Cooperative..
On 9 June 2008, a team from UNDP that is responsible for the projects implemented under the framework of the Small Investments Fund visited Hemite and other project sites in the context of the fund. The team was joined by Andrew Yager, Senior Economic Affairs Officer at the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs and Dr. Hisham Zerriffi, an energy policies expert at the British Columbia University. Yager and Zerriffi toured the project sites, received information on the projects and provided implementors with technical information.
The Small Investments Fund that was formed in 2004 by UNDP and BTC Pipeline Company is contributing to the sustainable economic development of the poor living in the regions where the pipeline traverses and aims to protect the natural resources that the locals are dependent on for a living thus causing minimal disruption to the communities and natural environment along the pipeline route.
The overall purpose of convening a high-level conference was to address food security and agricultural development issues and the new challenges of climate change as well as energy security. Following the summit, the delegates announced that there would be major funding increases to tackle hunger and longer-term agricultural development.
In a statement they made, officials at the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) stated that the money will benefit countries hard hit by current world food crisis allowing them to grow enough food for themselves in the coming planting season as well. In the context of the funding, investments will also be made in these countries on agriculture and research. Accordingly the UN’s Central Emergency Relief Fund (CERF) will provide 100 million dollars and the World Bank will provide 1.2 billion dollars. Other contributors include the Islamic Development Bank, African Development Bank, France, Spain, the United Kingdom, Japan, Kuwait, the Netherlands, Venezuela and New Zealand. The immediate measures to help suffering countries will include increasing nutritional and other feeding programmes, supplying fertilizers, seeds, animal feed and veterinary services.
The conference that was attended by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, 40 Heads of State, representatives from 181 countries, Ministers dealing with agriculture, livestock, forestry, fisheries, water, energy and environment as well as heads of UN-system agencies, financial institutions, selected inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations was built upon the works initiated at the expert meetings and stakeholder consultations that took place during January-April 2008. The expert meetings had examined the opportunities and constraints for the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors as well as methods and tools for capacity building, policy implications and possible partnerships while the stakeholder consultations had allowed civil society organizations and private sector stakeholders to express their views regarding food security, climate change and bioenergy and identify areas of common work.
During the high-level summit, discussions were held on how to assist countries and the international community in devising sustainable solutions to food crisis by identifying policies, strategies and programmes required to safeguard world food security in the immediate, short and longer term. The International Task Force set up by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on 28 April 2008 and which consists of the heads of key UN agencies, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as well as of experts from around the globe also presented its action plan on food crisis, based on their first meeting in May 2008 in New York. The action plan is a comprehensive plan to tackle the rise in food prices (please click here to view the updates on the activities of the International Task Force).
During the summit, private sector forums and roundtable meetings were also organized on the causes, consequences and solutions for high food prices, transboundary pests and diseases, bioenergy, climate change and food security. By the end of the three-day summit a declaration was adopted envisaging increased assistance for developing countries.
Four year strategic plan to tackle hunger
A week after the summit on food crisis, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) announced a new four-year strategic plan to tackle high levels of hunger caused by global food crisis. The new strategic plan emphasizes on life-saving emergency aid, such as for the 3 million vulnerable people in Darfur, but it also focuses on prevention, local purchase of food, using targeted cash and voucher programmes when food is available locally but not accessible for the hungry. Accordingly, the tools laid out in the plan include early warning systems and vulnerability analysis as well as preparedness and disaster reduction and effective emergency response in life-saving situations. The plan will also include strengthening smallholder farming, communication networks, school meals and support for mother-and-child health and nutrition programmes.
THE CHALLENGES OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND BIOENERGY
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon addressed the participants during the summit on food crisis. His speech is as follows:
“Mr. President, Giorgio Napolitano,
Distinguished Heads of State and Government
Mr. Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi,
Dr. Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the FAO,
Ministers,
Excellencies,
and Distinguished Delegates
You all know about the severity and scale of the global food crisis. Before this emergency, more than 850 million people in the world were short of food. The World Bank estimates that this figure could rise by a further 100 million. The poorest of the poor spend two-thirds or more of their income on food. They will be hardest hit.
I have seen this for myself. In Liberia recently, I met people who normally would buy rice by the bag. Today, they buy it by the cup. In Cote d’Ivoire , the leaders of a country recovering from conflict and trying to build a democracy told me how they feared that food riots could undo all their hard work. We fear the same in other countries that, with UN help, have made gains in recent years: Afghanistan , Haiti and Liberia , to name but a few. And let us not forget the millions who suffer in silence and will go hungry unnoticed.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:
The threats are obvious to us all. Yet this crisis also presents us with an opportunity. It is a chance to revisit past policies. While we must respond immediately to high food prices, it is important that our longer term focus is on improving world food security - and remains so for some years
That is why I am so pleased that we are here. I thank Dr. Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the FAO, for his leadership. The world needs to produce more food. Food production needs to rise by 50% by the year 2030 to meet the rising demand. We have an historic opportunity to revitalize agriculture - especially in countries where productivity gains have been low in recent years.
Governments have already begun to respond. Some countries are helping farmers pay for basic agricultural “inputs,” such as seeds and fertilizers, the price of which has been so significantly affected by the rise in oil prices. We urgently need to find ways to support these initiatives, politically and financially.
That is why last month I set up a High-Level Task Force to come up with a Comprehensive Framework for Action. I want us to have a shared understanding of both the problems and solutions, and to move forward together, with urgency.
I would like to share some of the Task Force's recommendations with you.
First, we must improve vulnerable people's access to food and take immediate steps to increase food availability in their communities.
This includes:
· expanding food assistance through food aid, vouchers or cash;
· scaling up nutritional support and improving safety nets and social protection programmes to help the most vulnerable;
· boosting smallholder farmer food production through an urgent injection of key inputs (including seeds and fertilizers) in time for this year’s planting seasons;
· improving rural infrastructure and links to markets, and expanding micro-credit programmes;
· adjusting trade and taxation policies to minimize export restrictions and import tariffs, and helping the free flow of agricultural goods;
· skillfully managing the impact of rising food prices on inflation and macro-economic policy;
· supporting balance of payments of net food importing countries where necessary; and
· helping to ensure that short term measures to respond to food price rises are financially sustainable for governments.
To guide us, we must improve food security and nutritional assessment systems, to ensure that we receive early warnings of hardship and are ready to respond.
Some countries have taken action by limiting exports or by imposing price controls. As I have said before, I say again now: Beggar Thy Neighbor food policies cannot work. They only distort markets and force prices even higher. I call on nations to resist such measures, and to immediately release exports designated for humanitarian purposes.
Second, we must act for longer term resilience and contribute to global food security.
This means:
· addressing structural issues that impede agricultural development;
· ensuring long term investment in smallholder farming in developing countries, including technical and financial support;
· helping governments to reinforce social safety nets for the neediest and most vulnerable people;
· looking at rural infrastructure needs, as well as new financing mechanisms;
· eliminating trade and taxation policies that distort markets - not least through rapid resolution of the Doha round; and
· supporting promising research into optimal food crops and better animal production systems, and adapting known technologies to existing food chains.
And we should also reach a greater degree of international consensus on bio-fuels.
These are parallel tracks—immediate needs must not be met at the expense of long-term solutions.
The international system is already contributing to immediate needs.
The FAO has called for $1.7 billion in new funding to provide low-income countries with seeds and other agricultural support and has initiated a programme to counter soaring food prices.
The World Food Program has raised the additional $755 million it needs to meet existing commitments this year. We owe a great debt of thanks to 31 generous donor-nations, most notably the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia . It will, of course, need significant extra resources to respond to new needs arising from the impact of the food crisis.
The International Fund for Agricultural Development is giving an additional $200 million to poor farmers in the most affected countries and will want to do more as further resources become available.
The World Bank has established a new $1.2 billion rapid financing facility to address immediate needs and boost food production, including $200 million in grants targeted at the world’s poorest nations.
I have set aside a reserve of $100 million from the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund to help fund new humanitarian needs arising from soaring food prices.
The Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, NGOs and various civil society groups have mobilized as well. They are sponsoring new feeding programs to combat hunger and malnutrition, paying for medicine and sending children to school. Private sector groups are engaged too.
We will work together to scale up these efforts and to ensure that national authorities are able to coordinate their implementation.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Let me conclude by noting that the world’s population will reach 7.2 billion by 2015. Today’s problems will only grow larger tomorrow unless we act now.
I call on you to take bold and urgent steps to address the root causes of this global food crisis. We want a firm commitment to moving ahead.
This will not be easy. It may require big increases in financial support—often in the form of grants and material assistance, not lending. The UN Africa MDG Steering Group has estimated the requirements to realize a Green Revolution in Africa at some $8 to 10 billion annually, just to boost productivity. This suggests that the overall global price tag for national governments and international donors could exceed $ 15 to 20 billion annually, over a number of years.
Whatever the final figures, this will require enormous political will.
We must therefore leave this conference with a sense of purpose and mission, knowing that we are allied in our determination to make a difference. Only by acting together, in partnership, can we overcome this crisis, today and for tomorrow. Hundreds of millions of the world’s people expect no less.
Nothing is more degrading than hunger, especially when man-made. It breeds anger, social disintegration, ill-health and economic decline.
In the name of the development goals we all set at the Millennium, the right to food and our common humanity, I urge you to act together now.
Thank you”.
The project is supported by the Millennium Development Goals Achievement Fund (MDG-F) jointly established by the Government of Spain and UNDP. The MDG-F was established in December 2006 to accelerate the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals at a global level. In this context a total of US$ 7 million was awarded to Turkey in April 2008 through a project.
The kick-off meeting of the project entitled “Enhancing the Capacity of Turkey to Adapt to Climate Change” was attended by Prof. Dr. Lütfi Akça, Director General for Environmental Management at the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Manuel Larrotcha Parada, Deputy Chief of Mission at the Spanish Embassy, İlhan Atış, Adana Governor, Ulrika Richardson-Golinski, Deputy Resident Representative of United Nations Development Programme, Tsukasa Kimoto, Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations Representative, Celal Armangil, United Nations Industrial Development Organization National Coordinator in Turkey as well as by representatives from the Ministries of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Energy and Natural Resources, Industry and Trade and from the State Planning Organization, Çukurova University, NGOs and the private sector.
During her opening remarks, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative Ulrika Richardson-Golinski explained the threats caused by climate change and said: “climate change has significant impact on our daily lives whether we are living in cities or rural areas and whether we are poor or rich”. Golinski added that “no one is immune from the results of climate change and mankind can not reverse the effects of climate change but that the best way to reduce its effects is focusing on mitigation and adaptation”.
Following UNDP Deputy Resident Representative’s speech, FAO Representative Tsukasa Kimoto stressed that high food prices were causing socio-economic problems and said: “I hope that the project will encourage high agricultural productivity and helps communities to better adapt to the changes and negative effects that climate change brings”. Deputy Chief of Mission of the Spanish Embassy Manuel Larrotcha Parada on the other hand pointed out to the appropriate timing of the project, reminding that the Environment Day had been celebrated a week ago and drew attention to the words of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon that “it is time to wake up before it’s too late”. Parada reiterated that climate change is not only a threat but a reality and that creative initiatives are needed. Parada stressed the importance of “thinking locally and acting locally” and added that the Government of Spain is eager to support Turkey’s modernization process. Director General of Environmental Management of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry Prof. Dr. Lütfi Akça on the other hand restated the importance of the timing of which the project was launched and reminded that Turkey had taken a few steps forward in signing the Kyoto Protocol. Akça explained the importance of signing the protocol and why Turkey should sign it.
Following the welcoming remarks, the project manager Atila Uras gave widely acknowledged definitions to climate change and adaptation and explained the brief history of Turkey and climate change. Uras described the project and the expected outcomes as:
The Regional Coordinator of the project Alper Acar on the other hand, provided more technical information on the Seyhan River Basin, gave definitions for natural disasters, risks and adaptation capacity and explained why a community-based adaptation is needed. Acar also briefed the participants on the processes and phases of the project.
Following the kick-off ceremony, the participants visited the Akyatan Lagoon, which is one of the largest wetlands in Turkey, located in Karataş town of Adana. Akyatan Lagoon that is an important example where the effects of human activities related to climate change can be seen hosts the biggest dunes of Turkey, as well as important bird and vegetation sites and is one of the worldwide important breeding sites of the green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas). The Akyatan Lagoon that is a natural asset vulnerable to climate change is protected under the Ramsar Convention.
In the framework of the project, efforts will be made to develop a National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy. The project will also develop and carry out early warning systems against natural disasters, climate change adaptation works on the use of water, land and energy as well as community based pilot projects, primarily in the Seyhan River Basin, on the use of agricultural, urban and industrial water, ecosytem services and nature protection fields. Campaigns will be initiated to raise awareness among local population. The project also envisages studies on how to minimize the negative effects of climate change on groups such as women, children, the elderly, the disabled and youth. Central and local government, national and local NGOs, universities, the private sector and academics will contribute to project success through active participation and ownership in planning and implementation.
This project is the first project dedicated to climate change adaptation in Turkey and is a joint UN initiative with the participation of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as the leading agency and coordinator of the project, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and other stakeholders.