Issue: 24
In the award ceremony attended by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and State Minister responsible for foreign trade Kürşad Tüzmen, the exportation special award was given to the Suvarlı Women’s Multi-Purpose Business Cooperative for their besni raisins export to France under fair trade.
The Suvarlı project was realized under the “Strengthening Regional Development and Reduction of Socio-Economic Disparities in the Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP) Region” (phase II) executed by UNDP and Southeastern Anatolia Project Regional Development Administration under the “Sustainable Development Programme” implemented since 1997. In the context of the project, UNDP Turkey brought together women in Suvarlı town of Adıyaman, Southeastern Anatolia with the French Alter-Eco company that was looking to import raisins. Following successful negotiations in 2006, Alter-Eco confirmed its order to import 4 tonnes of dried Besni grapes to market them in French supermarkets.
The Suvarlı Project implemented by the Suvarlı Women’s Multi-Purpose Business Cooperative constituted of 9 women, is a project developed under the “Empowering the Socio-Economic Situation of Women” sub-project that aims to establish market links for the products manufactured by women, train women on marketing and design, support the capacities of women NGOs and Multi-Purpose Community Centers thus empowering women socio-economically.
Fair trade is a type of trade between small-scale producers who dont have access to large markets and consumers that wish to contribute to the development of these producers. In this way, structural inequalities that are a result of free trade are prevented in fair trade and local producers can sell their products to larger markets without any other agents involved.
Some of the other institutions that received an award this year are TUKAŞ Gıda for fruit and vegetable exportation, SS Tariş Grape Sales Cooperatives Union for its dried fruits exportation, JTI Tobacco for its tobacco exportation and Nejat Atalan Foreign Trade for its olive and olive oil exportation.
“Strengthening Regional Development and Reduction of Socio-Economic Disparities in the GAP Region” (phase II) was signed between the GAP Administration, Turkish Foreign Ministry and UNDP on 20 December 2004. The youth and street children components of the threefold programme had ended in recent months while the third women component still goes on to ensure the social development of local women, to increase their participation into work life and to develop capacity in order to plan, manage and apply projects of regional development.
The report prepared under the “Accelerating CSR Practices in the New EU Member States and Candidate Countries as a Vehicle for Harmonization, Competitiveness and Social Cohesion in the EU” programme is a comprehensive analysis of CSR practices in Turkey and aims to advance the implementation of CSR in Turkey. The analysis highlights the potentials of CSR as a tool that could benefit the private sector. It comprises a picture of CSR within the international standards and explains what CSR is about and what it is not. The report also provides information on the factors and conditions affecting CSR practices in Turkey and provides recommendations of future activities that can be used to shape the approach to CSR in the country.
A study conducted by the National Team of Turkey on the CSR activities in Turkey that were included in the report shows that:
“Accelerating CSR Practices in the New EU Member States and Candidate Countries as a Vehicle for Harmonization, Competitiveness and Social Cohesion in the EU” is funded by the European Commission and UNDP. In this context a regional study report titled “Baseline Study on CSR Practices in the New EU Member States and Candidate Countries” has already been published by UNDP that “represents an essential stepping stone in the promotion of CSR in new EU Member States and candidate countries and provides a map of relevant CSR actor and initiatives, assesses their level of engagement and dialogue with companies, evaluates the level of implementation of CSR practices among companies” as Regional Director for the Regional Bureau for Europe and CIS Kori Udovicki says.
Taking into account the need for contribution from the private sector for the achievement of Millennium Development Goals by 2015, making the business world incorporate CSR into their strategies has become extremely significant for UNDP in the global context. Accordingly, UNDP Turkey has been acting as the leading agency in promoting CSR in Turkey through the United Nations Global Compact initiative since 2002.
In Turkey, UNDP over the last two years has embarked to work with private businesses to help Turkey achieve its development goals, specifically through Corporate Social Responsibility promotion. CSR network is developed with the aim of facilitating the implementation of CSR principles and to establish ties with other networks in Europe in order to exchange innovative practices and lessons learned.
Five projects were chosen to be supported among sixty short movie and documentary project proposals in the contest organized in the context of the “Integration of Sustainable Development into Sectoral Policies” project with the Association of Documentary Filmmakers in Turkey. Honorable mention was given to 10 films whose shootings will not be supported but which were found creative. Among the selection criteria were the approach of the films to the sustainable development concept and their creativeness of expression. The young directors whose shootings are being supported, received their awards at the opening ceremony of the “Istanbul International Short Movie Festival” The films that define the different dimensions of the sustainable development concept met with spectators at the Istanbul International Film Festival on 7-14 November 2007.
The five projects whose shootings are supported and their directors are as follows:
1) Wishing Tree by Hale Ayız
2) Waking Up with Frogs’ Voice by Ümit Topaloğlu and Bayram Deniz
3) The Waterbuffalo Iceream by Ender Yeşildağ and M. Özgür Candan
4) Smiling Faces by Serdar Güven
5) New Life in Old Foça by Rüya Arzu Köksal
The events calendar of the “Integration of Sustainable Development into Sectoral Policies” project financed by the EU and implemented by UNDP in State Planning Organization’s coordination is quite busy. The fifth “Turkey is Discussing Sustainable Development” meeting that aims to raise awareness on sustainable development was held in İzmir following the meetings in Samsun, Adıyaman, Erzurum and Adana. The sixth and final meeting will take place in Istanbul on 11-13 December 2007. The Sustainable Development concept is being opened for discussion in the context of competition, environment and urbanization.
The office in Ulus Beşiktaş will work to establish strong ties with the private sector in particular as well as NGOs, and the civil community in order to implement social projects that will support Turkey’s development.
Among the participants of the opening ceremony were UNDP Administrator Kemal Derviş, Mayor of Beşiktaş Municipality İsmail Ünal as well as officials from the Istanbul Governorship, leading managers of the private sector, officials from the British Council and various NGOs. The opening ceremony was followed by a reception.
UNDP’s project office will work to raise awareness on the Global Compact, establishing ties with the private sector, NGOs and other UN agencies and will work in developing social projects for the development of Turkey. Speaking at the opening ceremony, UNDP Administrator Kemal Derviş stated that it was critical to establish partnerships with the private sector for the attainment of the UN Millennium Development Goals and that it was very important to solve global problems at the local level and added that UNDP will increase its activities in Istanbul and in Turkey in general.
Mayor of Beşiktaş Municipality İsmail Ünal, on the oher hand, reminded that Beşiktaş Municipality is a member of the Global Compact and said: “the office will work to develop concrete partnerships and will answer the needs of private sector representatives, local administrations and NGOs in the context of the 10 principles of the Global Compact.
UNDP has had a private sector project office in Istanbul for the last 3 years. With the support of Besiktas Municipality, it moved to its new address. Youth for Habitat Association will also have its offices in the same building.
Among the participants of the award ceremony were UNDP Administrator Kemal Derviş, UNDP Turkey Resident Representative Mahmood Ayub, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative Ulrika Richardon-Golinski, TOBB Vice President Halim Mete as well as representatives of the winning cities’ local chambers of commerce and Local Agenda 21 Secretary-Generals.
The award ceremony was held in the context of the “Localizing UN Millennium Development Goals in Turkey through the Local Agenda 21 Governance Network” project. The 10 winning projects out of 50 projects and their owners are as follows:
1) “One Job, One Bread” by Bursa Orhangazi Chamber of Commerce and Industry and LA21 General Secretariat
2) “Resource from Negative to Positive” by Adana Chamber of Industry and LA21 General Secretariat
3) “Young Entrepreneurs Council and Support Centre” by Adana Chamber of Commerce and LA21 General Secretariat
4) “Pharmaceutical Apprentice Training” by Diyarbakır Chamber of Commerce and Industry and LA21 General Secretariat
5) “Training and Employment of Tourism and Hotel Management Personnel” by Afyon Chamber of Commerce and Industry and LA21 General Secretariat
6) “Marketing and Sales Principles” by Van Chamber of Commerce and Industry and LA21 General Secretariat
7) “Friendly Operators” by Çanakkale Commodity Exchange and LA21 General Secretariat
8) “Becoming Innovative and Productive Women” joint project by Mersin, Tarsus Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Adana Chamber of Commerce and the LA21 General Secretariats of Mersin, Tarsus and Adana
9) “Women’s Crafts Development, Training and Support” by Sinop Chamber of Commerce and Industry and LA21 General Secretariat
10) “Leader Women of İzmir” by Aegean Region Chamber of Industry and LA21 General Secretariat
The projects were selected based on their partnerships between their local administrations, chambers, NGOs and the private sector, their cooperation with the LA21 City Councils and most importantly on their level of addressing one of the Millennium Development Goals.
Speaking at the award ceremony, TOBB Vice President Halim Mete said: “we are very happy that great importance in being attached to the Millennium Development Goals and that many active projects are being developed in partnerships with the private sector and local administration” and added the concrete benefits the projects will produce would constitute an example for other partnerships.
The projects that will be implemented under the “Localizing UN Millennium Development Goals in Turkey through the Local Agenda 21 Governance Network” will strengthen partnership with the business community for localizing Turkey’s MDGs and for achieving economic, social and democratic development. Contracts will be concluded with project owners and the second wave of applications will be realized in February 2008.
In this sense, TOBB will provide consultancy and leadership on mechanisms and processes to engage local chambers and commodity exchanges in endorsing the MDGs, it will provide managerial and technical assistance and will develop a joint programme for promoting the MDGs among the business community at the local and regional levels through roundtables and seminars.
The “Localizing UN Millennium Development Goals in Turkey through the Local Agenda 21 Governance Network” project aims at localizing the Government’s MDG commitments by mobilizing local level action, promoting “local governance” as the primary and essential means for attaining the MDGs, building the capacities of local authorities and city councils, monitoring and supporting the realization of MDGs and promoting “best practices” of partnerships between local governance actors and the private sector for achieving Turkey’s development and MDG targets. The project that started in December 2006 will continue until December 2008.
For more information on the “Localizing UN Millennium Development Goals in Turkey through the Local Agenda 21 Governance Network” project please click here.
The meeting was in the form of a gala dinner held prior to the 16th Quality Congress organized by Kalder and Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association (TUSIAD). During the meeting 35 leading institutions in Turkey signed the Global Compact thus pledging to apply the ten principles on human rights, labour, sustainable environment and anti-corruption.
Among the participants of the meeting were former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Chair of Kalder Çetin Nuhoğlu, President of TUSIAD Arzuhan Doğan Yalçındağ, Koç Holding CEO Mustafa Koç as well as the representatives of 35 leading companies in Turkey.
Some of the leading institutions that signed the Global Compact are TUSIAD, Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodities, Sabancı Holding, Turkcell, Renault Mais, Akbank, Uludağ Group, Zorlu Holding, Show TV, Koç University, Milangaz, Ekol Logistics, Kent Gıda and many others. With the inclusion of these institutions, the number of Turkish companies that signed the Global Compact exceeded 100.
Speaking at the gala dinner, Chair of Kalder Çetin Nuhoğlu explained the achievements of Kalder since it signed the Global Compact in 2002 and said: “we are aware that the first step to contributing to the solutions of global problems for a sustainable life is to change ourselves. The second step is to help our stakeholders change, to inform them, encourage them and to support them. The UN Global Compact is the most meaningful initiative in this sense”. Reminding why they had signed the Global Compact, Koç Holding CEO Mustafa Koç said: “we wanted to reflect the world’s best programs to our works for our aim of becoming a worldwide company. With its systematic and productive model on responsible management, the Global Compact helps us carry our works to more advanced levels”. Koç added that such initiatives were especially important for developing countries.
The Global Compact that was officially launched in 2000 is a voluntary international corporate citizenship network that brings together the private and the public business sectors as well as various UN agencies and the civil society to meet the challenges of globalization. The Global Compact operates around ten principles in the fields of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption in order to put an end to discrimination of work force and to increase environmental sustainability. The signatories of the Global Compact integrate these ten principles into their business strategies for transparency and sustainable development and prepare regular reports on their stance. Today Global Compact has over 4 thousand participants in 100 countries.
The Global Compact asks companies to embrace, support and enact, within their sphere of influence, a set of core values in the areas of human rights, labour standards, the environment and anti-corruption. The 10 principles under the four main headings included in the Global Compact are as follows:
10 PRINCIPLES
Human Rights
Principle 1: Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights; and
Principle 2: make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses
Labour Standards
Principle 3: Businesses should uphold the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining;
Principle 4: the elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labour;
Principle 5: the effective abolition of child labour; and
Principle 6: the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation
Environment
Principle 7: Businesses should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges;
Principle 8: undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility; and
Principle 9: encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendlytechnologies
Anti-Corruption
Principle 10:Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery.
[BAGLANTILAR]