Issue: 17
At the 12th Local Clustering Committee meeting organised by GAP-GİDEM and Adıyaman Textile and Ready-wear Cluster Association, the importance of clusters and sustainability were discussed. Among the participants were Adıyaman Acting Governor Mehmet Akçay, Adıyaman Mayor Necip Büyükaslan and Head of GAP Regional Development Administration as well as senior officials from the Chamber of Trade and Industry Zafer Ersoy, İstanbul Textile and Confection Exporters Union, Günkar Holding, TOBB and Domino Textile.
With this cluster initiative, Adıyaman is on its way of becoming the textile basin for Europe and the Middle East. In the context of the project, the unemployment rate in Adıyaman fell 11% in men and 4% in women by providing employment for 1700 workers. In this context 18 new cotton factories, 10 yarn factories and one weaving factory was opened as well as one dye-house, two fabric stamp firms and 4 embroidery firms in order to meet the needs that arose thus adding to a total of 70 companies. Through the newly-opened factories 70% of the population working for the private sector now work in the textile industry and worldwide brands such as GAP and Tommy Hilfiger are now being produced in this city.
The textile cluster in Adıyaman is an initiative started by the city’s Supporting Entrepreneurs Centre (GİDEM). In the framework of the project financed by the European Commision and implemented by the UNDP and GAP Regional Development Administration, GİDEM was established in 4 cities in 1997.
Cluster trainings in Ankara
Instructors from The Economic Competitiveness Group gave trainings on 16-20 April 2007 in order to apply the cluster initiative that was applied in Adıyaman to Ankara in which 15.9% of the population is unemployed. Among of the participants of the training that were held in Ankara were experts from the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Under secretariat for Foreign Trade, State Planning Organization, KOSGEB, İstanbul Textile and Confection Exporters Union, Aegean Exporters Union, TOBB Economic and Political Reserach Foundation and GAP-GİDEM.
Nowadays, certain industries are more highly concentrated in some places than others. Today, this concept is defined as clusters or cluster-based economies. In other words clusters are the geographical concentration of economic activities in a given region. The use of cluster-based economies has been increasing since the 1990s but it should be kept in mind that clusters weren’t constructed, they rather evolved by themselves gradually from large companies that located in less-populated areas to take advantage of lower wages and a surplus of the labour markets. An assembly of almost any industry can form clusters. For example some cluster categories could be listed as aerospace, automotive, chemical products, agricultural products, leather products, construction materials, metals or plastic manufacturing, textiles, tobacco etc.
Without doubt clusters provide great advantages in enabling higher productivity and economic strength thus bringing prosperity which is why firms inreasingly choose to be a part of clusters that will increase their competitiveness. However the presence of certain factors such as distributors and exporters, engineering and financial consultants, marketing experts, trade and labour organizations, regional government agencies, research and educational institutions, producers suppliers, services providers, reseach laboratories, technology centres and community-based organizations in an economic field are needed to increase clusters’ success not just regionally but globally as well because these elements act as agents for providing and sharing necessary information and know-how. With these elements present, clusters can bring great benefits because they provide access to more suppliers and customized services as well as the sharing of knowledge, know-how and professional colleagues than more isolated competitors. Similarly firms belonging to a cluster can choose among a richer amount of resources and services that can be purchased faster and at a lower cost than their distant rivals. The benefits provided by clusters are mutual. Not only clusters benefit from the region but they also help to expand opportunities in lower-income regions as well. However this may not always be the case. In the European Union in which cluster models are successfully implemented, the models that are not strong enough in the countries that subsequently joined the EU (EU-10) is seen as a factor that complicates the integration process of these countries.
Although the use of cluster-based economies is fairly new, there are still various best-practice examples. It is a known fact that successful clusters receive the recognition of funding agencies and specialized resources and increase their political significance thus also increasing their reputation. While governments help clusters by mobilizing their resources, clusters help governments in contributing to their economic growth and creating opportunities in the less-advantaged regions.
Experiences of other countries that use cluster-based methods in their economies have shown that clusters can play an important role in encouraging structural changes and bringing prosperity to the region. The cluster model currently being implemented in Turkey’s eastern city Adıyaman is a very good example of this. Adıyaman has a growing cluster in textile industry and with its planned growth, it is exhibiting a model for development. Moreover the cluster example in Adıyaman was chosen one of the most successful projects by UNDP in 2005. Successful examples of the implementation of such clustering projects will certainly pave the way for new inspirations in other regions.
[BAGLANTILAR]
Over a billion people in developing countries lack access to a reliable water supply, and half the population of developing countries are without proper sanitation.
This global response to the water and sanitation crisis took shape during a special event held during the World Bank and IMF spring meetings co-hosted by the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID). The meeting brought together developed and developing-country government representatives along with civil-society leaders and development agencies to galvanize common action on access to clean water and sanitation.
A number of donors present committed to increase and improve support to countries to expand water and sanitation services, including:
In addition, participants agreed to better coordinate their actions at a global level to deliver a greater impact on the ground, and identified some practical initiatives, such as:
“I’m delighted that today we’ve agreed some really practical steps for tackling the global water and sanitation crisis – that takes the lives of 5,000 children a day,” said UK Secretary of State for International Development Hilary Benn. “These include agreeing what will now be an annual report on water and sanitation, identifying an annual event when we get together to make decisions on the basis of this report, and agreement that the UN will identify one lead body on water and sanitation in each country.”
World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz added: “Public spending on water and sanitation has declined to less than 1 percent of the GDP in most countries, and in poorest countries, private sector financing is nearly non-existent. Overseas development assistance for water has remained stable at best. What we need is for investments to be doubled, from $15 billion to $30 billion a year. Water, sanitation, and hygiene services save lives. The international community has an obligation to respond to this crisis with commitment and passion.”
Kemal Derviş, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, said: “As we have seen in last year’s Human Development Report, ensuring that the poor have access to sanitation and water is central to achieving all the MDGs. Reaching the Goals, including those for water and sanitation, is possible. We have the knowledge and the financial capacity needed to address the water crisis. What is missing now is sufficient political will, and concerted and agreed action. This is where our collective commitment and support is needed.”
Ugandan Minister of State for Water, Maria Mutagamba, who also chairs the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW), said: “Our message to you is clear. Africa is ready to scale up and provide sanitation and water supply to all. We need donor support. Particular attention must focus on sanitation and hygiene. Over sixty percent of Africans are forced to defecate in the open. Toilets save lives and provide dignity. But more toilets will not improve health on their own. Better hygiene is what matters. And that means making hand-washing a part of normal everyday behavior in every family.”
For more information, please contact (DFID) duty press officer + 44-20 702 30600;
(UNDP) Benjamin Craft +1-212-906-5344, benjamin.craft@undp.org; (World Bank) Sergio Jellinek +1-202-294-6232, Sjellinek@worldbank.org
Every year it has been much more important for UNDP to build partnerships not just with governments but also with non-governmental organizations and multinational enterprises to ensure that the poor are not left behind. Better partnerships bring innovation and new resources and help enhance existing strategies or form new ones. This is why UNDP attaches great importance to encouraging the private sector in building social responsibilities to better cope with the world’s increasing demands. In line with these needs, UNDP even formed a special Division on the Private Sector and Development in recent months. One of the initial activities of this relatively new division was the mission to Istanbul, stronghold of Turkish private sector.
Director of UNDP Private Sector Division of Partnerships Bureau Mr. Christian Thommessen visited Istanbul on April 15-16, 2007 as a part of his mission to the UNDP RBEC region. Accompanied by the UNDP Deputy Resident Representative Ulrika Richardson-Golinski, Mr. Thommessen held meetings with UNDP Turkey’s prospective private sector partners, Turkey Economy Bank (TEB) and Koc Group in order to highlight the reasons of UNDP for working with the private sector and explain the new private sector partnership strategy of UNDP which comprises of the following four steps respectively:
Thommessen also mentioned UNDP’s newest programme, “Growing Inclusive Markets”, GIM, whereby 15 academic institutions executed a study by reaching out businesses in their areas and prepared 50 business cases in total as a result of this study. Mr. Thommessen emphasized the importance of this initiative taking into consideration the various barriers in front of businesses as well as the need for business models that would create supply for societies in demand, all around the world.
For more information on the Division on the Private Sector and Growing Sustainable Business please click here.
“For many people in the developing world, particularly small island developing states and least-developed countries, climate change means drought, famine and the loss of their homes, land, or even their lives,” Derviş said. “These people have been coping ably with the variability of weather patterns for many years. Now, they face a challenge of adaptation they simply cannot deal with alone. With better support from their own governments and from their partners in development, they can and will deal with this challenge.”
The IPCC report, released on 7 April 2007 in Brussels, paints an unsettling picture of the advance of climate change—and its potential harm to the lives of millions. The assessment projects that many millions more people will be threatened by serious flooding every year by the latter part of this century, especially in densely populated, low-lying areas, where adaptive capacity is relatively low, and which already face other challenges such as tropical storms and local coastal subsidence. Indeed, the IPCC report highlights the particular vulnerability of small islands: With “very high confidence,” it concludes that sea-level rise is expected to exacerbate inundation, storm surge, erosion and other coastal hazards, threatening vital infrastructure, settlements and facilities that support the livelihoods of island communities.
Derviş echoed the report’s conclusion that sustainable development can reduce vulnerability to climate change, and that climate change could impede achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. “Wider distribution of sustainable forms of economic growth will be a powerful ally in our adaptation efforts. It is clear that as societies advance and become more prosperous, they become better able to cope with climate change. As we approach the halfway mark to the 2015 target for the Millennium Development Goals, this is yet another powerful motivation for us to redouble our efforts to foster sustainable development, and to achieve the Goals.”
The assessment states that vulnerability to climate change can be exacerbated by the presence of other stresses like “poverty and unequal access to resources, food insecurity, trends in economic globalization, conflict, and incidence of disease such as HIV/AIDS.” UNDP, which is focusing its annual global Human Development Report this year on climate change, can support governments’ response to this composite challenge by helping them weave climate-change adaptation integrally into their national development strategies, said Derviş: “Global warming can’t be looked at as an environmental issue anymore: It is undoubtedly a threat to human development as a whole. All development strategies must therefore account for climate-related risk.”
UNDP, the broader UN family, and their partners in development must themselves adapt to effectively address the challenge of climate change, Derviş said. “We need to do more, more effectively, to support poorer nations and people as they continue to adapt. As we continue the process of UN reform, we will all keep in mind the contents of the IPCC report, and what’s at stake in our work: The difference between prosperity and poverty for millions of people who are now suffering from the effects of climate change right now—people in places like Dira Dawa, Ethiopia, where more than 300 people died and 10,000 were made homeless by flash flooding last August induced by the region’s heaviest rains on record. Adaptation is a challenge for the development community, too. UNDP is ready to do its job effectively and efficiently to meet the challenge.”
The meeting, which was held on 23-24 April 2007, was attended by the UNDP Administrator Kemal Derviş, the Director of the Regional Bureau for Europe and Commonwealth of Independent States Kori Udovicki (also Assistant Secretary-General and Assistant UNDP Administrator) and the UNDP Resident Representatives of the reigon as well as other senior officials from the UN, executives from other UN agencies and scholars from universities.
Partnership with the EU, building capacity for the liberalization of trade, social sector reforms and climate change were also on the agenda at the UNDP regional meeting.
The annual meeting was opened with Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev’s welcome message in which he highlighted the importance of UNDP’s role as a bridge that will close the gap between the rich and poor countries and in achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Stanishev stressed that Bulgaria expects UNDP’s support in the areas of social inclusion, poverty reduction, employment policies, good governance and environmental protection.
In his speech, UNDP Administrator Kemal Derviş stated that Bulgaria who is now a member of the EU is in a condition in which it can play an important role in development cooperation because it is a middle-income country that can share its knowledge with poorer countries and relate to rich countries as well. Derviş added that due to Bulgaria’s geographical and historical standing it can connect with the north and south as well as the east and west.
Regarding UNDP’s partnership with the EU, Director of UNDP Liaison Office in Brussels Antonia Vigilante stated that today UNDP is seen as more of a partner than a contractor by the EU due to various bilateral agreements signed in the near past. In this context the UN tries to ensure mutual understanding and works to mobilize resources.
Regarding the liberalization of international trade, the participants arrived at a concensus that international organizations need to work on adopting policies and approaches regarding international trade and need to establish procedures for the free movement of goods. The labour market was also addressed in which the recent developments, the positive trends, persisting problems, new challenges and the labour market dynamics in the region were discussed.
UNDP’s role in middle-income countries was one of the focus points of the meeting. The panel was composed of the UNDP Administrator and Mahmood Ayub, Resident Representative in Turkey and the session was chaired by Ben Slay, Director of UNDP's Regional Centre in Bratislava capital of Slovak Republic. The Administrator highlighted the overall context of UNDP's involvement in middle-income countries, making the case for UN and UNDP's active participation in these countries. Mr Ayub discussed the special case of Turkey as a middle-income country elaborating the niche areas for UN and UNDP in Turkey. Answering questions regarding this matter, Ben Slay stated that it should be kept in mind that middle-income countries do not necessarily mean that they are poor countries. On the contrary these countries have a chance of upgrading into high-income countries. According to Slay, middle income countries are already developped to some extent and only need to address their needs in certain areas.
Climate change and energy that were other focus areas of the meeting were held in a separate session and the importance of recognizing climate change not just as an environmental issues but as a social, economic and political issue globally was stressed once again. During this session the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocols were discussed in depth.
At a global level, progress has been made but the gains are uneven. Small-island developing states and landlocked developing countries face severe challenges, while high rates of inequality in many middle-income countries mean that entire regions or social groups will be left behind.
Time is running out: this year, 2007, marks the half-way point of the MDGs. Yet even now, crucial development policies and finance are not systematically aligned with the MDGs. As part of its poverty reduction mandate, UNDP is working to bridge this gap.
MDG Support, established in 2006, is designed to quickly mobilize technical support from across UNDP and the UN System to help developing country governments achieve the MDGs. The successor of Jeffrey Sachs’s UN Millennium Project, MDG Support works with countries by invitation, helping to prepare and implement national development strategies that are bold enough to achieve the MDGs.
However, without adequate financing, these plans are neither viable nor realistic. By itself, the long-standing commitment by the developed world to contribute just 70 cents of every $100 earned to official development assistance would generate enough funding to implement national strategies capable of achieving the MDGs.
It is encouraging that European Union countries have now committed to reaching the 0.7 target by 2015 and that the Group of Eight countries have now pledged to double development assistance to Africa by 2010, bringing the figure to $50 billion. However, all donor countries urgently need to fulfill their commitment to existing pledges.
For this reason, MDG Support works with a broad range of actors, across the UN System as well as with the International Financial Institutions, to generate more and better support for countries’ national plans to hit the MDG targets. It works to improve the tools and methodologies available, to train staff and government officials, and to strengthen ways of sharing knowledge and experiences.
Key activities include:
Headed by Professor Jeffrey Sachs, the Millennium Project was an independent advisory body and presented its final report, Investing in Development: A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals, to the Secretary-General in January 2005. The Millennium Project was then asked to continue operating in an advisory capacity through the end of 2006.
Investing in Development proposes straightforward solutions for meeting the Millennium Development Goals by the 2015 deadline. The world already has the technology and know-how to solve most of the problems faced in the poor countries. As of 2006, however, these solutions still had not been implemented at the needed scale. Investing in Development presents recommendations for doing so, through partnership between countries both rich and poor.
Achieving the Millennium Development Goals
More than one billion people -- one-sixth of the world's population -- still live in extreme poverty, lacking the safe water, proper nutrition, basic health care and social services needed to survive. This means a single episode of disease, an ill-timed pregnancy, a drought or a crop-destroying pest can be the difference between life and death. In many of the poorest countries, life expectancy is half of that in the high-income world-40 years instead of 80 years.
The consequences of this poverty reach far beyond the afflicted societies. Poverty, inequality and disease are chief causes of violent conflict, civil war and state failures. A world with extreme poverty is a world of insecurity.
There is still time to achieve the Millennium Development Goals in the poorest countries, but the window of opportunity is closing. Fortunately, major global policy breakthroughs happened in 2005 to help get the world's poorest countries on track to meeting the Goals. This included the 2005 World Summit agreement in which every country committed to adopt its own national strategy to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. It also included the G8 commitment to double development assistance to Africa by 2010.
Recommendations
The Millennium Project has recommended a global strategy to help nations turn the tide against extreme poverty. Using the targets outlined in the Millennium Development Goals, the Project's policy recommendations center on:
The core recommendation of the Millennium Project is that the Millennium Development Goals must be at the center of national and international poverty reduction strategies, and these strategies must focus on tackling the practical ground-level challenges of development. For this to happen, developing countries need to conduct rigorous "needs assessments" to identify where they stand on the Goals and what interventions need to be in place in order to get on track for 2015.
In 2004, the Project began working with the UN system in selected "pilot countries"- Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, Tajikistan and Yemen - to help identify the best ways to integrate Millennium Development Goal targets and timelines into their national strategies to reduce poverty. The aim was for these national strategies to serve as models for similar undertakings in developing countries throughout the world.
The Project continued to work with these and other developing countries to help identify the practical challenges each one faces en route to achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, such as: how many mothers need access to health clinics; how many children need immunizations; how many teachers should be in every district; how many roads need to be built; how many water pumps should be installed and so on.
Backed with tried-and-true examples of what is already working to combat the many faces of poverty, Investing in Development presents concrete strategies for scaling-up throughout the developing world. The UN Millennium Project's findings demonstrate that through developing countries' pursuit of "MDG-based poverty reduction strategies," matched with fulfillment of the 0.7 pledge made by developed countries, the Millennium Development Goals can still be achieved. All countries can thereby follow through on the agreement for a "global development partnership" that forms the 8th Millennium Development Goal.
Organization of the project
The bulk of the Project's work was carried out by 10 thematic Task Forces comprising a total of more than 250 experts from around the world including: researchers and scientists; policymakers; representatives of NGOs, UN agencies, the World Bank, IMF and the private sector. From 2002 through 2005, the Task Forces conducted extensive research within their fields of expertise to produce recommendations for meeting the Millennium Development Goals. The ongoing work of the Project was led by a secretariat housed at UNDP headquarters in New York.
As of Jan. 1, 2007, the Millennium Project's work was incorporated into the Bureau for Development Policy under the leadership of the United Nations Development Program, forming the MDG Support group, which works at the regional, national and global level to support the preparation and implementation of MDG-based national development strategies.
Please click here to download the “Investing in Development: A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals” Report.
The Croatian Human Development Report is about the social exclusion in Croatia. In the foreword of Unplugged: Faces of Social Exclusion in Croatia that was published in February 2007, Resident Representative of UNDP Croatia country office Yuri Afanasiev says that the report is the “first ever comprehensive analysis of social exclusion issues in Croatia” and underlines the importance of the word “unplugged” in the title of the report. In his very own words, the use of the word “Unplugged” “is probably the best symbolic image illustrating the problem, by no means unique to Croatia. It signifies the very state of disconnectedness, alienation and inability to be part of the social network, just like a modern appliance is inactive when unplugged from the electricity grid”.
The Croatian Human Development Report 2006 is not just about refugees or the unemployed on the contrary to first impression. Indeed it includes the unemployed and the refugees but it is certainly much more than that. It tells the stories of marginalised people who are hidden, out of site, lost or in Yuri Afanasiev’s words “left behind”. People from every groups, marginalised by the society... Taking into consideration that 10-20% of Croatian population is seen as being socially excluded one way or another, this percentage certainly amounts to a large portion of the population even though it may not seem so.
After giving an overview of the rates of social exclusion in Croatia, the report also analyses the socially excluded in a socio-economic context. The report’s scope is quite broad. Among those who are characterized as being socially excluded are: national minorities, refugees and internationally displaced people, people with physical and intellectual disabilities, single parents, the unemployed, youth, prisoners, women victims of family violence, the elderly and the homeless, people with diseases such as HIV, people with dependency problems, the poor and even children to some extent. Moreover, the report not only lists them as the socially excluded but takes each group and analyses them in the context of human rights and their current situation on their access to basic health services, social services, education, employment, housing, communication services and even transportation services. The report also highlights the key challenges they face and sheds a light on policy recommendations.
During the preparation period of this 174 paged report, the human development team surveyed 9000 Croatian citizens from all over the country and asked for their perception of the quality of life in Croatia. Twenty focus groups were formed of which especially included those who are socially excluded and their perceptions and analysis were also asked. The report is written by a large number of the best authorities in their fields. They have not only reported their own perception but of those of the focus groups.