Issue: 9
Project trainings were carried out during two-week sessions in 10 provinces, namely Izmir, Adana, Ankara, Amasya, Van, Istanbul, Konya, Erzurum, Kayseri and Diyarbakır. 500 representatives from non-governmental organisations, local administrations and public institutions attended the trainings in which EU project management cycle and procedures were taken up. The grant programme was launched on 29 June 2006, and the deadline for applications was 28 August 2006.
The projects that will be supported in the context of this programme will increase the Turkish Republic's national capacity in the area of environmental and natural resources management, and promote sustainable development by adding the environment and energy dimensions to poverty prevention strategies. Moreover, these projects will strengthen the role of the civil society, private sector and local administrations in enhancing sustainable development.
The total budget of the grant programme is 900,000 Euros. It enables sharing the implementation of the sustainable development practices and by creating a widespread awareness, supports the corporate capacity building process. Project ideas supporting sustainable development that are set forth by different institutions will be put to practice thanks to this programme.
The second of these workshops will be held in Van in Eastern Turkey from 4-7 September 2006, as a ‘Training of Trainers' session. Aiming to enhance local capacity on IDP-related issues, 20 participants from different NGOs, who also participated in the first workshop, are invited to this seminar.
The first of the training workshops was held in Ankara on 8-9 June 2006 with 34 participants, who represented 24 NGOs which work in the field of human rights, legal issues and service-delivery for the IDPs.
IDP Action Plan meeting in Van
Another activity concerning the plight of Internally Displaced Persons, “Provincial IDP Response Action Plan Meeting”, will be held, also in Van on 29 September, 2006. The purpose of this meeting is to publicize the Provincial IDP Response Action Plan, which is formulated by using policy recommendations of local stakeholders, findings of situational and preference analysis conducted in Van and reports of the national consultants. Along with local stakeholders, there will be representatives from the European Commission, Ministry of Interior, State Planning Organization, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other relevant stakeholders.
The report covers the global developments of 2005 in the areas of building stronger democracies, generating equitable growth, preventing conflict and supporting long-term recovery, protecting our planet to benefit the poor, halting the spread of HIV/AIDS, empowering women to transform societies, and brokering partnerships for development. Of UNDP's practice area expenditures in 2005 (in $US millions): $1,395 was spent on democratic governance (47%), $744 on poverty reduction (25%), $374 on crisis prevention and recovery (12%), $326 on energy and environment (11%), and $161 on HIV/AIDS (5%). These areas are, of course, interrelated.
Kemal Derviş meets with high school students during a visit to Albania in April 2006. The students are taking part in a UNDP-supported initiative aimed at increasing cooperation between local communities and the police. They discussed with the Administrator what they had learned, about the dangers of human trafficking, drugs and alcohol abuse.
In his Forward to the Annual Report, UNDP Administrator Kemal Derviş gave the following message:
Since its creation in 1966, UNDP has been at the centre of the United Nations' operational development system, working both at the grassroots level to help build national capacities for sustainable development, and as a leader in development thinking, as demonstrated by its flagship Human Development Reports and its contributions to critical issues such as global public goods and democratic governance. In many ways, it is this important nexus — connecting countries to knowledge and ideas and working with them to strengthen the capacity needed to tackle development challenges — that is UNDP's hallmark.
With the advent of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the last few years have seen UNDP scale up its activities in a major way. UNDP is working at the conceptual level with a wide range of partners to advocate for the policy and institutional changes needed to fight poverty more effectively and achieve the MDGs. From elections support in Liberia and Haiti, to recovery efforts after decades of conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), to helping countries deliver services to their citizens in countries with much stronger economies but huge social challenges such as Brazil and Indonesia, UNDP also works with countries in a very practical way to help build the institutional capacity needed to promote, support and accelerate human development and sustainable growth.
Recent years have seen a significant increase in the volume of resources given to support UNDP's work. The greatest amount has come from a rise in country level non-core co-financing, an important affirmation of the confidence partners have in UNDP's role and performance. But we face the challenge of a ratio of un-earmarked regular resources to earmarked resources that is too low to support the unity of strategic management and the flexibility required to respond to the challenges and opportunities UNDP faces. Public finance theory, as well as lessons learned around the world, are clear on the need to protect public expenditure and the budgetary process from excessive earmarking; indeed, it is something international development organizations and experts always warn developing countries against. I, therefore, hope that UNDP can have the support of donors in our efforts to strengthen the integrity of our resource base.
Despite these constraints, UNDP continues to make an important contribution to achieving the MDGs, working increasingly closely with our sister organizations in the UN system. Such cooperation should not mean a lack of competition in ideas or methods, but it should mean that there is a synergy in our actions which allows each organization to take advantage of its comparative strengths, pool resources when needed, and work in partnerships, which enable developing countries to steer their own development.
2005 was an important year for the development agenda, with the international community reaffirming its commitment to the MDGs. In 2007, we will be mid-way towards the 2015 deadline. UNDP remains committed to doing its part to translate the ambitious new partnership for development launched in 2000 into better policies, stronger institutions and greater resources more effectively deployed, all with the aim of achieving concrete improvements in the lives of those who need and deserve our strong support.
Two success stories: UN Volunteers Programme and UNIFEM
A vital role in fighting poverty
Collective endeavors to advance human development and achieve the MDGs benefit significantly from the efforts of United Nations Volunteers (UNV), a fund administered by UNDP. From helping to rebuild communities shattered by war or natural disasters to assisting in the fight against HIV/AIDS and creating new job opportunities, UNV volunteers make a distinctive contribution to national capacity building.
In 2005, UNV played a vital role in helping to organize national elections. For example, in preparation for the February 2006 elections in Haiti, UNV volunteers were stationed in the country's 10 departments to help register some 3.5 million voters. In a difficult environment marked by violence and rioting, they worked closely with Haiti's Provisional Electoral Commission, setting up counting centres and putting together voting material.
Through its expanding range of activities, UNV also helps ensure that those who are too often seen exclusively as recipients of aid are empowered to contribute to the development of their own communities. In Ethiopia, for example, UNV volunteers are supporting communities in their own development planning and implementation as well as the improved monitoring of progress towards the MDGs. In partnership with UNDP and the central government, more than 100 Ethiopian UNV volunteers are working to strengthen the capacities of regional administrations to deliver services and develop infrastructure. They have also designed systems to improve access to information, including the creation of an e-government platform providing key social and economic data, and a web-based network linking 200 high schools in the country to foster interactive communication and learning.
In 2005, more than 8,100 women and men from 168 countries served as UNV volunteers in 144 countries. The majority of UNV volunteers were from developing countries, and nearly 40 percent took up an assignment in their home country—eloquent examples of successful South-South cooperation.
Strengthening women's economic security
The majority of women in developing countries are in informal employment. Moreover, women generally earn less than men, have less access to quality jobs, and fewer opportunities for the education that could help them find better, safer means of income. These are some of the findings of 'Progress of the World's Women 2005: Women, Work and Poverty', published by the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). The report makes the case for an increased focus on women's economic security and argues that more should be done to achieve appropriate legal and social protection for women in the informal economy and ensure that their work is valued and supported in policy-making.
These Palestinian women have used small loans to jump-start their food business and turn it into a profit-making venture.
UNIFEM promotes women's empowerment and gender equality through a network of 15 sub-regional and two national offices. During 2005, UNIFEM, which is administered by UNDP, continued its efforts to strengthen women's economic security. Through its initiative in support of women migrant workers in the Arab States and Asia, for example, the Ministry of Labour in Jordan is now evaluating its internal regulations and investigating violations against women migrant workers, monitoring labour recruitment offices and working closely with the Ministry of the Interior and the Police Department. In Indonesia, a local law on the protection of migrant workers is awaiting passage in Blitar; similarly, in Nepal, a Foreign Employment Bill has been drafted.
UNIFEM's efforts to promote budget analyses that look into how the allocation of public resources benefit women and men also showed new and promising results in 2005. In Morocco, the national budget for 2006 included, for the first time, a special annex on how gender equality priorities will be addressed. In India's state of Karnataka, elected local women leaders used training on gender-responsive budgeting to advocate successfully for a doubling of resources to reintroduce a women's health insurance scheme in the city of Mysore.
Within the scope of the programme, many sub-projects from women's participation in economic life to giving vocational training to young people and rehabilitation of children working on the streets were successfully implemented. The $ 1.3 million project was financed by the Government of Switzerland, and conducted by UNDP and GAP Regional Development Agency. We talked with Aygül Fazlıoğlu, GAP Human and Social Development Department Coordinator, about the project's achievements, its impact on the region and the lessons learned in the implementation process.
UNDP Turkey: How did the second phase start?
Aygül Fazlıoğlu (A.F.): First, let me briefly explain how we had arrived at the second phase of the project. As the GAP Agency, we had first determined our priorities in creating participatory and equitable development in the Southeast region, and in 1995, in partnership with UNDP, we started the first 26 sub-projects. This $ 5.4 million programme which was supported by the Turkish Government, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the UNDP, focused on sustainable use of natural resources, protection of the environment, women-sensitive development, eradication of poverty and integration of disadvantaged groups in development efforts, enhancement of local entrepreneurship, improvement of human resources, and strengthening of local capacity. The first phase of the programme was completed at the end of 2004. The second phase was carried out from December 2004-August 2006, in 9 provinces of the GAP region. In the light of our experience and observations during the first stage of the programme, we determined our target groups in the second phase as women, youth, and children working on the streets.
UNDP Turkey: Let's start with the ‘women' aspect of your project.
A.F.: Within the framework of ‘strengthening women's socio-economic position' component, we concentrated our efforts and activities on marketing those goods whose production women are traditionally skilled at, those products which have sales potential, on building the marketing infrastructure and its sustainability, on strengthening the institutional capacity of other related women's NGOs, and on building a communication network among these women's civil society initiatives. To further promote this communication network, we launched the Mozaik Magazine. So far, Mozaik published five issues.
UNDP Turkey: You have ‘Multi-Purpose Social Centres for Women' (ÇATOMs).
A.F.: ‘Multi-Purpose Social Centres for Women' were initiated by GAP Agency in 1995. Their objectives are assisting women to take better advantage of public services, to participate in decision-making mechanisms, to find jobs and to strengthen their social position.
The most important problem in the women component of our project is the sustainability of the quality of the goods women are producing. To help solve this problem we held training courses for both ÇATOMs and other women's NGOs in market-oriented product development and quality, sales techniques, bookkeeping, product and packaging design, and marketing.
We also gave female agricultural producers training on setting up cooperatives. There are now several such cooperatives in Mardin and Batman, and work is underway in Gaziantep and Siirt. Women farmers have also set up a cooperative in Suvarlı town, in Besni, Adıyaman.
UNDP Turkey: This is the one that was set up within the framework of the ‘Fair Trade' agreement, isn't it?
A.F.: Yes. The presence of women farmers, especially poor women farmers, is one of the criteria of fair trade. For this cooperative, we're about to hire an expert from the university to train the farmers on increasing product quality. We'll also build a warehouse.
UNDP Turkey: Quality is the most important factor in selling a product. Have sales increased following the trainings in quality improvement?
A.F.: The trainings were completed last September. Currently, a marketing expert from our staff is searching for more markets for the agricultural products. We previously conducted souvenir production workshops for 40 women in Adıyaman and Mardin. The handicrafts created by these women found a considerably large market. At the bazaar set up by the Municipality of Istanbul only, YTL 25,000 worth of goods were sold.
Employment opportunity is one of the most important outputs of this project. In Batman, Mardin and Nusaybin, nearly 40 women were involved in setting up restaurant businesses. They have started earning some serious money!
We've also launched trainings on the production of accessories made of felt, and on fashion styling. This project has been successful in Antep. We had a smaller such project model in Urfa, then we found out that Urfa Municipality also had a similar activity. So we joined forces and the project is now running smoothly.
Also as part of the women component of the programme, we held meetings on ‘Determining the Strategies Geared Towards Women's Economic Development' in Ankara in 2005. We prepared an action plan for improving women's economic life. Soon the findings of this work will be published in a booklet to be distributed to related public institutions.
UNDP Turkey: Are there any sales to foreign markets?
A.F.: Suvarlı villagers in Adıyaman are doing ‘fair trade' of their raisins with a French company. The first party of their export will be realized in September.
UNDP Turkey: What would you say about the children component of the programme?
A.F.: Our aim in the ‘Children Working on the Streets' Project was to improve the living standards of children who work on the streets and to increase their school attendance. We carried out this project in Gaziantep, Şanlıurfa and Batman. We arranged for the cooperation of the parents. We collaborated with the Governorship and the Society for the Protection of Children in Şanlıurfa and in Batman. We received support from NGOs in Batman. We set up computer labs, play groups and workshops to encourage the social development of children.
The ‘Voluntary Parents Campaign', also in the context of this project, has been very successful. We gained significant support from both national and international institutions. With this campaign we reached 1893 children in three provinces. Society for the Protection of Children, ILO and the Ministry of Education had other projects in other provinces, we incorporated these into our programme. All together, 3079 children benefited from this programme. We provided school uniforms and satchels and announced the campaign on the website. We organized “Reading Days” in three cities to encourage children's reading and writing habits. Our partner in this specific project was Can Publications. Several writers and theatre groups participated at the festivities and read their books and performed plays. We set up five libraries with a total of 15,000 publications. “Reading Days” project reached 815 children in Batman, 759 in Şanlıurfa and 330 in Gaziantep.
UNDP Turkey: And the third component of the programme was ‘Improving Socio-Economic Life of Young People'.
A.F.: Yes, this project was started in May 2001. It was implemented by Habitat and Agenda 21 Youth Association, and supported by UNDP and GAP Agency. In the first stage, our objective was to assist young people in improving their social and economic conditions. Our target group was youth aged 15-25 from different social segments. And they are not only university youth; there are unemployed youngsters, or those preparing for university exams, and secondary and primary school graduates, too. We implemented four different projects in the areas of employment, socio- cultural activities, capacity development and social support. In this first stage we reached 40,000 young people. In the second stage, we focused on vocational training. We have carried out trainings on many vocations from cell phone repair to graphic and web design.
For example, in Siirt we made an agreement with Sancak- Arat Denim Company for them to conduct textile training for 600 young people following which they are placed in jobs. The first group of 70 people got their training in May and started work in June 2006. The second group of trainees was employed in July 2006.
Another activity of the project was the National Practical Training Programme, in cooperation with KAGİDER (Women Entrepreneurs Association). 18 young women from Adıyaman, Şırnak, Siirt, Batman and Şanlıurfa had training in 18 KAGİDER-member companies, such as Vip Turizm, Hey Tekstil, Altınyıldız, Eti Holding, in sales, marketing, finance and public relations. One of the girls even got a job offer from the company she had trained at, where she'll soon start.
We also launched the e-coaching programme which aims to give consultancy and support to young people in planning their careers. E-coaching reached 148 youngsters until June 2006. The programme will be resumed as of October 2006.
In each province we set up Youth Culture Houses, where young people were offered training courses on project development and preparation, and entrepreneurship. Youngsters who “graduated” from these courses have passed on their knowledge to their peers who now prepare their own projects to benefit from national and international student exchange programmes and produce financial resources from various funds.
Also within the youth component of the programme, we as GAP Agency have conducted, in cooperation with ÇATOMs, a scholarship project from which poor but outstanding students took advantage. Habitat Youth Platform's large national and international communication network contributed to the success of this project.
UNDP Turkey: You've been involved in this programme right from the beginning. What kind of changes or results have you observed in these 9 provinces since the beginning of the projects?
A.F.: First and foremost, the projects have revealed the potential capacities in the region. Furthermore, they have produced a demand. As GAP Regional Development Agency, our main objective was to create a model through our pilot projects, and initiate and encourage the local communities to implement their own projects.
There are some remarkable improvements in the region, socially as well as economically. We must not forget that it's easy to see the success of economic developments in a couple of years, but social progress does not reveal itself so quickly. We'll see the results in mid- and long-terms.
UNDP Turkey: Are the folks aware that the programme is completed?
A.F.: Yes, but they wish it to continue, especially in the areas of women and children working on the streets. Formally the project will be over at the end of August, but actually the women component is still in effect because some activities are not completed yet. The youth component also continues, with the support of Pepsi Cola Company. As of September 2006 the youth project will be resumed with Pepsi's sponsorship.
UNDP Turkey: Are you planning on a 3rd phase project for women and children, too?
A.F.: We are thinking of a more innovative programme, focusing specifically on fighting poverty. We want to focus on vulnerable groups, including women. For the 3rd phase, we have such ideas in mind, as implementing micro-finance models in fighting poverty and improving the life standards of the poor in urban areas. Children can also benefit from these, but the main target will be women.
UNDP Turkey: Has any work done yet?
A.F.: We held a forum in Adıyaman, on the issue of ‘Fighting Poverty, and Employment', to be able to determine the infrastructure of the 3rd phase programme. It was a workshop where regional, national and international experiences were shared. We are currently preparing the forum report. In the light of the findings of the report, UNDP and GAP Regional Development Agency will decide on the new steps to be taken, find ways to gain the support of national NGOs, and prepare a programme guideline. Then both UNDP and the GAP Agency will start searching for resource funds.
UNDP Turkey: How will the “Voluntary Parents Campaign” continue?
A.F.: The institution directly involved with ‘children working on the streets' is the Society for Social Services and the Protection of Children (SHÇEK). This institution (SHÇEK), as well as ILO (International Labour Organization) and some NGOs proposed to take over this project and implement it on their own. We are considering it. Presently, we have our own web site on this project; we've put a great amount of work into this, but on the other hand, there is a huge number of children needing help.
UNDP Turkey: What kind of difficulties have you experienced during the implementation of the programme?
A.F.: We experienced difficulties especially in the marketing aspect in the women's component. We could not form a team to establish links with national and international markets. We could not find an appropriate team to do this job within the local community. Those who came from outside did not find the social conditions, nor the wages satisfactory.
Another problem is that we can't keep sustainability in the market. This is not a weakness of the project, it has to do with human resources. In order to maintain sustainability, the target group must be determined, they must believe in the project. But our people want quick results, which is not possible. We have a marketing problem because people don't have enough resolution. We found a few short-term markets. But to be able to sell the same product to the same market for a second or third time, we must increase the quality of the product. Our women must produce better merchandise. So this is what we're working on now.
Regional statistics
|
|
People living with HIV |
New infections 2005 |
AIDS deaths 2005 |
Adult prevalence % |
|
Sub-Saharan Africa |
24.5 million
|
2.7 million |
2 million |
6.1% |
|
Asia |
8.3 million |
930 000 |
600 000 |
0.4 % |
|
Latin America |
1.6 million
|
140,000 |
59,000 |
0.5% |
|
North America & Western & Central Europe |
2 million
|
65,000 |
30,000 |
0.5% |
|
Eastern Europe & Central Asia |
1.5 million
|
220,000 |
53,000 |
0.8% |
|
Middle East & North Africa |
440,000
|
64,000 |
37,000 |
0.2% |
|
Caribbean |
330,000
|
37,000 |
27,000 |
1.6% |
|
Oceania |
78,000
|
7,200 |
3,400 |
0.3% |
|
Total |
38.6 million
|
4.1 million |
2.8 million |
1% |
Prevention
Treatment
|
Geographical region |
Estimated no. of people receiving ARV therapy, December 2005
|
Estimated no. of people needing ARV therapy, December 2005
|
ARV therapy coverage, December 2005
|
|
Sub-Saharan Africa |
810,000 |
4,700,000 |
17% |
|
Latin America & Caribbean |
315,000 |
465,000 |
68%
|
|
East, South & South East Asia |
180,000 |
1,100,000 |
16%
|
|
Europe and Central Asia |
21,000 |
160,000 |
13%
|
|
Middle East & North Africa |
4,000 |
75,000 |
5%
|
|
Total |
1,330,000 |
6.5 million |
20%
|
Note: Some numbers do not add up due to rounding
Resource needs
UNAIDS Special Representative HRH the Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway presented the award for best practice in overcoming women's inequality to Zimbabwe 's Girl Child Network, which counsels and supports girls in rural areas, including victims of sexual abuse.
The Girl Child Network was joined on the honours list by a Ukrainian lobbying group that works with public institutions to combat discrimination, secure treatment and organize support for people living with HIV/AIDS; a Thai organization that successfully campaigned to bring anti-retroviral treatment into the country's public-health system; a youth-led network of communities in Zambia that sews school uniforms for AIDS orphans; and a Bangladeshi project to educate, protect and advocate for sex workers and their families.
The 2006 Red Ribbon Award winners, by category, were:
Nearly 600 communities around the world were nominated for the Award. Through a rigorous review process, a committee of 50 international HIV and AIDS experts identified the top 25 candidates, who were invited to attend the AIDS 2006 conference.
An international jury that included the Norwegian Crown Princess, Oscar nominee Naomi Watts, former President of Ireland Mary Robinson and pioneering doctor Paul Farmer whittled the 25 finalists down to five, one in each award category.
“The Red Ribbon Award is a great opportunity to bring communities together that have fought this disease,” said Kemal Dervis, United Nations Development Programme Administrator. “Sometimes they work in extremely difficult situations, in contexts of war or extreme poverty, and yet they have found ways despite these obstacles to make things happen, to generate some real success on the ground.”
Each of the five winners receives US$20,000 in prize money, while the other 20 finalist communities are each awarded US$5,000. The checks will be presented to the finalists on World AIDS Day, 1 December 2006.
The Red Ribbon Award, making its debut in Toronto during the week of 12-18 August, will henceforth be presented every two years at the International AIDS Conference. It provides a unique opportunity to support and publicize the most outstanding and least recognized experts in the global effort to stop the epidemic.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is leading the Red Ribbon Award, working in partnership with UNAIDS, the Community and Leadership Program Committees of the XVI International AIDS Conference and the governments of Canada, Norway, Austria, Finland and Ireland. Other partners include Care International and UNESCO.
More details of the real-life stories of these communities and the challenges they face in responding to the HIV epidemic are available at the Red Ribbon Award website.
Mboole Rural Development – Zambia
The grassroots project which won one of the five “Red Ribbon” awards at the Toronto International AIDS Conference, 2006 belong to a young group from Zambia. Here is what they do about ‘Providing Support to Children Orphaned by AIDS and Other Vulnerable Children'.
Originating as a single village endeavor, the central focus of this Zambian project is to provide orphans with school uniforms and supplies, allowing them to complete their educations. Currently led by twelve young people, the Mboole Rural Development has since expanded to include 16 villages in which they now operate a variety of micro-credit enterprises. These projects, including a tailoring shop that produces school uniforms and a carpentry skills training centre, provide necessary resources while teaching valuable skills to local youth. The organization seeks to fight cultural ideas that lead to the spread of the epidemic, empower women to say no to unsafe sex and also to promote inter-generational dialogue and family planning.
About the XVI International AIDS Conference: AIDS 2006 is the world's largest HIV/AIDS conference, providing an international, open and independent forum for the exchange of ideas, knowledge and research which will inform HIV/AIDS programmes and strengthen prevention, treatment and care efforts around the world. The theme of AIDS 2006 is ‘Time to Deliver', reflecting the demands of the epidemic for increased accountability from all stakeholders to fulfill the commitments made.
About UNAIDS: UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, brings together the efforts and resources of ten UN system organizations to the global AIDS response. Co-sponsors include UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank. Based in Geneva, the UNAIDS secretariat works on the ground in more than 75 countries world wide.
Local Agenda 21 (LA-21) Women's Councils are the official organizers of this 5th Summit whose theme is to promote stronger participation of women in all levels of politics and equal representation in the Parliament with the help of the Gender Quota system.
Turkey's leading academics, politicians, journalists, businesswomen, trade unionists, writers, women's initiatives and NGOs will participate in the Summit where such topics as the status of women in politics, women's involvement in the history of Turkish politics, women's impact on policy making process, parliamentary works relating to women, the mission and functions of the women branches of political parties, the necessary legal reforms to provide gender equality in parliamentary representation and women's quotas will be discussed.
LA-21's Women's Councils, the leading organizer of the Ürgüp Summit, are active volunteer initiatives working in a large scope of areas from conducting literacy courses to publishing books, protecting women's legal rights, supporting women's economic independence, improving the conditions of women's and children's health and education, and organizing art and culture activities in nearly 60 cities throughout Turkey. However, in this period leading to the 2007 general elections, the priority issue in the agenda of Women's Councils is to strengthen the voice and visibility of women in politics and to press for the implementation of legal reforms to enable equal representation in the parliament, in other words to put the Quota System into effect.
Prior to the Ürgüp Summit, Women's Councils' Quota Working Groups redoubled their efforts. They held a coordination meeting to prolong the signature campaign demanding the adoption of the quota system, which they will pass on to the Parliament immediately after the Summit. They developed sub-projects relating to ‘women in politics', and drafted the Women's Summit Proclamation. Women's Quota Groups also redoubled their lobbying efforts amongst parliamentarians, political party leaders, municipalities and the media.
“Gender Quota System” is a method used to enable gender equality, by placing a compulsory number of women candidates in the election lists. Currently, in the 550-member Turkish Parliament, only 24 seats are held by women. Women are represented by a mere 2% in city and provincial councils. Of the 3,234 mayors in Turkey, only 18 of them are women. (In EU countries on the other hand, 1 out of 5 elected local administrators is woman.)
Presently, Gender Quota is applied in elections in 81 countries. In 16 of these countries, the quota system has been regulated by the Constitution, in 27 countries by election laws. In 47 other countries, the quota is incorporated in the regulatory statutes of the political parties. Belgium adopted its quota system in 1994, France in 2000. Among the Latin American countries, Argentina endorsed the Quota in 1991, and following the 1993 elections, increased the number of women's seats by 13.2% to 28.4%. In Turkey, however, neither the Law on Political Parties, nor the Election Law includes any Quota regulation. Although Turkey had signed CEDAW (the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women) in 1986, and thereby declared its vigilance on the issue of gender equality, legal reforms regarding the Quota system are still pending. Yet the country is in urgent need of this system, because currently 50% of the population is represented by a mere 4.4% in the Parliament. In the area of parliamentary participation by women, Turkey ranks 114th among 119 countries worldwide.
Women's Councils' volunteers also meet with political party leaders and MPs to voice their demand for gender equality in representation. The volunteers found out that some party leaders don't like the word “quota”! Some others, however, support the volunteers and point out that they have allocated a 30% quota for women and young candidates in their election lists. But generally speaking, the majority of party leaders do not think 50% representation by women MPs is “realistic”!
On the other hand, many women who support the quota system think that female political candidates should be of high calibre, as they believe many politicians (both men and women) currently are not, and that women politicians must be very well-equipped.
What do women politicians think?
Mine Kılıç: “I had a female student at the Uludağ University, Teachers' College. Her parents entrusted her to me. I liked her very much. After graduating, she was appointed to a teacher's post in Diyarbakır. One day I watched on TV news that she and her father were killed by bandits. This incident moved me and hurt me deeply. Why?, I said to myself. How can this be? I thought of my own children. It could have happened to me, too. If this could happen to an educated, young working woman, doing service to her country, it was time to say ‘stop' to this bad course of events, time to do something about it. Previously, I wasn't at all interested in politics, I didn't sympathize with any of the political parties, but after that terrible event, I felt I must definitely become politically active. Soon after retiring from my teaching job, I went into politics.”
Involved in active politics for 40 years, Beyhan Akgün has been promoted to the Supreme Disciplinary Committee, the highest organ of her party. “I didn't come to this position thanks to Quota, I was elected. But I absolutely believe in the quota system. It would be a starting point to involve more women in politics. But the women MP candidates should be well tried and tested in the party first, that's a must. They should serve at least 2-3 years. To place inexperienced people in the lists just to fill the quota would do no service to the country. I think, pre-election is the most democratic method.”
"I have never seen destruction like this," said UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) water and sanitation specialist Branislav Jekic, after the agency conducted preliminary assessments in southern Lebanon. "Wherever we go, we ask people what they need most and the answer is always the same: water. People want to move back to their communities. But whether they stay or not will depend on the availability of water."
In 10 out of 12 war-affected communities visited by UNICEF in recent days, underground pipes and other water-related infrastructure had been seriously damaged or destroyed, the agency said, adding that it had stepped up its response to deal with the problem.
Since the beginning of the crisis on 12 July, more than a quarter of a million litres of bottled water has been sent to some of the worst-hit communities including Bint Jubail, Ait el Shaab and Tibnin. Currently, around 50,000 litres a week are being sent south by truck, but this quantity will more than double by the weekend.
Teams from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) have also described similar needs in their assessments on the ground, highlighting also the destruction in the south. "A UNHCR team that went through nine villages along the border saw this reality. Four of the villages were largely destroyed, with buildings razed and rubble strewn over the ground," spokesperson Jennifer Pagonis told reporters in Geneva. In response to requests for rebuilding assistance, UNHCR is preparing emergency repair tool kits that include plastic sheeting, plywood, corrugated metal sheets, wood, as well as basic tools such as hammers, nails, shovels.
According to Lebanon's Interior Ministry, some 97 per cent of those displaced by the conflict between Hizbollah and Israel have now returned to their homes, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on 22 August. OCHA also said that four more convoys of UN aid left Beirut for the south.
Further on the humanitarian front, the UN Development Programme (UNDP), with the support of the World Bank, has donated $500,000 to Lebanon for emergency relief. UNDP has also established a political advisory group within the Lebanese Prime Minister's Office, concentrating on support to the recovery and reconstruction effort, with initial funding of $800,000.