Gender Equality is one of the key issues for the progress of a society. In a democratic society, involving women and men in decision-making is a sine qua non. Hence democracy cannot afford to be gender-blind. It must strive towards equality and representation of women and men in decision-making and give equal opportunity to both genders to be successful.
During the last decades, Turkey has been witnessing important achievements in women’s participation in every walk of life. Much progress has also been made in the past decade, particularly with the legislation of key reforms. However, these reforms have yet to be fully incorporated into the daily lives of people and gender inequality remains a significant obstacle for development.
Individual funds and UN agencies have provided assistance to projects that promote women’s rights. By joining forces in this programme, the UN is able to provide involved local partners with a comprehensive package of support to address women’s rights and protect women. UN Reform demands that UN agencies go beyond coordination and information sharing to pool resources for joint programmes. By joining both financial resources and expertise these programmes are able to provide the most effective means of addressing the many facets of specific development challenges. In addition, the UN Joint Programme is designed to cooperate with other relevant individual agency programmes across Turkey. The UN agencies have collectively pledged to provide one-third of the financial support necessary to complete the Programme. Currently, UNPD, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNHCR and ILO have contributed to the Programme.
UN Joint Programme is specifically design-ed to incorporate funds not just from UN agencies but also from bilateral donors and the private sector. Bilateral donors have contributed significantly to projects to improve gender equality in Turkey, particularly in light of Turkey’s prospective EU membership. UN Joint Programme acts as a vehicle for combining and rationalizing bilateral financial assistance for gender equality and provides a platform for active partnerships/dialogue between donors, the Government of Turkey, NGOs and other local stakeholders. The programme is actively encouraging collaboration with other women’s rights programmes. The programme envisions one-third of financial support for the programme coming from bilateral donors. Currently, embassies of Canada, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom have financially contributed to the implementation of the Programme.
UN Joint Programme is also designed to incorporate the private sector into its activities. In recent years, corporate social responsibility has grown in Turkey. Both multinational and local companies are prioritizing investment in projects that promote Turkey’s development. In pre-liminary discussions during the preparation of the programme, UN agencies and the private sector supported the programme. The programme is designed to incorporate local chambers of commerce, thereby engaging local level private support early on and encouraging investment in the programme. It is envisioned that the private sector will donate one-third of the financial support necessary to complete the Programme. Starting from June 2006, the Hacı Ömer Sabancı Foundation (VAKSA) has been supporting the Programme with funds that make up one-third of the Programme budget.
While financial support for the programme is coming from the UN, bilateral donors and the private sector, the programme also relies on local government support. Specifically, local governments are providing in-kind support and will help to fund implementation of the local action plans, which are being developed as part of the programme. Capacity building activities are helping local government officials develop their resource mobi-lization skills as well as a strategy for fundraising activities to support local action plans. UN Joint Programme will demonstrate that empowerment of women can be achieved through local leadership and commitment to the inclusion of women and their representatives in local planning and decision-making.
UN Joint Programme Description
The two-year UN Joint Gender Programme is designed to address persistent gender inequalities by improving the national policy environment, building local government and NGO capacity, designing service models for women and girls and raising awareness about women and girls’ rights. The Programme primarily targets national level decision makers as well as local government, NGOs and the general public in 6 cities: Izmir, Van, Nevşehir, Kars, Şanlıurfa and Trabzon. The cities were chosen according to municipal readiness and capacity to participate in the programme and perceived needs as expressed in preliminary city visits. These cities were selected to demonstrate how participatory and coordinated cross-sectoral approaches can improve servi-ces, augment resource availability and improve the lives of girls and women in a variety of settings.
UN Joint Programme is simultaneously developing interventions for women and girls at the local level and improving the capacity of institutions responsible for service provision. The programme is currently identifying the needs of women and girls. Priority actions are being identified through a participatory planning process involving all stakeholders. These priority areas are being drawn from the following: education; employment; reproductive health; violence against women; trafficking; asylum seekers, refugees and internally displaced people. Once the priorities are identified, stakeholders will work together to design 5-year local action plans (LAPs). The programme will support the start-up of LAP implementation. By the end of the programme a scaling-up model at the national level will be in place and the six cities will be evaluated for certification as ‘Women Friendly City’ based on commonly agreed upon criteria. LAP implementation will also be supported through VAKSA small grant-scheme which is under preparation.
GOALS
- Thousands of citizens will be more aware of women’s and girls’ rights.
- Thousands will be trained to promote and protect women’s and girls’ rights.
- Local governments and NGO’s will be stronger and more knowledgeable about women’s and girl’s human rights.
- Six 5-year local action plans will be in place.
- Citizens, community leaders, religious leaders, civil society and private sector in all cities will be actively involved in gender issues.
- Local activities will be accelerated with priority given to shelters, creating jobs, vocational training and girls’ education.
Local and national political and budgetary commitment will be increased.
- The 6 cities evaluated for certification for their active role in promoting women’s and girl’s rights.
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