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Project name: United Nations Joint Programme - MDG-F 1680 Enhancing the Capacity of Turkey to Adapt to Climate Change
Budget: USD 7,000,000 (Total Budget)
Timeline: June 2008 – June 2011
What has been the situation?
As part of the southern belt of Mediterranean Europe, Turkey is highly vulnerable to anticipated climate change impacts. Turkey’s First National Communication to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2007 reports that present climate change effects include rising summer temperatures, reduced winter precipitation in the western provinces, loss of surface waters, greater frequency of droughts, land degradation, coastal erosion, and flooding. This is having a major negative effect on water availability for food production and rural development. The severity of these impacts is predicted to increase.
On 18 December 2006, UNDP Administrator Kemal Derviş and Spanish Secretary of State for International Cooperation, Leire Pajin, signed a landmark agreement to allocate through UNDP, a total amount of €528 million over the next four years, towards the achievement of key Millennium Development Goals and related development goals in the selected countries. Turkey, as one of the 57 eligible countries worldwide, was awarded USD 7,000,000 through the funding window; enhancing capacity to adapt to the climate change. UN Joint Programme, titled “Enhancing the Capacity of Turkey to Adapt to Climate Change”, was prepared in close collaboration with the relevant ministries, academia and relevant UN agencies.
What is our mission?
The core objective of the Joint Programme is to develop capacity for managing climate change risks to rural and coastal development in Turkey. This will be achieved by mainstreaming climate change adaptation into the national development framework, building capacity in national and regional institutions, piloting community-based adaptation projects in the Seyhan River Basin, and integrating climate change adaptation into all UN agencies in Turkey.
How are we doing this?
UNDP is the main implementing organization of the project that hass been structured as a joint programme. The key requirements for climate change adaptation in Turkey are stipulated in Turkey’s Ninth Development Plan 2007-2013 (paragraph 461) and in rural development strategies such as The Regional Development Plan for the Eastern Black Sea Region (2002). These requirements will be addressed by developing a National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy which will complement the existing development plans and procedures. In addition, legislative changes will be proposed to mainstream climate change risks into development and regional planning.
The capacity of national and regional institutions to respond to disasters induced by climate change will be enhanced. In particular, capacity will be developed in the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MOEF), State Planning Organization (SPO), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA), Ministry of Industry and Trade (MIT), Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources (MENR), Ministry of Health (MOH), Ministry of National Education (MONE), NGOs and Universities to ensure that appropriate climatic data are systematically collected and disseminated to relevant end-users via early warning systems.
Present initiatives in the Seyhan River Basin to increase the resilience of communities to climate change and climate variability will be further developed. The approach will be multi-faceted and will aim to e.g. maintain agricultural productivity, ecosystem goods and services, and the natural resource base in the context of a changing climate. It will also focus on improving preparedness for an increase in the frequency of droughts and floods. Public private partnerships will be a key component of this outcome.
The United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) will be revised and used for mainstreaming climate change adaptation within MDG-based UN programming in Turkey. UN resources for responding climate change risks will be mobilized. The focus will be on areas where the UN has a comparative advantage and can develop long-lasting in-country capacities at individual, institutional and societal levels. Adaptation to climate change will be integrated into all multi-agency projects targeted at achieving the MDGs.
Who are our partners?
The UNDP will provide support for programme oversight and coordination among participating resident UN organizations (UNIDO and FAO), including with UNEP, a non-resident UN organization, in particular through the mainstreaming and cross cutting activities, training, advocacy campaigns, dissemination of lessons learned from community based pilot projects, as well as expert support from all UNCT agencies.
The Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MOEF), together with the existing working groups of the Coordinating Board on Climate Change, will be the leading executing agency for the technical components of the programme. The State Planning Organization (SPO), which is the purveyor of the national strategies to achieve the MDG’s in Turkey, will be responsible for overall coordination and execution of the policy related components. Other relevant ministries, such as the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA), Ministry of Industry and Trade (MIT) and Ministry of National Education (MONE) will ensure the technical support to programme implementation.
How will Turkey benefit?
The Joint Programme will support Turkey’s efforts to introduce adaptive and long-term strategies into the legislative framework, policy making and implementation structures to address sustainable development issues.
Without cognizance of climate change induced threats, Turkey’s progress toward achieving the MDGs will be seriously jeopardized. For example, a major lacuna in national policy in Turkey is the insufficiency of climate change considerations in long-term water resource planning, particularly in the vulnerable and sensitive zones such as wetlands and aquatic ecosystems; based on legislation on energy efficiency and renewable energy which has indirect effect on water resources as well. This threatens economic development as well as the appropriate conservation of Turkey’s natural resources.
The Joint Programme will serve as a catalyst through pilot local actions to introduce and implement community-based adaptation principles and approaches; build capacity in the vulnerable rural regions and develop public-private partnerships to mobilize resources in addressing climate change risks. Building on preliminary studies carried out under the First National Communication of Turkey to the UNFCCC (2007), the programme will focus on the Seyhan River Basin, as it has been identified as an extremely vulnerable region in terms of climate change.
Finally, the proposed programme will help align the efforts of the UNCT on the emerging climate change issues. The programme thus provides an unprecedented opportunity for the UNCT in Turkey to demonstrate its capacity to function as “One UN”.
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Contact Information:
Atila Uras
Programme Manager
Tel: +90 312 454 1192
Fax: +90 312 496 1463
E-mail: atila.uras@undp.org
Alper Acar
Regional Project Coordinator
Tel: +90 312 454 1086
Fax: +90 312 496 1463
E-mail: alper.acar@undp.org
Gökhan Resuloğlu
Finance and Administrative Officer
Tel: +90 312 454 1181
Fax: +90 312 496 1463
E-mail: gokhan.resuloglu@undp.org
Gökçe Yörükoğlu
Programme Assistant
Tel: +90 312 454 1056
Fax: +90 312 496 1463
E-mail: gokce.yorukoglu@undp.org
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