The project aims to raise awareness on the importance of civil society’s engagement to law-making and other decision-making processes and encourage active citizentry in order to achieve accountability, transparency, better governance, responsiveness, efficiency and better representation within Turkey.

In this context, a UNDP team visited Mersin and Bursa on 7-8 July 2008 where they held contacts with various NGOs, stakeholders and local authorities in order to find out their perspectives on civic engagement to governance and the constraints they face. During consultations with multiple parties some institutions stated that they had a limited opportunity to ensure that their views are fed into Government and Parliamentary processes while smaller NGOs stated that they felt excluded from decision-making processes. When asked for reasons of their exclusion, NGOs listed various factors such as not being approached by the Government or Parliament, difficulties on finding information on which draft laws are being considered and lack of capacity to respond even if they were to be consulted. In this sense, the parties also discussed different ways in which NGOs can submit their views on draft bills and timescales needed to allow NGOs to discuss issues with their members in order to provide a collective view.

The information gathered from these visits will be used in the planning stage for other consultations that will be realized in other cities in October and November. The results of the meetings will be shared with the Parliamentary Advisers Association, The Association of Legislation and the Prime Ministry and will help shape the methods used for the consultations on draft legislation.

A national conference will also be held in early October to share the findings of these visits. The conference will bring together key actors of the Government, Parliament and civil society as well as international experts. During the conference, good practice of inclusive law making and ways of adapting these to Turkey will be discussed.

The “Inclusive Civic Engagement in Legislation Making in Turkey” project is the first phase of a process that aims to improve civic engagement to law making in Turkey. The project aims to do this through perception analysis, building capacity and technical know-how and building institutional capacity.

To receive further information on the project, please click here.