The UNDP/TIKA Project titled “Bridging South-South Cooperation and Emerging Donor Roles: Strengthening Turkey’s Participation in International Development Cooperation” has been given an official start today, at the presence of  Prof. Dr. Mustafa Said YAZICIOĞLU, the State Minister. Both Musa KULAKLIKAYA, President of the Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA) and Mahmood AYUB, Resident Representative of the UNDP were present as the hosts. The meeting was also honored by the ambassadors and the diplomatic corps of various countries, which have their embassies in Ankara, the representatives of the International Organizations, including the staff of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the representatives of various ministries and governmental institutions, etc.

“Over the years Turkey has made a remarkable progress in the avenues of technical cooperation and development aid, by transforming itself at an accelerated pace from a recipient country status to becoming one of the major donor countries among the group of Middle Income Countries (MICs)” said Musa KULAKLIKAYA, President of TIKA in his opening speech today. “The numbers speak for themselves” he added by pointing out that the amount of total official aid of Turkey was 339 million US$ in 2004, while this figure almost doubled as the average of the total aid given in the subsequent years of 2005, 2006 and 2007.” (please click here to read Kulaklıkaya’s speech)

Mahmood AYUB, Resident Representative of the UNDP reminded the audience that “the project will put at Turkey’s disposal, UNDP’s global infrastructure of 166 country offices, regional centers, policy institutes and knowledge networks. Furthermore, the project will aim to promote the consolidation of multilateral partnerships and regional cooperation with UNDP, with other emerging donor countries, and with recipient countries as well, to coordinate the efforts towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).”(please click here to read Ayub’s speech)

Avni Aksoy, Head of Multilateral Economic Affairs Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the Ministry would contribute in any way that it can for the successful implementation of the project (please click here to read Aksoy’s speech). 

The Project will promote Turkish contribution to the Millenium Development Goals Achievement by enhancing Turkish emerging donor role by organizing international conferences sharing its best practices in different sectors and will develop the capacities of TIKA to increase its aid effectiveness., said Dr. Sebahattin GAZANFER, Senior Project Advisor of the UNDP/TİKA South-South Project, during his presentation of the main features of the project. Mr. GAZANFER also underlined that “one of the most important outcomes of the project, which is the establishment of a talent bank mechanism of Turkish experts, which would be interlinked with international expert’s networks, to share its knowledge and provide technical assistance to the developing world” (please click here to view Gazanfer’s presentation).

The South-South Cooperation that was established in 1978, encourages bilateral, regional and inter-regional cooperation in the areas of politic, social, environmental and technical issues in order to solve common development problems among developing countries through the sharing of experience, expertise and technology.

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For further information, please contact Ebru Saner, South-South Cooperation Project Associate at  (0312 508 1189) or (ebru.saner@undp.org)