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Joint Program Title: Alliances for Cultural Tourism (ACT) in Kars
Timeline: November 2008 - December 2010
What’s the situation?
Provinces of Eastern Anatolia are the poorest in Turkey with human development (HDI) levels far below national averages. Policy options are limited for the people of the region to attain economic and social opportunities. Kars is situated at the northern tip of the Eastern Anatolia region and lies in the heart of the South Caucasus at a strategic position of the Turkey’s border, which intersects with Armenia, Georgia and Iran. It has an HDI value of 0.644 compared to the national average of 0.757. Poverty rates in Kars are estimated to be around 30 percent (31 percent based on poverty certificates issued) compared to 17 percent for national averages.
Kars is home to the ancient city of Ani which is one of the richest areas of medieval art and architecture. The Arpa River on the eastern and southern part of the ancient city of Ani separates Turkey and Armenia. Ani is culturally significant as the once capital of the Armenian Baghratid Kingdom. It was also home to Seljuk Turks, Sheddadids, Georgians and others who left their traces in this site throughout history. The monuments standing in the city show the cross cultural exchange between different cultures. With Kars and Ani at its northern tip, a string of monuments and sites of multiple cultural and religious significance mark Eastern Anatolia. They include Mount Ararat, a site of significance shared by the three big monotheist religions, and Ishakpasa (http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/state=tr), a 17th century monument which is a unique mix of Anatolian, Iranian and North Mesopotamian architectural tradition and Van in the south.
Turkey is committed to the highest standards of conservation and protection of these areas in line with the applicable conventions. However, national to local policy linkages are weak. Best practices in the governance of cultural heritage protection and promotion do not exist. Despite the availability of expertise, conservation and protection, site management and public use of cultural heritage in poor, remote areas such as Kars and Eastern Anatolia suffer from lack of effective implementation and from lack of good governance practices.
Consequently, the tourism potential in Kars and its environs cannot be translated into sufficient incomes for its citizens. The reasons for this can be listed as lack of awareness of the region’s potentials among tour operators and tourists, lack of service capacity among local businesses, and lack of local products available.
What’s our mission?
The joint program will mobilize the culture sector in Turkey’s Eastern Anatolia. It will result in increased incomes for the people of Kars contributing to the realization of poverty reduction at a localized level. In specific the joint program will develop the cultural tourism sector in Kars contributing to social cohesion by recognizing pluralism and by reducing income disparities between people of Kars and the rest of the country.
How we’re doing this?
Despite the country’s remarkable economic progress, regional and gender based inequalities constrain the attainment of the poverty reduction in the country’s East Anatolia region. In response, the UNCT in Turkey has included outcomes in Turkey’s UNDAF 2006-2010 that address the reduction of regional disparities through social development.
The proposed Joint Program will utilize the respective capacities of four UN agencies (UNDP, UNESCO, UNWTO and UNICEF) in coordination with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Turkey to implement the Joint Program based upon existent national strategies, including the Ninth Development Plan (2007-2013) and the Government’s Tourism and Strategy Action Plan of 2007-2013 and the 2023 Tourism Strategy in mobilizing cultural values as a complementary asset for promotion of tourism. The proposed Joint Program will ensure national ownership through the effective cohesion of program outputs with the institutional set up of management of cultural policy and cultural tourism in the country and of program targets with those of the relevant national authorities.
UNDP will facilitate governance mechanisms at the local level to ensure that all relevant parties are involved in planning, implementation and monitoring of the project activities. This program will establish a capacity at the local level to identify cultural conservation and tourism related priorities and to develop responses for those issues. In addition, in partnership with UNWTO, UNDP will work with local businesses to improve tourism supply in Kars and its environs to ensure that the stakeholders leverage the region’s potentials for their own incomes.
How will Turkey benefit?
The Joint Program contributes to the achievement of poverty reduction in Kars and its environs through leveraging the cultural tourism sector in a way which fosters social cohesion and creates income opportunities for the poor. The Joint Program will create a developmental change, albeit confined to the province of Kars.
The three joint program outputs are:
- A model for strategic direction, prioritization and safeguarding of tangible and intangible cultural heritage and cultural tourism delivery in Turkey’s less developed regions produced and implemented in Kars
- Capacities of communities and enterprises in Kars increased for income generation job creation in the culture based tourism sector
- Local authorities and civil society in Kars and its environs and other relevant provinces, promote social cohesion and dialogue through recognizing of pluralism
Who are our partners?
The government partner of this program is Ministry of Culture and Tourism. In addition, Kars Governorate, Kars Municipality and City Council as well as local tourism businesses are among local partners. International partners are UNESCO, UNICEF and UNWTO.
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