Turkey is a Middle Income Country (MIC), with a strong economic growth over the past years. In 2004 Turkey entered into the EU accession process with consequent demands for reforms towards meeting EU Aquis communitaire, including reforms on human rights, equality and a democratic judiciary. Despite the numerous advancements, particularly in the constitution, the Criminal Code, the Civil Code and the Labour Act, the implementation and de facto realization of these rights, is still a challenge, which is also reflected in the basic development indicators for women, that are far behind to comparable MICs and much further behind the EU member states.
An important progress in advancing women’s empowerment and gender equality in 2008 was the National Action Plan on Gender Equality covering the period of 2008-2013 and prepared in the framework of the Twinning Project “Promoting Gender Equality implemented by the General Directorate on the Status of Women. The Action Plan specifies targets for ministries and other national agencies for promoting gender equality. Among the main challenges we can highlight the low participation in politics (both national and local) and in decision making in general, high and increasing unemployment among young women (with consequent loss of confidence and vision as well as decreasing models for encouraging young women’s advancement); and high (albeit lowering) acceptance towards violence against women.
After the approval of the law for the Equal Opportunities Commission for Women-Men in February 2009, the committee was established with the unanimous support and coordination with women’s movement. This Commission, in charge of promoting gender equality in the legislation making and examining complaints on violation of equality between women and men and gender-based discrimination is a great milestone for women’s movement in Turkey. The Commission brings an institutional dimension to gender equality in Turkey. However, in order to make it effective, its implementation is key to smoothly undertake a close follow up during its earliest activities and its further develop its assigned competences.
According to the Turkish Statistics Institute and UN Reports, the situation in Turkey is as following:
Indicator
Total(%)
Women(%)
Men(%)
Life Expectancy (at Birth) in years
71.3
73.8
68.9
School Life Expactancy [2] in years
11
10
12
Adult Economic Activity Rate [3]
52
28
76
Unemployment rate
9.9
10.3
9.8
Labor force participation rate
47.8
24.8
71.3
Labor participation rate among Youth (aged b/w 15-24)
19.6
20
19.4
Adult Literacy Ratio
88.1
80.4
96.0
Non-agricultural unemloyment rate
12.6
17.4
11.4
Ratio of literate women to men (15-24 age group)
95.2
Share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sectors
19.9
Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament
9.1
Women mayors
Women members of provincial councils
Women members of municipal councils
0.56
1.81
2.42
Gender Related Development Index (GDI)[1][5] Value
GDI Rank
0.763
79th out of 157
Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM)[1][6] Value
GEM Rank
0.298
90th out of 93
Ratio of girls to boys in Primary education
Ratio of girls to boys in Secondary education
Ratio of girls to boys in Tertiary Education
0.95
0.74
0.73
[1] Updated data of 2007
[2] UNESCO (2007) http//:unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/socind/education.htm Erişim 28.06.2007
[2] U.N. Statistics Division, data of 2006
[3] Turkish Prime Ministry-General Directorate of Women’s Affairs
[4] HDR, 2007/2008
[5] HDR, 2007/2008
[6] MDGR, 2005
[7] HDR, 2006
Other challenging data on women’s lack of advancement and empowerment according to the General Directorate on the Status of Women in Turkey include:
57.2 % of women work in the agriculture sector and 50 % of the women in agriculture sector are part of family work force without pay;
One out of every three women is a victim of violence;
63 % of women between the ages of 15 and 19 approve violence against women.
Although domestic violence against women has been getting increasing attention in Turkey, official national data on the magnitude and nature of the problem was until recently not available. The National Research on Domestic Violence against Women in Turkey, launched by the General Directorate of Women’s affairs and the EC Delegation in Turkey in January 2009, aimed to get and disseminate for the first time in Turkey detailed information on the prevalence and types of domestic violence against women, its causes and consequences for the whole of Turkey. Major findings from the research showed that violence by husbands is the most common form of violence in women’s lives and revealed that 4 out of 10.
2. WHAT IS UNDP DOING TO PROMOTE GENDER IN DEVELOPMENT IN TURKEY?
UNDP Turkey Country Programme Document (CPD) recognizes gender as a cross cutting issue that should be mainstreamed in all programmatic areas of interventions. As a result of UNDP’s work towards the promotion of gender equality in Turkey UNDP's contributions have been recognized by the Turkish Government, NGOs, academia, and beneficiaries. As the main activities undertaken in 2008 we can highlight the continuous support for the promotion of women’s entrepreneurship in the GAP Region as well as the advocacy for the promotion of women’s participation in politics and decision making in Turkey, the awareness building activities and the capacity development activities for women candidates for local elections and local media in 14 provinces, including the network promotion among women’s movement through the creation of platforms for women politicians regardless party lines. On the field of women’s economic empowerment UNDP works with men and women for gender equality.
In 2009, they key achievement in terms of Institutional Arrangements have been:
A Gender Mainstreaming Strategy involving all teams (i.e. Sustainable Development, Democratic Governance, Poverty Reduction and Operations and Finance) has been shared, discussed through set of workshops and endorsed by management. Consequently a Gender Team has been established as an accountability mechanism for Gender Equality Results and follow up on the implementation of the Mainstreaming Strategy.
The establishment of a library (physical and on-line) for information sharing and dissemination of toolkits and other material on Gender.
3. HOW IS GENDER INCLUDED IN OUR DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES IN TURKEY?
Gender has been mainstreamed in most of the approved projects in 2008 and the 2009 as well, and is today a key component in many of UNDP Turkey's ongoing projects within its three main focus areas, ie Democratic Governance, Poverty Reduction and Environment & Sustainable Development.
Strategic Plan Goal 1 (as per UNDP Corporate Strategic Plan). Achieving the MDGs and reducing human poverty:
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