|
What's the situation?
Although Turkey's achievements
in gender equality date back to the 1930s, when Turkish women were
granted full voting rights, it was the country's ratification of
the Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination again women (CEDAW)
in 1986 that led to the establishment of a national machinery for
the promotion of gender equity. Since then Turkey has increased
its commitment to achieving genuine gender equality by passing milestone
legal reforms that eliminate fundamental discriminatory provisions
against women, including those on violence, poverty and economic
exploitation.
| While
Turkey has made considerable progress in achieving legal gender
equality, the existing challenge is implementation. Behavioral
change has not necessarily followed legislative change, creating
a gap between law and practice. Turkey remains far from the
desired levels in terms of basic development indicators, including
women's participation in decision-making. The Government reports
that women are still extremely under-represented in Turkey's
parliament; violence against women remains a social problem;
and allocation of resources is still gender biased. Advancements
are also being overshadowed by growing socio-economic and regional
disparities: inequality and poverty are more prevalent in the
eastern part of the country, in rural versus |
 |
| urban
settings, in low-educated versus highly-educated. |
While there is still much
to be done in strengthening the national machinery for the advancement
of women in both the public and private spheres, Turkey's potential
to make great strides in the years ahead is clear given the good
will of the state as well as the determination of academic and civil
society organizations.
Advocacy, awareness, and resources
appear to be key: public attention to issues of violence against
women, including domestic violence, honour killings and trafficking
is limited. Women are often restrained in exercising their rights
fully or are unaware of the scope of their rights. Organizations
working to protect the rights of women need more support to be able
to do so. Collaborative efforts between government (local and national),
NGO's, labour market partners, media and private co-operations in
the area of women's rights are virtually needed.
What is UNDP doing to promote
gender in development in Turkey?
UNDP's contributions to gender
equality in Turkey have been recognized by the Turkish Government,
NGOs, academia, and beneficiaries. UNDP initiated its assistance
in 1992, with the launch of the National Programme for the Enhancement
of Women in Development. Over the years, this umbrella technical
assistance programme has supported the capacity building of government
offices (including the General
Directorate on the Status and Problems of Women) as well
as of independent experts to advance research in gender studies;
awareness raising, advocacy and support for NGOs; and the establishment
of international linkages.
Since 2001, UNDP has been
gradually adopting gender mainstreaming as its policy to combat
gender inequalities in Turkey. In its next phase of country programming,
2006-2010, UNDP will remain committed to supporting gender equality
goals in its programmes -- as well as through an active participation
in the UN Gender Theme Group. UNDP will also continue to play a
central role in advocacy and policy advice through the publication
of its National Development Reports (2002, 2004),
as well as the Millennium
Development Goals Reports.
How is gender included
in our development programmes in Turkey?
Gender is an important component
in many of UNDP Turkey's ongoing programmes, within and across its
three main focus areas of Democratic
Governance, Poverty
Reduction and Energy
and Environment:
Local
Agenda 21 (LA-21) [Democratic Governance] has special
focus on gender empowerment. The mechanisms and institutions of
LA-21 have been advocating for increased candidature among women
in local elections, as well as for legislative reform to increase
women's participation and representation. LA-21 promotes the role
of women in strengthening democratic local governance in Turkey
through a participatory process built around transparency and accountability.
Within this perspective, the LA-21 increases women's influence in
decision-making first locally and later in the national decision-making
structure. Within this context, specific and focused campaigns and
festivals have been organized to promote the development and endorsement
of common principles for the establishment and functioning of the
women's councils, and the means of cooperation among women organizations
in different cities. Several cities across Turkey have taken the
lead to set up Women's Consultancy and Cooperation Centers and Women's
Guest Houses.
CEDAW
Follow-Up [Poverty Reduction] aims to promote women's
empowerment and gender mainstreaming in Turkey. Turkey's ratification
of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination
Against Women (CEDAW) in 1986 has helped to popularise gender sensitivity.
Under CEDAW, signatory states are required to establish a national
machinery for the promotion of gender equality. Together with our
partner, the women's organization Uçan
Süpürge ("The Flying Broom"),
UNDP Turkey is supporting members of Turkey's Grand National Assembly
to advocate for CEDAW and to implement CEDAW in their day to day
legislative work. Six members of parliament serve as CEDAW Champions.
Small
and Medium Scale Enterprise Development in Southeast Anatolia (GIDEM)
[Poverty Reduction] includes a window developed by UNDP Turkey
for the preparation of analytical study on women's entrepreneurship
opportunities in southeastern Anatolia. It also examined which sectors
the GIDEM programme could focus on in order to promote women entrepreneurship
in the region. Related to this, GIDEM supported the establishment
of a Women Entrepreneurship Center in Sanliurfa in partnership with
the Governorate and Harran University. In Diyarbakir, GIDEM has
also supported an internship programme for female University students
to introduce them to business environment and to encourage their
entrepreneurial potential. This activity was carried out in partnership
with KAGIDER
(Association for support of Women Entrepreneurship) and will be
replicated in Diyarbakir and Sanliurfa in 2005.
Reduction
of Socio-Economic Disparities in the GAP region, phase II
[Poverty Reduction] aims to strengthen both the production
capacities of women and the networks among women NGOs across the
region. This support will take the form of technical expertise in
production, design and marketing, and will result in an improved
institutional capacity of the women's organizations in the region.
Linking
Eastern Anatolia to Progress (LEAP) [Poverty Reduction]
aims to support the limited number of women NGO's in this region,
mainly in entrepreneurship support and income-generating activities.
Currently, these activities are in Erzurum. Additional gender-related
support will be implemented in Erzincan and Bayburt where entrepreneurship
centers are being established.
Global
Environment Fund Small Grants Project (GEF-SGP) [Energy
and Environment] endeavours to ensure the involvement of all
stakeholders, particularly women, particularly in its projects which
have a community focus. This is felt to be particularly important
in those projects which involve an alternative income-generation
component, in order to safeguard against proposed alternatives creating
burdensome responsibilities for women in the communities concerned.
|
