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The United Nations (UN) launched its joint
programme on Promoting and
Protecting Women’s and Girl’s Human
Rights in partnership with the Turkish
Ministry of Interior and Association
for Training and Supporting Women
Candidates (KA-DER), on 7 March
2006 in Ankara. The programme was
presented by Kemal Dervis, the Chair
of the UN Development Group and
UNDP Administrator, Sahabettin Harput,
Undersecretary of the Ministry of
Interior and Jakob Simonsen, UN
Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident
Representative in Turkey. This 2-year
programme aims to eliminate gender
inequalities, create an environment
to provide gender equality at national
and local levels, build local government
and NGO capacity, design service
models for women and girls and finally,
raise awareness on women and girls’ rights.
Decision-makers at national level as well
as in pilot cities which are Izmir, Kars,
Nevsehir, Sanliurfa, Trabzon and Van,
civil society organisations and the general
public at these cities are target groups
of the programme, which is financially
supported by all UN agencies in Turkey,
governments of Sweden, Switzerland, United
Kingdom, Denmark, Norway and Canada and
private sector companies. The UN chose
these cities to show how services could
be diversified, resources could be enhanced
and the lives of women and girls could
be bettered by a participatory, coordinating
and intersectoral-cooperation-focused
approach.
UN Joint Programme aims simultaneously
to develop interventions for local women
and girls and improve the capacity of
institutions responsible for service
provision. The programme is currently
identifying the needs of women and girls,
including the most vulnerable populations.
Priority actions are being identified
through a participatory planning process
involving all stakeholders. These priority
areas are being selected according to
regional needs amongst topics of education,
employment, reproductive health, violence
against women, trafficking, asylum seekers,
refugees and internally displaced people.
Once identified, stakeholders will work
together to design 5-year local action
plans. By the end of the programme a
national scaling-up model will be in
place and the six pilot cities will be
evaluated for certification as ‘Women
First Cities’ based on commonly
agreed upon criteria.
Kemal Dervis' Statement on International
Women's Day
It was not a coincidence that the joint
programme was inaugurated by UNDP Administrator
Kemal Dervis on the eve of the International
Women’s Day. UNDP, who has been
defending the concept of human development
for two decades, do not see it only as
an economic growth tool but a mission
to improve human in every aspect. In
a world where three-fifths of the one
billion poorest people are women and
girls, gender equality and women’s
empowerment goal, naturally, is crucial
to development.
Kemal Dervis, during the launch of the
programme, referred this year’s theme for
International Women’s Day, ‘Women
in Decision-Making,’ giving examples
of women Heads of State or Government
in countries on every continent. “There
are and have been women in power before,
but what is happening today in many ways
goes deeper and is built on more solid
foundations. As the world’s examples
illustrate, we may be witnessing a shift
in the balance of power at national and
international levels, where women are
finally being recognized as equals and
as leaders,” he said.
Dervis explained, as a result of UNDP’s
exemplary projects in countries like
Congo, Yemen, Pakistan, Georgia and Honduras
where women’s participation in
decision-making cannot be or less provided,
number of women voters’ increased
remarkably, gender equality became
government policy and citizens are
now more aware of the issue. He
added that UNDP runs projects to
enable the exchange of and access
to information on strengthening
political participation of women
within and across borders.
UNDP Administrator stated that despite
these successes, progress towards the
goal of gender equality and women’s
empowerment still trails conspicuously
behind and considered the fact of girls
being %70 of 130 million children who
are out of school, as a sad truth. “Women
account for two-thirds of the 960 million
adults in the world who cannot read,
which greatly impedes their ability to
participate in the political process.
With notable exceptions, women are too
often absent from parliaments, making
up, on average, only 16 percent of parliamentarians
world-wide,” he said.
Dervis’ words of “Without women’s
equal participation in political life,
all members of society will suffer. We
have to look to equality not as just
a worthy goal, but a proven way of accelerating
human development. Whether working to
ensure equal access to water and energy
services, to strengthening the response
to HIV/AIDS, or building lasting peace
processes, women need a strong voice
at the table so that they can determine
their future,” once again reaffirmed
UNDP’s commitment to improve women’s
capacity.
For more information please click: http://www.undp.org.tr/statement_kemal_dervis.asp
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