Reports - United Nations Development Programme

4. HUMAN DEVELOPMENT RESULTS AND UNDP’S CONTRIBUTION
equipment, employee training and opportunity banks).
Paying for the consultancy services at cost covering
prices does not seem to be acceptable to businessmen.
They have indicated a willingness to pay only nominal
fees, which would help, but would not be enough to
cover costs. In addition, the present legal status of
the GI˚DEMs makes it difficult for them to accept
fees and/or ownership by some of the taxpaying
private institutions. 50
There remains some, albeit limited, time to address
these important questions and to find an institutional
home for GI˚DEMs, and hence draw on the considerable
potential of the GI˚DEM model at a large scale in future.
There is little doubt that with Turkey’s effort to secure
eventual EU accession, the issue of regional disparities
will remain a very important matter for Turkey and for the
EU. The creation of Regional Development Agencies
might provide an attractive institutional umbrella for
GI˚DEMs in the future.
LINKING EASTERN ANATOLIA TO PROGRESS (LEAP)
Another Regional Disparities Project supported by the
UNDP has been the LEAP Project. Similar to the GAP
project, LEAP is also expected to help poverty reduction
by creating jobs, generating incomes, providing better
services of health and education, and thus reducing the
impact of poverty in a relatively underdeveloped region.
The East Anatolia Region began to draw attention in
the 1990’s as one of the least developed regions in Turkey.
Unlike Southeast Anatolia, it lacked an established
regional development programme and agency since it did
not have the hydropower and irrigation potential of the
GAP region. The LEAP project was designed in the
mid-1990s as an alternative approach to help support the
regional development of Eastern Anatolia.
LEAP, which started in 1997, is relatively more
recent in origin, less ambitious and has less funding than
the projects in the GAP region. Developed with the help
of Swiss contributions and UNDP expertise, LEAP is
designed as a human development project, incorporating
concepts such as good governance, poverty reduction,
local capacity building and participatory development.
At present, the project is carried out by Atatürk
University as the coordinating unit. It consists of three
main components: the participatory rural development
component has been contracted out to an NGO,
SÜRKAL (Sürdürülebilir Kırsal ve Kentsel Kalkınma
Derneği/Sustainable Rural and Urban Development
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50. This appears to be a general problem in Turkey.
Association); the other two components, the
entrepreneurship development centre and the tourism
development component, are implemented directly by
the University.
Participatory Rural Development Sub-Project
SÜRKAL started this sub-project by asking the
stakeholders in the region why East Anatolia remains
underdeveloped despite significant infrastructural
investment by the state. They came to three conclusions:
(i) There is little participation and ownership of infrastructural
investment projects by the local population.
(ii) There is little communication between different
stakeholders, including the state and community.
(iii) Some sections of the population are resistant to change.
As a result, the project focused on how to increase
participation for development. In this respect, six district
development committees and 28 village project groups
were initiated in 18 villages, where the village mukhtars,
volunteers, state officials and municipality representatives
work with experts and professionals. For each village, a
baseline study was conducted, an action plan was
designed, pilot projects were implemented and some
technical demonstrations were provided. The projects
focus on improving agricultural productivity and animal
husbandry, which are important economic activities in the
region. For example, SÜRKAL introduced new fodder
crops such as clover, sainfoin and vetch, provided
veterinary services and taught improved techniques of
animal husbandry.
SÜRKAL has conducted two types of educational
programmes. The first type was oriented towards the
state officials, mukhtars, municipality representatives and
professionals. It focussed on the concept of sustainable
participatory development and its importance in
community mobilisation and ownership in development.
In view of the fact that the Turkish state has traditionally
been very centralised and control oriented, such a change
of mentality is crucial. The second type of educational
programme has been conducted at the village level on
various subjects ranging from the protection of nature and
BOX 4.2:
A LESSON IN GENDER EQUITY
After attending one such course, an elderly man said “Before
that course I had no idea that women undertook economically
productive work, I thought what they did was only to look after
children and cook. Now I realise their importance. So now I
am calling my wife by her name, rather than calling her ‘avrat’
(wife).” (Report by Prof. Dr. Yusuf Ziya Özcan)
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