Reports - United Nations Development Programme

COUNTRY EVALUATION: ASSESSMENT OF DEVELOPMENT RESULTS – TURKEY
48
(iii) General Conclusions
for the Poverty Agenda
Throughout its efforts in the areas of poverty and regional
disparities, the UNDP’s most important contribution has
been in introducing new ideas leading to paradigm shifts
and building institutional capacity and awareness for the
implementation of these new ideas. This mission is
certainly to be maintained and further emphasised.
The UNDP Country Office has a very good track
record and accumulated knowledge and experience in
projects addressing regional disparities. The big challenge
for the two flagship projects, GAP/GI˚DEM and
LEAP, however, remains their sustainability. Funding
and institutional ownership are the big constraints. The
UNDP, together with its partners, needs to focus urgently
on the challenge of sustainability and scaling-up. With
the EU accession process underway, regional development
will be one of the priority goals in Turkey. The UNDP
should capitalise on its experience and seek a role in
assisting the establishment of Regional Development
Agencies, which in turn could become umbrella
institutions for assuring sustainability and scaling-up of
the GAP/GI˚DEM and LEAP experiences.
Poverty reduction is now an important development
goal for Turkey. Turkish Government officials, NGOs
and other stakeholders have mentioned the need for
policy advice, instigating new ideas and projects as well as
coordination of the existing projects. The UNDP can
carve out an important role here for its policy advice, as it
is recognised as an independent, experienced and highly
qualified international partner. Linking this effort
explicitly and effectively to Turkey’s EU accession agenda
and to the implementation of the UNDP’s MDG analysis
and advocacy efforts will be a key challenge for the
UNDP in the years to come. 53
C. ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY
Environmental issues have long been accorded a relatively
low priority in Turkey by the Turkish people, the
authorities and the international community alike, even as
Turkey’s vulnerable eco-system has been placed under
increasing stress by high population growth rates, rising
incomes and energy consumption, intense development
activities related to growing urbanisation and booming
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53. Subsequent to the January mission, the ADR Evaluation Team was informed by
RBEC that Turkey will produce a “Joint Inclusion Memorandum” for the EU, in
collaboration with the EU’s DG Employment and Social Affairs. These
memoranda are designed to prepare accession countries for their participation
in the EU’s approach to social inclusion. A workshop was held in late April 2004
on aligning the EU social inclusion process and the MDG process for Turkey. A
number of recommendations were made as a result of this workshop, whose
findings and conclusions can be found on the website http://mdgr.undp.sk.
tourism. 54 However, as sustainable development has become
a worldwide concern, it has also gradually been reflected in
Turkey’s policy debates. Turkey’s Five-Year Development
Plans, starting with the 6th Plan for 1991-95, have included
environmental strategies, and the 7th Plan for 1996-2000
explicitly addressed sustainable development issues in a
comprehensive manner. The 8th Five-Year Development
Plan 2001-2005 states that “it is essential to protect human
health, ecological equilibrium and cultural, historical and
aesthetic assets in economic and social development” as
part of its plan for sustainable development. 55
Although the 8th Plan identified some areas of
progress (including improvements in the legal and
institutional framework, the preparation of a National
Environment Strategy and Action Plan - NEAP - in
1998 and heightened public awareness of environmental
issues), it also stressed a number of continuing areas of
concern which were to be addressed in the course of the
8th Plan period: 56
Rising environmental threats, especially in the
coastal areas
Ineffective environmental monitoring and management
systems
Inadequate mainstreaming of environmental policies
into economic and social policies
Insufficient public awareness, education and participation
Unclear accountabilities and limited implementation
capacities at the ministerial and local levels
During the 1990s, the UNDP was involved in various
ways in supporting Turkey’s growing attention to
environmental matters. Together with the WB, it
contributed to the preparation of the NEAP, it played an
instrumental role in implementing the LA 21 (see above),
and it administered an important Small Grants
Programme of the GEF since 1993. In 2000, the UNDP,
together with the Ministry of Environment, initiated a
new flagship programme, the National Programme on
Environment and Development (NPED), which
consisted of three components: i) preparation and followup
for the Johannesburg Summit 2002; ii) a sustainable
energy and atmospheric protection initiative (in support
of Turkey’s accession to the Convention on Climate
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54. There has been one environmental issue that has long attracted a high degree
of attention in Turkey, viz. the environmental risks associated with the rapid
expansion of oil tanker traffic through the Bosphorus straits. This preoccupation
has led consecutive Turkish governments to strongly support the development
of alternative oil transport routes, including the construction of the Baku-Tiblisi-
Ceyhan pipeline.
55. The Republic of Turkey, Ministry of Environment, and UNDP, “National Report on
Sustainable Development 2002”, Ankara 2002, p. 22.
56. Ibid, p. 22