Reports - United Nations Development Programme

COUNTRY EVALUATION: ASSESSMENT OF DEVELOPMENT RESULTS – TURKEY
54
(iii) General Conclusions
for UNDP’s Gender Work
It appears that ‘gender mainstreaming’ continues to be the
main policy of the UNDP in Turkey. The largest
budgeted project is on Gender Equality, Mainstreaming
and Policy Development. The other pipeline projects
target women more directly, but have significantly less
funding. They are oriented towards awareness raising and
advocacy, including capacity building for greater
involvement of women in local politics, and the
translation of the optional protocol on CEDAW and its
dissemination in parliament.
During the 1990s, the UNDP was a very important
agent for introducing gender awareness and establishing
national machinery and capacity building in the
Government and civil society. Not only were the projects
directly supported by the UNDP effective, but the
legitimacy attained by being part of an international
community helped women. The subsequent switch to a
gender mainstreaming approach appears to have reduced
the UNDP’s effectiveness as an agent for change in this
important area of advocacy and capacity building.
Gender is not one of the priority development goals
of the present Government. Also, overcoming gender
disparities is not a clear priority among the EU
requirements set for Turkey’s accession process, as the
Acquis is particularly weak in gender issues. This makes
it that much more important for the UNDP to reestablish
its leadership role in advocating for explicit and
targeted efforts to improve the rights and lives of women
in Turkish society. Women’s NGO’s are still extremely
weak, and many of them are not sustainable without
international funding.
In principle, policies of mainstreaming are very
important since they may enable scaling-up for gender
policies. However, mainstreaming also involves a very
delicate balance. If there is no strict planning, monitoring
and follow up, and the executing agencies are not gender
sensitive, or do not have the capacity, there is a danger
that mainstreaming will be entirely ineffective. Indeed,
the lessons from the UNDP’s gender mainstreaming
experience are that this is a serious danger in the case
of Turkey.
The ADR Evaluation Team therefore recommends
that the UNDP should continue to develop advocacy
programmes and projects that directly target gender
issues. Given the low priority that this issue has been
accorded in recently published Government programme
statements, NGO support and coordination with other
international agencies should be considered as partnership
strategies. Among the specific areas where support could
be given are the following: support for women’s
professional groups and associations, for improvements in
the penal code, for victims of honour crimes and of
violence against women, for programmes designed to
improve women’s literacy, and for greater awareness of
gender issues in the general public and among the
political leadership. Finally, the UNDP should seek,
together with its partners, to strengthen the gender
components of its governance and poverty programmes
and address gender issues explicitly and systematically
in its major analytical studies (including the NHDRs
and MDGRs).
E. DISASTER AND EMERGENCY
RESPONSE AND PREPAREDNESS
Turkey is a country that has been prone to natural
disasters, especially earthquakes, but also floods.
According to a recent UNDP report 65 on natural
disasters, Turkey is in fourth place (after Armenia, Iran
and Yemen) among earthquake-prone countries in terms
of its relative vulnerability. It ranks 35th among 95
countries in terms of relative vulnerability to floods. In
recent years Turkey has also been affected by wars and
insecurity, both on its own territory (in Eastern and
Southeastern Anatolia) and in neighbouring countries,
especially Iraq. Thus, the economic impact of natural and
man-made disasters and the human suffering of
earthquake and flood-affected people, of refugees and
internally displaced persons (IDPs) have been a recurring
challenge for the Turkish authorities, Turkish civil society
and the international community, especially the UN
agencies. The UNDP has been assisting Turkey in coping
with these challenges for many years, both in emergency
response once disaster struck and also in improving the
country’s disaster preparedness and management systems.
(i) Earthquakes
Since 1998, Turkey was struck twice in quick succession
by major earthquakes. On 17 August 1999, a major
earthquake struck the Marmara region in Western
Turkey, followed by a second major earthquake in the
Bolu province, also in the Marmara region. The first
earthquake was estimated to have caused some 15,000
deaths, left almost 25,000 injured and 675,000 people
homeless. The second earthquake affected an estimated
80,000 people. The UNDP responded quickly to both
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65. UNDP, “Reducing Disaster Risk: A Challenge for Development”, www.undp.org/
bcpr/disred/rdr.htm, 2004.