Sabanci Foundation Commits 1.7 Million USD for The “United Nations Joint Program For Promoting the Human Rights of Women” to be Implemented in 10 Provinces

- Deputy Minister of Interior, Osman Gunes: “Gender Equality is Sine Qua Non for Social Justice”

- Chairman of Sabanci Foundation Board of Trustees, Ms. Guler Sabanci: “Supporting Women And Girls is Crucial for Social Development”

- UN Turkey Resident Coordinator, Shahid Najam: “We Need to Augment Our Efforts Globally to Contribute to Gender Equality And to Empower Women”

Sabanci Foundationlaunched a new program that will be supported until the end of 2015 to promote the human rights of women. The “United Nations Joint Program for Promoting the Human Rights of Women” will be implemented in 10 pilot provinces in cooperation with the   Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Family and Social Policies, United Nations Development Program (UNDP), UN Women, Sabanci University, and Union of Municipalities of Turkey.

This program aims to advance the role of women, raise awareness regarding women’s rights and eradicate gender inequality in society. The programis a sequel to the Joint Program supported by Sabanci Foundation and implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Interior, United Nations agencies and the Sabanci University between 2006 and 2010.

“Enhancing the status of women is our primary goal”

The Joint Program was introduced at a press conference with the participation of the Minister of Family and Social Policies, Ms. Fatma Sahin; Deputy Minister of Interior, Osman Gunes; Chairman of Sabanci Foundation Board of Trustees, Ms. Guler Sabanci; and UN Turkey Resident Coordinator and UNDP Turkey Resident Representative, Shahid Najam.

During her speech at the press conference, Minister of Family and Social Policies, Ms. Fatma Sahin said: “Foundation work is challenging; it requires effort and patience to attain results. This resonates with our work at the Ministry. It is this very feeling that brings us together… We need to extend the equality of opportunity to all segments of society. We cannot achieve our development goals by disregarding the equality of opportunity. Our foremost goal is to enhance the status of women and to render women effective in all domains of life be it education, arts, culture, or sports.”

Deputy Minister of Interior Osman Gunessaid in his speech, “Our Ministry considers gender equality to be sine qua non for social justice. Our goal is to enable the active participation of women in all realms of social life.”

Turkey ranks 132^nd among 135 countries

Chairman of Sabanci Foundation Board of Trustees, Guler Sabanci remarked in her speech, “As Sabanci Foundation, we make a significant effort to protect the human rights of women and girls and to enable an equal and democratic life for them. One such initiative is the United Nations Joint Program to Promote and Protect the Human Rights of Women and Girls that we implemented between 2006 and 2010. This was the first comprehensive program focused on women at the local level. Sabanci Foundation was a supporting partner of this program. Now, we are launching a second program, which will be implemented over the next 3 years.”

Highlighting the significance of empowering and supporting women and girls for social development, Guler Sabanci stated: “Based on the World Economic Forum’s 2011 Gender Inequality Report, Turkey ranks 132^nd among 135 countries. This indicates that we have a long way to go and there is still a lot to be done. I believe that we will create lasting impact once again with our program model which is based on partnership”.

 “Gender equality is a phenomenon with socio-economic implications”

UN Turkey Resident Coordinator and United Nations Development Program Turkey Resident Representative Shahid Najamstated that gender equality is a phenomenon with critical socio-economic implications such as improvement in economic productivity and reduction in mother-child mortality rates. “Empowering women is not only key in attaining millennium development goals about women, but for attaining all millennium development goals in general. At this point when we have covered two thirds of the process until 2015, it is evident that we should intensify our efforts to contribute to gender equality and empower women on a global scale”.

The President of UN Women Michele Bachelet,which is also among the partners in the Joint Programconveyed the following message: “I believe that by launching this program in partnership with the Turkish Government, Sabanci Foundation and United Nations institutions, and by allocating public resources for the benefit of women and girls, we will contribute to efforts that enable gender equality and empower women at the national level.”

The United Nations Joint Program for Promoting the Human Rights of Women (UNJP)will be implemented in 10 pilot provinces; namely, Aydin, Canakkale, Edirne, Erzincan, Eskisehir, Kahramanmaras, Kastamonu, Kayseri, Kocaeli and Ordu. The joint program will encompass three components:  

• Improvement of Local Capacity: To contribute to the realization of local service delivery in line with gender responsive budgeting within the framework of a participatory model that includes local governments, urban councils and women’s NGOs.

• Sabanci Foundation Grant Program: To support capacity development of NGOs, universities and local government agencies toward the implementation of gender projects at the local level.

• Purple Certificate Program: To train high school teachers and increase their ability to apply educational tools which emphasize gender equality. NGOs and local government representatives will also benefit from this training.

 Joint Program implemented between 2006 – 2010:

Between 2006 and 2010, Sabanci Foundation was a funder and partner of the “Joint Program to Promote and Protect Human Rights of Women and Girls” which was implemented in 6 cities (Izmir, Kars, Nevsehir, Sanliurfa, Trabzon and Van) in partnership with the Ministry of Interior, all United Nations agencies in Turkey, Sabanci University, and the additional support of 10 bi-lateral development agencies.

Each city developed ‘local equality action plans’and established ‘gender desks’. The Sabanci Foundation Grant Program allocated grants to 34 local projectsin the program provinces. As part of the Sabanci University Purple Certificate Program, a total of 2.144 teachers, students and women attended seminars and trainings regarding gender issues.

This program was an important model for Turkey’s gender policy development, and its impact was extensive. The Ministry of Interior issued a Circular on February 19, 2010 instructing the Governorships of 81 provinces to replicate and implement the mechanisms developed within the program, thus expanding the impact of the program across the country.