About Young Women Building Their Future

The Young Women Building Their Future Project was launched in 2022 with the aim of making the problems and needs of young women who are not in employment, education, or training (NEET) in Türkiye more visible, creating mechanisms to meet these needs and increasing their employability. The Project is implemented by the Sabancı Foundation and United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and in collaboration with the Ministry of Family and Social Services, Ministry of Labor and Social Security with the support of Sabancı Foundation. The Project focuses on the NEET women aged 18-35.

7500+

Number of NEET Women Reached

830+

Number of NEET Women in Employment

Number of NEET Women Reached through Communication/Awareness Activities

3500+

Number of NEET Women Who Attended Trainings

The first phase of the Young Women Building Their Future Project (2022–2024) was implemented through face-to-face activities in Adana, Diyarbakır, and İzmir; online programs across Türkiye; and a Grant Program in 20 provinces, including earthquake-affected areas. Vocational and empowerment training modules were developed based on a needs analysis, with more than 2,500 NEET women participating in the trainings.

The Mentorship Program, which supports the career development of NEET women, brought together over 1,000 mentors and 1,100 mentees, enabling more than 400 NEET women to successfully enter the workforce. The Grant Program supported seven projects aimed at enhancing the employability of NEET women.

The Opportunities Map enabled NEET women to easily discover education, internship, job, and entrepreneurship opportunities in their cities. Overall, more than 6,000 young women were reached through project activities over three years, with 838 of them joining employment.

Communication efforts throughout the project reached 3 million young women and achieved a total outreach of 30 million, significantly raising awareness of the NEET concept across the country.

The second phase of the project (2025–2027) aims to develop good practices and mechanisms that will increase the employability of NEET women. Within this scope, online trainings, mentorship, online career counseling, vocational trainings in new pilot provinces, stakeholders mapping and capacity-building activities for stakeholders will be carried out.

To measure the impact of the Young Women Building Their Future Project, the Social Return on Investment (SROI) methodology was applied. According to the SROI analysis of the project, every 1 TL invested in the project has generated 4 TL in social return, resulting in an annual social value of 45 million TL. To assess the project’s impact, surveys and focus group discussions were conducted. According to the impact analysis, significant improvements were observed among participants in self-confidence, empowerment, employability, emotional resilience, well-being, and awareness as a result of the project.

Impact Analysis