With its culture of solidarity and humanitarian approach to
vulnerable groups, Turkey endeavours to reach out everyone
who needs help in the world, its neighbouring countries being
a priority. Thanks to this approach, Turkey has responded to
the asylum requests of a large population migrated from Syria
because of the humanitarian crisis that started in 2011, and
indiscriminately welcomed the foreigners who have come to
the Turkish border by implementing an open door policy and
admitted them to the country under “temporary protection
status”. Syrians are now receiving services especially in
education, healthcare and humanitarian needs under equal
conditions with Turkish citizens. Up to the present, Turkey’s
expenditures out of its own resources for refugees have
exceeded 37 billion USD.
Turkey promotes the principle of “leaving no one behind” both
at home and abroad, and advocates an increased voice for
developing countries in the international decision-making
mechanisms. In line with its policy of promoting regional
and global stability, Turkey extends a helping hand to and
supports the development efforts of developing countries,
including particularly the Least Developed Countries (LDCs).
In this context, as an emerging donor country, Turkey shares
its experience with many countries as part of bilateral,
multilateral, regional and global partnerships.
Turkey’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) amount, which
was 967 million USD in 2010, increased approximately nine-
fold and reached 8.6 billion USD in 2018. As a result, Turkey
achieved an ODA/GNI ratio of 1.10% in 2018, and became one
of the countries reaching the ODA/GNI ratio of at least 0.7%,
which is one of the SDG targets.
In addition to ODA, assistance provided to developing countries
through direct investments by the private sector and Non-
Governmental Organization (NGO) grants amounted to 826.5
million and 303.3 million USD respectively in 2018. These
development aids provided outside the public sector reached
7.3 billion USD in 2014-2018. Thus, the total volume of Turkey’s
development assistance during the same period exceeded
38.7 billion USD.
The Technology Bank for the LDCs as a UN entity was
established in June 2018 in Gebze, Turkey. The Technology
Bank aims at strengthening the capacities of LDCs in science,
technology and innovation, and facilitating technology transfer.
The establishment of the Technology Bank marked SDG 17.8 as
the first global target achieved.
Achieving SDGs is beyond the sources of finance: To achieve
them, awareness is a priority, and ownership and engagement
of everyone, including public and private sectors, local
authorities, NGOs, academia and citizens are essential.
The VNR process was also centered on the principles of
participation and leaving no one behind. From that point of
view, as part of the VNR preparation, the current situation
and gaps were identified under the supervision of the
Presidency of Strategy and Budget (PSB) under the Presidency
as the coordinating institution, and future steps and
recommendations were elicited in a transparent procedure
by local administrations, private sector, NGOs and academia.
Accordingly, 2,962 persons and institutions, including 312
NGOs, 2,000 company representatives, 50 municipality
representatives and 600 experts directly contributed to the
VNR process.
In addition, a National Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Best Practices database was developed as a continuous
application. With the system, 400 practices by public and
private sectors, academia, NGOs and municipalities were
collected in the first phase. The Report highlights the best
examples selected from these practices.
8
TURKEY’s 2nd VNR 2019
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
“Strong Ground towards Common Goals”
- INTRODUCTION Since the UN Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio in 1992, Turkey has reflected the concept of sustainable development in its National Development Plans (NDPs), which represent the highest level of political framework. With this long-term experience, Turkey has strong ground and infrastructure to set a course in line with SDGs. Instead of producing a separate action plan or policy document for SDGs, Turkey prefers to implement and monitor SDGs and its indicators by integrating them into NDPs and sectoral strategies with a holistic approach. With its comprehensive framework, integrated approach and structure addressing all elements of development holistically, the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development provided Turkey with a new perspective in sectoral development policies. The Voluntary National Review (VNR) process also accelerated the steps to address policies from this perspective. The VNR process commenced with the highest-level political ownership upon H.E. Erdoğan’s call on all government entities. The report reviews the progress made in the 2010-2018 period focusing particularly in the time frame following the adoption of the Agenda 2030. During VNR process, the review of the current legislation, institutional framework, policies and practices from SD G perspective revealed that most of the targets were directly or indirectly incorporated in the existing policy documents. It was observed that significant progress has been achieved, in terms of many goals with a performance above the world average especially in such areas as reduction of poverty, elimination of inequalities, gender equality, and access to all basic services including particularly healthcare, energy and clean water. Social policies also had a positive impact on this outcome. On the other land although access to essential services is adequately provided, the need to increase service quality remains in parallel to economic, social and technological developments. Additionally, efforts continue to achieve balanced improvements in quality of life and well-being of the entire society and the vulnerable groups in particular in accordance with the principle of equity. In Turkey as well as across the world, the Agenda 2030 requires development of innovative practices and solutions, including especially the establishment of multilateral partnerships and diversification of financial resources. For this purpose, along public resources it is important to bring together efforts of NGOs with public resources, as well as with the contributions of the private sector, local actors and international financial institutions. Achieving SDGs is beyond the sources of finance: To achieve them, awareness is a priority, and ownership and engagement of everyone, including public and private sectors, local authorities, NGOs, academia and citizens are essential. Taking these considerations into account, the VNR process was centred on the principles of participation and leaving no one behind. Accordingly, current situation and gaps were identified under the supervision of the Presidency of Strategy and Budget (PSB) under the Presidency as the coordinating institution, and future steps and recommendations were elicited in a transparent procedure by local administrations, private sector, NGOs and academia as part of the preparation for the VNR Report. Initially, survey questionnaires were sent to all public institutions and the contributions of the public sector was obtained through special meetings. Seventeen SDGs were distributed the among parties to ensure that other stakeholders could contribute as well. For the private sector, The Turkish Industry and Business Association (TUSIAD), Independent Industrialists’ and Businessmen’s Association (MUSIAD), Turkish Enterprise and Business Confederation (TURKONFED), Business Council for Sustainable Development Turkey (BCSD Turkey) and Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) were selected as the coordinating institutions. For the civil society and all relevant UN agencies, the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office to the Republic of Turkey was designated as the coordinating institutions while the Union of Municipalities of Turkey (UMT) was appointed as the coordinating institution for local administrations. Consequently, during VNR preparations, a total of 2,962 representatives were consulted directly from government entities, 312 NGOs, 2,000 companies and 50 municipalities. 9 TURKEY’s 2nd VNR 2019 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS “Strong Ground towards Common Goals”
Ensuring such an extensive participation in a country with a population of 80 million required comprehensive organisation, meticulous time management and considerable financial resources. In the VNR process, PSB has developed an online National SDG Best Practices Database, which will be active throughout the period covering the 2030 Agenda. In the first phase, 400 practices by public and private sectors, academia, NGOs and municipalities were collected. This report includes some of the best examples selected from these practices. The biggest challenge in the implementation of the highly comprehensive SDGs is to identifying the goals and related targets that the countries would focus their efforts on. After assessing its goals in the VNR preparation process, Turkey has identified focus areas for each goal as shown in Table 8. Immediately after the adoption of Agenda 2030, Turkey designated the responsible and relevant institutions for 218 indicators valid for our country and published SDG Indicators Set comprising of 83 indicators in February 2019. While the ratio of produced indicators is higher for SDG 3, SDG 7 and SDG 9; further work is needed for SDG 1, SDG 2, SDG 12, SDG 13 and SDG 14 indicators. Turkey addresses the principle of “leaving no one behind” in a separate chapter in its VNR to demonstrate the importance to which it has attached to the overarching principle of the 2030 Agenda. In addition to its assessment on SDGs, it sets out its policies and practices for vulnerable groups including women, children, persons with disabilities, youth, elderly people and refugees in an inclusive and holistic approach. Turkey, with its culture of solidarity and humanitarian approach to vulnerable groups, has opened its borders to those fleeing conflicts in their countries. In line with this approach, Turkey has welcomed millions of Syrians escaping war in their country after 2011. Implementing an “open door” policy, Turkey gave them “temporary protection status”. Syrians are provided with basic services particularly in the sector of education, healthcare and humanitarian assistance under equal conditions with Turkish citizens. Turkey has spent more than 37 billion USD just for Syrians from its national resources. As an emerging donor country in terms of ODA and an active player, Turkey has been sharing its experience with many countries through bilateral, multilateral, regional and global partnerships. Turkey’s ODA/GDP ratio, 0.32% in 2010, increased to 0.95% in 2017 and 1.10% in 2018. As a result, Turkey became one of the countries reaching the ODA/GDP ratio of at least 0.7%, which is one of the SDG targets. This demonstrates Turkey’s success in upholding the principle of “leaving no one behind”. Turkey’s ODA amount, which was 967 million USD in 2010, increased approximately by nine-fold reaching 8.6 billion USD in 2018. In addition to ODA, assistance provided to developing countries through direct investments by the private sector and NGO grants amounted to 826.5 million and 303.3 million USD respectively in 2018. These development aids provided outside the public sector reached 7.3 billion USD in the period of 2014-2018. Thus, the total volume of Turkey’s development assistance during the same period exceeded 38.7 billion USD. 10 TURKEY’s 2nd VNR 2019 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS “Strong Ground towards Common Goals”
PROCESS AND METHODOLOGY FOR REVIEWING TURKEY’S PROGRESS TOWARDS SDGs
- PROCESS AND METHODOLOGY FOR REVIEWING TURKEY’S PROGRESS TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS 2.1. STOCKTAKING ANALYSIS PROJECT 2 The project addresses the progress by mid-year 2017. 3 See Chapter 3.5.2. Having presented its first VNR Report in 2016 and in line with the vision of this report, Turkey initiated a comprehensive Stocktaking Analysis Project, which was conducted for one year with contribution of around 350 individuals representing 150 institutions from the public sector, NGOs, academia and private sector. The project aimed to identify the current situation, gaps and emerging needs in line with the key SDG targets relevant for Turkey.2 Additionally, an SDG relationships network was mapped and focal areas were assigned for the respective SDGs. In this analysis, SDG 4, SDG 8 and SDG 9 were identified as the most relevant goals for Turkey to achieve the Global Goals. SDG 7 was also added to the analysis, constituting a strategic area for Turkey in terms of its dependency on external resources for energy, and energy supply security policy. Within the project, institutional roles, responsibilities, legislation and areas of activity were assessed in relation to the relevant SDGs.3 The assessment findings were key inputs for the VNR process methodology developed; firstly, it helped identify the key stakeholders responsible for the respective SDGs while preparing the VNR; secondly, the project findings constituted the basis for assessments of policies, strategies and gaps per SDGs that is given in Chapter 5. In the VNR process the Stocktaking Analysis was updated using the following methods: 2.2. PARTNERSHIPS FOR ENGAGING ALL RELEVANT PARTIES IN THE PROCESS Considering the importance of political ownership in achieving the global goals, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) and the President of the Republic of Turkey were apprised of the preparation and scope of the Report at the beginning of the VNR process. Subsequently, PSB was assigned by the President for the preparation of the VNR report and all relevant institutions were instructed to support PSB in this process. This high-level ownership facilitated the participation and contribution of public institutions in the process. It is recognised that regular reviews in the Agenda 2030 would provide a platform for partnerships including the participation of larger groups and other related stakeholders. To implement this vision in the most effective way, Turkey started direct partnerships with the representatives of NGOs, private sector and local administrations, and through these platforms, initiated a comprehensive consultation process, which included all central and local parties. • Survey of public institutions The comprehensive survey prepared to update the findings of the Stocktaking Analysis Project was sent to 35 public institutions. The survey questionnaire elicited the comments and recommendations on policy integration by SDGs (in terms of strategy, action plan and legislation), progress in implementation, completed works and projects, awareness- raising campaigns, activities related to the theme of “leaving no one behind” and priority actions planned to achieve SDGs. 12 TURKEY’s 2nd VNR 2019 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS “Strong Ground towards Common Goals”