SDG 10 Coordinator: HUMAN RIGHTS AND EQUALITY INSTITUTION OF TURKEY Responsible or Relevant Institutions PSB; Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Services; Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Ministry of Treasury and Finance; Ministry of National Education; Ministry of Health; Ministry of Commerce; Directorate General of Migration Management; BRSA; Human Rights and Equality Institution of Turkey SDG 11 Coordinator: MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT AND URBANISATION Responsible or Relevant Institutions PSB; Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Services; Ministry of Environment and Urbanisation; Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Ministry of Interior; Ministry of Culture and Tourism; Ministry of Industry and Technology; Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry; General Directorate of Highways; Prime Ministry Disaster & Emergency Management Authority (AFAD); TIKA; Housing Development Administration (TOKI); Bank of Provinces Inc.; Union of Municipalities of Turkey SDG 12 Coordinator: MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT AND URBANISATION Responsible or Relevant Institutions PSB; All Ministries; Public Procurement Authority; Energy Market Regulatory Authority; BIST; Union of Municipalities of Turkey SDG 13 Coordinator: MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT AND URBANISATION Responsible or Relevant Institutions PSB; Ministry of Environment and Urbanisation; Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources; Ministry of Treasury and Finance; Ministry of National Education; Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry; Ministry of Commerce; TIKA; AFAD; Turkish Natural Catastrophe Insurance Pool SDG 14 Coordinator: MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT AND URBANISATION Responsible or Relevant Institutions Ministry of Environment and Urbanisation; Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Ministry of Treasury and Finance; Ministry of Interior; Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry; Ministry of Commerce; Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure; TUBITAK SDG 15 Coordinator: MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY Responsible or Relevant Institutions PSB; Ministry of Environment and Urbanisation; Ministry of Interior; Ministry of Treasury and Finance; Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry; Ministry Commerce; Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure; Turkish Statistical Institute (TURKSTAT) SDG 16 Coordinator: MINISTRY OF JUSTICE Responsible or Relevant Institutions Presidency of the Republic of Turkey; PSB; Ministry of Justice; Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Services, Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Ministry of Treasury and Finance; Ministry of Interior; Ministry of Health; Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (General Directorate of Communications); State Supervisory Council; Turkish Court of Accounts; Supreme Court; Council of Judges and Prosecutors; YOK; General Directorate of National Police; Human Rights and Equality Institution of Turkey; Institute of Information Technologies and Communication; Ombudsman Institution; Financial Crimes Investigation Board; TURKSTAT; Union of Turkish Bar Associations SDG 17 Coordinator: MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS-MINISTRY OF TREASURY AND FINANCE Responsible or Relevant Institutions TGNA; PSB; Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Ministry of Treasury and Finance; Ministry of Industry and Technology; Ministry of Commerce; Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure; TIKA; TURKSTAT; Universities; Development Banks; NGOs Table 6 shows that each SDG is under the responsibility of more than one institution. This setup under the general coordination of PSB demonstrates that the institutional structure in Turkey is adequate to implement SDGs. However, there is still a need for a national institutional structure to ensure inter-institutional communication and interaction between institutions concerning SDGs, systematic implementation, evaluation and steering. 34 TURKEY’s 2nd VNR 2019 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS “Strong Ground towards Common Goals”
3.5.3. Distribution of Institutional Roles in Monitoring SDGs Indicator production process, which isof critical importance for the monitoring of progress towards SDGs, is guided and managed by TURKSTAT. In this context, TURKSTAT is in charge of coordination of data procurement and consolidation process concerning SDG indicators. TURKSTAT executes its role to coordinate the Turkish Statistical System relying on a structure consisting of Turkish Statistical Law, Official Statistics Programme and Statistics Council. To determine the main principles and standards concerning production and publication of statistics, and to ensure that up-to-date, reliable, timely, transparent and unbiased data are produced in the areas needed at national and international levels, Official Statistics Programme (OSP) is prepared for every 5-year period. OSP is responsible to clear and approve data, institution in charge, method, publication period and time. “Official Statistics Programme Annual Monitoring Report” is prepared every year to evaluate the programme’s progress. The Statistics Council was formed to offer recommendations concerning development and function of official statistics, evaluate and identify needs for official statistics, and conduct studies covering projections and proposals for the future. Monitoring reports are evaluated during discussions held by the Statistics Council. 3.6. CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES ENCOUNTERED IN THE IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS Higher number of trade barriers at global level, shrinking financial means, capital mobility, continuing geopolitical tensions and repercussions thereof on economy and trade have all affected Turkey, a country highly integrated with the global economy, and occasionally slowed its efforts to achieve SDGs. The abominable coup attempt in 2016 and emerging global uncertainties caused fluctuations in the Turkish economy, however the measures taken allowed the country to recover economically. Transition to the presidential government system brought a re-structuring process in public institutions, and required a re-distribution of functions. However, deep-rooted and well- established public administration system and expeditious implementation of necessary arrangements facilitated rapid adaptation. Policy documents have for years called for the re-vitalisation of the National Commission for Sustainable Development founded in 2004 in Turkey as in all other countries subsequent to the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation. However, with the new government system, a re-configuration of coordination mechanisms is needed. As SDGs are interlinked and comprehensive goals, a culture of joint work is required to prevail. Efforts need to be intensified in Turkey to achieve such outcome. Activities to raise awareness being conducted for the 2030 development process, including VNR preparations, will reinforce these efforts. Achieving SDGs requires significant financial resources in Turkey, as in the rest of the world. To this end, contributions from the private sector, local actors and international financial institutions as well as efforts of NGOs should complement public resources. Another significant issue in monitoring SDGs at national level involves, quality, regularity and priority of indicators, as well as accessing them. While Turkey’s set of sustainable development indicators is comprehensive and renewed in line with SDG indicators, such indicators still fall short of covering all targets. In this regard, intensive work is needed in the future to monitor SDGs. It is further needed to enhance administrative records and capacity of institutions, in terms of producing statistics, in addition to TURKSTAT to monitor the implementation process based on quality, valid and regular indicators. Needs for financial resources should also be taken into account when prioritising response to such needs. The process that started in 2016 to identify the institutions in charge by indicators demonstrated that it might be challenging to determine the institutions in charge for the new set of indicators with uncertain metadata and/or using traditional methods. For example, “11.3.1. Ratio of land consumption rate to population growth rate” which should be compiled on the basis of satellite images could not be owned at national level. During the OSP Revision, it was raised that this indicator included in the 2017-2021 OSP be excluded from the list of responsibilities of institutions. 35 TURKEY’s 2nd VNR 2019 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS “Strong Ground towards Common Goals”
On the other hand, the inadequacy of disaggregated data poses difficulties in decision-making to formulate policies by various settlements and groups, monitoring and evaluating the implementation. The need remains in our country to enhance data-based analysis capacity and promote the use of suitable technologies for decision support mechanisms. This other challenge relates to the international monitoring system. It is rather time consuming to integrate data conveyed or verified through UN agencies in charge of global SDG indicators (custodian agencies) into the UN SDG database. This downgrades the accuracy of review reports that will be prepared based on the data retrieved from this database. It also adversely affects the willingness and motivation of national institutions to convey/verify data. It is highly important to accelerate the process administered by custodian agencies to enable countries to verify all data in the UN database, and ensure that requests for update, revision etc. be expeditiously entered in the database. Pre- and post-project evaluations are conducted frequently in Turkey to assess progress. However, there is no systematic evaluation process defined for SDGs. Considering the preference for integrating SDGs into NDPs, the need remains for strengthening evaluation mechanisms that are compatible with such preference and suitable for our national processes. There are many representatives of NGOs, chambers, private sector in a country as populous as Turkey. Considering the country’s size, comprehensive organisation, time management and financial resources are needed to bring together many stakeholders. Therefore, as stated in the previous chapters, inclusiveness was ensured during the VNR preparation process through working with the umbrella organisations of NGOs, business world, local administrations and private sector. Another challenge relates to reflecting a wide range of views from various stakeholders in the report on such a comprehensive agenda. To overcome this challenge, efforts were made to reflect the views of the external stakeholders in a balanced manner, and reach consensus through facilitators in the workshops prior to receiving their contributions. Since the inception of SDG negotiation process, Turkey has adopted the method of integrating SDGs in the national policies through NDPs. The preparations for the second VNR were initiated with the expectation that the 11th NDP would have been issued in 2018. However, due to the large-scale re-structuring in the public administration, the issue of 11th NDP was postponed by one year, causing an uncertainty at the beginning of the process. Following harmonisation of the public administration in the new system, coordination of SDGs was moved up to a higher level of hierarchy. The process of VNR preparation commenced upon the instructions from the highest political level, thereby minimising challenges of coordination. 36 TURKEY’s 2nd VNR 2019 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS “Strong Ground towards Common Goals”
LEAVING NO ONE BEHIND
- LEAVING NO ONE BEHIND 12 Calculating relative poverty rate, 60 percent of equivalised household disposable median income as the poverty threshold was used. The principle of leaving no one behind, which aims to ensure that sustainable development includes all segments of the society through empowerment, equality and inclusiveness, is a cornerstone of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The population of Turkey exceeds 82 million as of 2018 end with 50.2% men and 49.8% women. Children and youth of ages 0 to 24 constitute 39% of the population making Turkey a country with younger population. The ratio of elderly population is also increasing due to increased life expectancy at birth. The ratio of 64+ population which was 7.7% of the total population as of 2013 end, increased to 8.8% as of 2018 end. Such demographic composition highlights the importance of policies for leaving no one behind. Table 7. Population by sex and age group, 2018, TURKSTAT 2018 AGE GROUPS Male Female Total 82,003,882 41,139,980 40,863,902 0-14 19,184,329 9,846,565 9,337,764 15-24 12,823,598 6,646,746 6,324,650 25-64 42,661,953 21,476,537 21,185,416 64+ 7,186,204 3,170,132 4,016,072 Major developments in infrastructure investments in line with high growth in Turkey since the 2000s led to an increase in the prosperity enjoyed by all segments of the society. Policies for reducing infrastructural disparities among regions and extending technological means across the country created an inclusive development path. Increased prosperity was channelled to vulnerable segments of society by means of re-distribution mechanisms under macroeconomic policies, effectively contributing to their empowerment. As a result of economic and social policies, Turkey almost completely eradicated extreme poverty and food poverty and made substantial progress in relative poverty indicators in the last decade. As of 2015, proportion of people living on less than 2.15 USD per day to the total population was reduced to a minimum of 0.06%, and the relative poverty rate12 was reduced from 23.4% in 2007 to 20.1% in 2017. Key policy documents include equitable distribution of opportunities and prosperity to all segments of the society as a main goal. In this regard, significant increases in minimum wage, positive impact of reduced informal employment on the income of wage earners, and policies for increasing labour force participation rates, especially of women, diversification and improvement of effectiveness of social assistance were instrumental in reducing poverty and ameliorating income distribution. Furthermore, the Universal Health Insurance (GSS) system was introduced as part of the health reform in 2007 through which all segments of the society were provided health coverage. In 2012, the government started to cover GSS premiums for those who did not have the means to pay. In addition, facilitating policies are implemented to ensure that all segments of the society enter the labour market. Under the incentives implemented since 2016, there are active labour market programmes in practice and social security premium incentives are provided to programme beneficiaries who are employed. The following section gives a snapshot of policies and practices implemented in our country to ensure that all segments of the society benefit from the positive impacts of development and no one is left behind in the development process. 38 TURKEY’s 2nd VNR 2019 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS “Strong Ground towards Common Goals”