4.1. POLICIES FOR WOMEN Substantial progress has been achieved in terms of legislation for empowerment of women and ensuring equal opportunities for men and women in Turkey; various institutional mechanisms have been established, and necessary steps have been taken by relevant institutions to implement the legislation. Participation of women and girls in education: Increasing schooling rates of girls, increasing rates of transition to secondary education, leaving no girl out of education have been set as national goals in NDPs and other relevant/related policies. In this context, the Operation for Increasing the School Attendance Rate of Girls-1 (KEP-1) project was completed and implementation of KEP-2 is underway. Implemented in 15 pilot provinces in East and Southeast Anatolia, the project directly reached out to local opinion leaders, parents and children, and organised training for trainers, conferences and festivals. Within the Development Programme for Young Women, Mother and Child Education Foundation (ACEV) implemented comprehensive capacity building programmes under 16 themes including women’s rights, gender equality, participation in decision-making mechanisms, educational attendance, child protection and prevention of violence against women. Women’s Health: With the Health Transformation Programme, the importance and priority of women’s health increased. To reduce women’s risk of cancer, women are offered screening for breast and cervical at Cancer Early Detection, Screening and Training Centres, and awareness is raised on the importance of early diagnosis. Rate of access to services reached 99.7% as of 2017 by mainstreaming antenatal care services, which are important for maternal health. Accordingly, the maternal mortality rate receded to 14.6 per 100,000 live childbirths. As a result of efforts to prevent early-age pregnancy, the rate of adolescent fertility decreased from 31 per thousand in 2012 to 21 per thousand in 2017. Women’s participation in social life: Many projects are implemented at local and regional levels for promoting women’s participation in social life. 29 Multi-Purpose Community Centres (CATOM) operating in 9 provinces in the Southeast Anatolia Project (GAP) Region is an example of such projects. CATOMs organise literacy, preschool education, mothers’ education, computer and health education, healthcare programmes such as partial and mobile polyclinic services, income-generating workshops and programmes promoting women’s entrepreneurship. In addition, women who participate in these programmes are provided guidance on benefiting from various services such as civil marriage, scholarship and aid in kind. Through this project, 1.4 million women were outreached in the 1995-2018 period. Women’s employment: To increase rate of women’s labour force participation, active labour market programmes have been implemented and vocational counselling and vocational guidance services have expanded since the early 2000s. Tax and insurance premium incentives have been introduced for employers to support these programmes. Further, with an amendment to the Labour Law in 2016, women were granted the right to work part-time in their full-time jobs for some period after childbirth. With the regulation in 2018, it was made obligatory to provide nursery or daycare services in workplaces where women worked, or tax exemptions were accorded for the expenses of daycare provided that such expense be paid directly to the service providers where these services were not available. Public education and vocational education centres provide vocational training for women to equip them with income- generating vocational skills. Role of the private sector: Success of policies for women depends on ensuring harmony and cooperation across sectors and institutions. In addition to public resources, various projects for disadvantaged groups are implemented with the support of the private sector. Under the project My Mom’s Job is My Future implemented through public-private cooperation, efforts are underway to set up day-care centres in 10 Organised Industrial Zones (OIZs) out of which 4 already entered into service. 39 TURKEY’s 2nd VNR 2019 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS “Strong Ground towards Common Goals”
Another example for women’s employment is the project
Turkey’s Engineer Girls jointly implemented in cooperation
with the private sector, NGOs, UN and public sector. Under
the project, opportunities for scholarships, internship and
employment are provided to university students; and English
language training, social engineering certification programmes
and mentoring support are delivered. The project reached a
total of 21,400 women by the of 2018.
To ensure women’s active participation in economy and
increase their employment, training is provided on conscious
and safe use of information technologies and internet. In
addition, “Digital Literacy” training programmes are organised
in collaboration with private sector to ensure effective use of
opportunities and resources provided by digital technologies.
To date, approximately 2000 women have benefited from such
training.
Women’s entrepreneurship: To contribute to women’s
increased role in economic life, privileged support is provided.
In the context of supporting new entrepreneurs, women
entrepreneurs were granted 20% more loans/grants in the
2010-2018 period. With the New Entrepreneur Programme
that started in 2019, privileged support is accorded to those
entrepreneurs who are young, with disabilities or next of
martyrs, in addition to women. Women entrepreneurs who
will operate in traditional sectors receive more support than
previously (up to 60,000 TL equivalent to 10,900 USD). Further,
support is provided up to 370,000 TL (67,400 USD) to women
entrepreneurs, depending on technology level, who operate
in areas such as manufacturing and software that contribute
to increased competitiveness of our country, increase exports
and employment, and have the potential to become brands.
Women’s cooperatives: There are ongoing projects to support
women’s empowerment through enabling particularly the
poor women to engage in production through a culture of
solidarity and generating income. In this context, Public
Education Centres (PECs) across the country implement the
Cooperative Development and Adaptation Training Programme
under which 2,782 women who successfully completed
training were awarded certificates in the 2014-2017 period.
Gender Budgeting: The Sub-committee for Gender-Responsive
Budgeting under the Equal Opportunities Commission of TGNA
implemented a project based on gender-responsive budgeting
to set an example for other administrations, and executed a
series of activities.
It is planned to start a “Gender-Sensitive Planning and
Budgeting in Turkey” Project to create awareness and
ownership among politicians and bureaucrats on public
policies, plans, programmes and budget processes for
promoting gender equality in central and local governments;
enhance institutional capacities and ensure sustainability.
4.2. POLICIES FOR CHILDREN AND YOUTH
As of 2017 end, children (ages 0-17) constitute approximately
28% and youth (ages 15-24) constitute 16% of the population.
In addition, there are 1.6 million children out of 3.6 million
Syrians population under temporary protection in our country.
Based on the principle of the “best interest of the child”,
significant public policies are pursued to improve the well-
being of children, to increase opportunities and means to
develop and actualise their potential, and increase their access
to basic public services including particularly education,
healthcare, justice and social services.
Child and Youth Health: Healthcare services for children
are provided free of charge in our country. In the context of
early childhood development, there are monitoring systems
which are provided to parents free of charge to ensure that
children are born and continue their lives healthily, evaluate
their nutritional status and development, and meet their
needs in this regard. In this context, Baby and Child Tracking
Programme, Nutrition Programmes, National Screening
Programmes and Reducing Baby and Child Mortality
Programme, Breast-feeding Incentive, Mainstreaming
Baby-Friendly Health Institutions as well as the programs
for Vaccination, Preventing Iron and Vitamin D Deficiency in
Babies, Improving Bone Health are implemented to anticipate
and eliminate the circumstances that lead to illnesses. As a
result of such programmes and measures, vaccination rate
reached 96%, rate of receiving prenatal care services reached
99.7%, rate of delivery at a healthcare institution reached 98%,
and infant mortality rate was 9.1 per thousand in 2017.
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“Strong Ground towards Common Goals”
In our country, all expectant mothers could benefit from
healthcare services free of charge during pregnancy. In
the framework of the Conditional Cash Transfer for Health
Programme in effect since 2002, poor expectant mothers
receive payments on the condition that they go through
medical examinations during pregnancy and deliver their
babies at a healthcare institution. As part of the same
programme, mothers in poor families receive payment per
child under 6 years old on the condition that the child regularly
undergoes a medical examination and is vaccinated. In 2018, a
total of 1,225,402 mothers and children received a total health
support of 382.23 million TL (79 million USD) in 2018.
Work is undertaken to ensure that especially adolescents
and young people are informed on adolescent health in an
appropriate way for the age group and to improve the services
provided by psychological advisors and counsellors at schools.
Youth-friendly healthcare services are provided at Youth
Counselling and Healthcare Service Centres; work is
undertaken for awareness of professionals who work with
youth; and training programmes on sexual and reproductive
rights are delivered to various groups of youth including
particularly those vulnerable through peer and role-based
training.
Access to education: Education as the key to minimising
inequalities between social segments and genders, as a
precondition to productive and quality life, as well as an
agent for social and individual change, is recognised as
a fundamental right in the Constitution which prohibits
depriving individuals of this right. Education services at all
education levels, including higher education, are provided
free of charge in our country.
Various projects and incentive systems are implemented to
ensure access to school of all children in socio-economically
or culturally disadvantaged groups, as well as those
under temporary protection, with special needs or in other
disadvantaged groups. Some of these projects focus on
integrating children with disabilities into social life through
quality inclusive education from early childhood, and
facilitating their access to social life in the long term.
Conditional Education Assistance (CEA) has been provided
since 2003 to those families in the poorest segment of the
society to enable them to send children to school. The amount
of aid is set higher for girls to increase the schooling rates and
attendance of girls. Under CEA, 641.1 million TL (117 million
USD) has been disbursed for over 2.5 million children until
today.
Early childhood education: Importance accorded to early
childhood education is gradually increasing in the context of
reducing poverty through generations and increasing equality
of opportunities. Within this scope, the objective is to ensure
that every child attends preschool education minimum one
year before primary education and to increase the schooling
rate at age 5 from 75% to 100%. Further, it is obligatory for
nurseries, daycare centres and children clubs operated by
the private sector to allocate 3% of their current capacities
for disadvantaged and poor children. Besides, children
with disabilities who need special education benefit from
education services free of charge.
In the framework of our country’s 2023 Education Vision,
it is planned to provide children living in poor households
with key educational materials that will support their
development, and mainstream alternative and community-
based early childhood education services for children in low
density settlement areas. In this context, various centres,
workshops and mobile bus classrooms are created. In
addition, programmes are prepared to meet the nutrition
needs of children in unfavourable conditions, and special
curricula are created for schools with seasonal agricultural
worker children, children under temporary protection and
children in villages. With the “Mobile Nursery Class Teaching”
pilot application, preschool education is provided to children
at preschool age in the areas where it is not possible to open
classes due to the insufficient number of students.
In the framework of the Summer Nursery Classes Programme
which is conducted since 2003 with an ever-broadening scope;
a 10-week accelerated preschool education programme is
implemented for children in 4 to 6 age group. Further, Mother
Support Programme training is provided to the mothers of
these children. For school adaptation problems faced by Syrian
children, the programme is also implemented as a short-term
intervention programme to increase their readiness for school.
Access to primary and secondary education: A “transported
education programme” is implemented across the country
to prevent deprivation of children of education rights due to
geographic and economic conditions in accessing primary
and secondary education. Under the program, children are
provided free lunch and transport to the nearest school.
Further, free accommodation is provided to children in villages
and rural settlements smaller than villages without school and
for poor families to ensure access to primary and secondary
education services. According to the data of 2017-2018
academic year, 49.5% of boarders are girls.
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“Strong Ground towards Common Goals”