News

TPF Launches its Scholarship Program!

02/16/2010

TPF launched its Scholarship Program on February 11, 2010. Read more about the event. To donate to the Scholarship Program Pool Fund click here.

Good News from Caykisla!

01/25/2010

The Caykisla Okulyap Project has been completed! Read more.

An Estate Gift Becomes A Scholarship for A Medical Student

11/13/2009

Onur Can is the first recipient of a scholarship named in memory of the late Dr. Sevket Turgut Nese at his alma mater, Istanbul University Cerrahpasa School of Medicine. Read more.

TPF and Sabanci Foundation Partnership

Sabanci Foundation and Turkish Philanthropy Funds (TPF) are collaborating to support "United Nations Joint Program on Promoting and Protecting the Human Rights of Women and Girls," through Sabanci Foundation Grant Program. Through this collaboration, TPF supported "Strengthening the Role of Women in the Workforce (Kasik Tutan Elden Para Tutan Ele)" project of Turkish Women Association of Trabzon in 2008. This project has been completed as of April, 1 2009.

In 2009, TPF is supporting "Seasonal Migrant Worker Youth" program of Mevsimlik Tarim Iscilerinin Haklarinin Korunmasi ve Gelistirilmesi Dernegi.

The "United Nations Joint Program on Promoting and Protecting the Human Rights of Women and Girls," is a unique project in the sense that it is a partnership project between all UN agencies in Turkey, the Ministry of Interior, the Sabanci Foundation, and the Sabanci University. The project has recently been selected by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) as one of the "Model Projects."

Program Overview

Gender Equality is one of the key issues for the progress of a society. In a democratic society, involving women and men in decision-making is a sine qua non. Hence democracy cannot afford to be gender-blind. It must strive towards equality and representation of women and men in decision-making and in the opportunities to achieve both these goals. For the last decades Turkey has been witnessing important achievements of women's participation in every walk of life. Much progress has also been made in the past decade, particularly with the passage of key legislation to protect and promote women and girls' human rights. However, this legislation has yet to be fully implemented and gender inequality remains a significant obstacle to development.

UN Joint Program aims to tackle this problem by implementing a three-tiered plan to improve the capacity of institutions responsible for service provision. The program identified the needs of women and girls through a participatory planning process involving all stakeholders (municipalities, governorships and women's NGOs) to design 5-year local equality action plans (LEAPs). The main objective of the LEAP is to define the needs of women and girls, and prepare action plans to achieve equal economic, social and political strategies and policies to create "Women-Friendly Cities". The Local Equality Action Plans (LEAPs), which include 7 general categories, are evaluated and analyzed in depth by Dr. Ayten Alkan, Ankara University Research Assistant. Please click here to read.

The main objective of the LEAP is to define the needs of women and girls, and prepare action plans to achieve equal economic, social and political strategies and policies to create "Women-Friendly Cities". These LEAPs in the cities of Izmir, Kars, Nevsehir, Sanliurfa, Van, and Trabzon, are supported through the Sabanci Foundation "Grant Program." The grant scheme of this UN Joint Program is uniquely Sabanci Foundation's contribution, and has provided grants  since 2007. In 2008, TPF partnered with Sabanci Foundation to support "Strengthening the Role of Women in the Workforce (Kasik Tutan Elden Para Tutan Ele)" project of Turkish Women Association of Trabzon through the grantmaking program.

Another component of the program is "Purple Certificate," which is a gender education program targeting high school teachers. The program trains high school teachers to develop a critical perspective on gender issues at Sabanci University Campus. At the end of the program, participant teachers are given Purple Certificates.

Provinces covered by the Project

A detailed and comprehensive study was undertaken to select provinces during the project preparatory stage. As a result of extensive evaluation, it was agreed that the pilot provinces would be Izmir, Kars, Nevsehir, Sanlıurfa, Trabzon and Van.

Important criteria for this evaluation and selection of provinces included development reports and indicators published by the State Planning Organization, willingness of local governments, locations where other UN projects are carried out, and budgetary limits. In addition, geographical differences were also taken into account. These provinces were selected in order to adopt an approach in which participation and coordination are promoted, and prioritizes inter-sector cooperation to determine how services can be improved and diversified; how resources can be augmented and how women's and girls' lives can be improved.

Expected Outcomes

• Thousands of citizens will have greater awareness of women and girls' rights
• Thousands will be trained to promote and protect women's and girls' rights
• Local government and NGO's will be stronger and more knowledgeable about women's and girl's human rights
• Six 5-year local action plans will be in place
• Citizens, community leaders, religious leaders, civil society and private sector in all cities will be actively involved
• Local activities will be accelerated with priority given to shelters, employment creation, vocational training and girls education
• Local and national political and budgetary commitment will increase
• The 6 cities evaluated and certified for their active role in promoting women's and girl's rights.