High-level officials set to better meet women’s needs in Turkey

Earlier in May (21–22), UN Women Turkey delivered a two-day seminar in Bolu, north-western Turkey, on gender-responsive planning and budgeting. The event involved senior members of the Ministry of Family and Social Services, as well as the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey Presidency of Strategy and Budgeting.

Well implemented gender-responsive budgeting means women, men, girls and boys are able to enjoy equal rights, services and opportunities. This is achieved through committed and systematic consideration of different and evolving needs and priorities of individuals in society. The recent seminar sought to build the knowledge and skills of senior government officials in this area.

The seminar included various sessions such as gender analysis and mainstreaming for strategic planning as well as budgeting process in Turkey. It also involved discussions on how to integrate gender-responsive budgeting into policy processes using available data alongside examples from real life.

During the seminar, participating officials pointed out the crucial role of public institutions for integrating gender equality into policy processes. They also expressed their satisfaction about the knowledge they gained during the seminar. It was underlined in the seminar that bringing technical knowledge and fiscal plannings together was key to integrating gender equality into government budgeting processes.

The seminar’s high-level participants included Gülser Ustaoğlu, the General Director of the General Directorate on the Status of Women of the Ministry of Family and Social Services, Nebi Çelik General Director of the General Directorate of Sectors and Public Investments and Gülşah Uran the Head of Department of the Directorate General of Budget of the Presidency of Strategy and Budget, and Asya Varbanova, UN Women Turkey Country Director.

“This kind of high-level training is very important in terms of gaining and maintaining the support of directors at all levels for gender-responsive budgeting in order to reflect technical knowledge and institutional accumulation of the institutions to the implementation process,” said Gülser Ustaoğlu.

In his address, Nebi Çelik said: “Training sessions on adapting plans and budgeting according to the changing needs in achieving equal opportunities for women and men will also contribute to the preparation process of the 12th Development Plan.”

Highlighting the importance of having awareness about the performance assessment approach in achieving gender equality, Gülşah Uran added: “We aim to include a gender-responsive budgeting approach into budgeting and policy making processes and become systematic by using performance indicators.”

Speaking at the event, UN Women Turkey Country Director Asya Varbanova said: “Achieving gender equality requires systematic and sustained focus on planning and budgeting at both central and local levels. This kind of event on gender-responsive planning and budgeting isn one of several, conducted in collaboration with the Ministry of Family and Social Services and Presidency of Strategy and Budget. This series has already created tangible results and built high-level ownership on gender-responsive planning and budgeting in Turkey.”

The seminar was held as part of the project ‘Implementing Gender Responsive Planning and Budgeting in Turkey’, which is co-financed by the European Union and UN Women and implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of Family and Social Services and the Presidency  of Strategy and Budget.