Opening Remarks for Closure Event of UN Joint Programme on Transformative Growth of the Care Economy in Türkiye

It is a privilege to welcome you to the closure event of our UN Joint Programme on Transformative Growth of the Care Economy in Türkiye. Today marks not an end, but a moment of reflection and renewal of commitment as we look forward to how the work we have embarked upon can be sustained, scaled, and embedded in long-term systems.

Let me begin by expressing my deepest gratitude to the Ministry of Family and Social Services for its leadership, high-level ownership, and steadfast engagement throughout this journey. I also thank our co-leaders ILO and UNDP, and our strong technical partners UNFPA, UNICEF, UN Women, as well as all collaborating institutions and stakeholders, for your dedication, insight, and collaborative spirit. Your collective efforts have brought this programme into full life.

I also want to acknowledge the many participants at working group levels, from local governments, municipalities, civil society, academia, social partners and private sector actors, who have contributed to shaping the design, piloting, and validation of care economy policies, models, and services across Türkiye.

Over the course of this Joint Programme, we have realized several important milestones:

• We have refined and validated implementation frameworks for childcare, elderly care, disability care, and home/community care, in coordination with the intersectoral working group.
• The operationalization of a Care Economy Roadmap, aligned with both national priorities and global best practices, offers a shared strategic orientation for future action.
• We have delivered capacity-building, training and awareness activities across public institutions, social partners and civil society, strengthening institutional readiness to integrate care into planning and budgeting.
• Pilot initiatives—such as childcare in selected Organized Industrial Zones, and innovative home-based care models—have yielded lessons on cost structures, service delivery modalities, and partnerships.
• We also invested in communications, knowledge products, and advocacy efforts: thematic briefs, short videos, dissemination events, and dialogues to raise public understanding of the care economy, and to catalyse political support.

During the implementation of the UN Joint Programme, we have deepened our engagement with line ministries and agencies to foster ownership and identified entry points for embedding care into sectoral plans, fiscal frameworks, social protection systems and local government strategies.

Distinguished Participants,

As we close this programme, it is vital to situate this work within broader global and national frameworks.

At the global level, the United Nations leadership has increasingly emphasized care as a strategic lever for equality and sustainability. From a normative perspective, the UN system has long argued that care work, whether unpaid or paid, is a critical component of human well-being and economic vitality, yet often invisible, undervalued, and under-resourced.

At the national level, under the new United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (2026–2030) in Türkiye, the “care economy” continues to be one of the key intervention areas for the UN system in Türkiye as a core development priority embedded in gender equality, social protection, decent work, and inclusive growth.

Dear Guests,

In Türkiye’s context, the demographic, social and economic trends make the care economy ever more urgent:

• According to the latest data, older persons now constitute 10.6 % of Türkiye’s population (approximately 9.1 million people).
   
• Türkiye is aging rapidly: pro­jected demographic shifts indicate that by 2030 and beyond, the proportion of older persons will rise significantly.
   
• Older adult disability and frailty rates are high. In Turkiye, frailty among older adults is estimated at around 39.2 % in some samples, and caregiver burden among family caregivers is moderate to high, especially when care exceeds 8 hours a day or when education levels are lower. 
   
• The preferred mode of care in Türkiye is overwhelmingly home-based: around 70 % of people prefer to receive care in their own homes, and more than half of these prefer care from family caregivers.
   
• Yet caregiving in the family context comes with real burdens: in a recent study in Eastern Türkiye, caregivers reported significant life impact from caregiving responsibility.

In short: the scale, urgency, and complexity of care needs in Türkiye are increasing, demanding structured, sustainable, and equitable responses. This programme has anticipated that challenge; now our task is to translate its gains into permanent systems.

As we draw this Joint Programme to a close, I wish to offer a forward-looking agenda of actions and commitments:

• Institutionalization and integration. We must embed care economy principles into national strategies (e.g. social policies, health, labour, municipal development), medium-term plans, and local government agendas. The intersectoral working group, supported by the Ministry, can evolve into a permanent convening platform.
   
• Financing, cost modelling and resource mobilization. Building on pilot costings and models, we should engage with the respective public authorities to include care in public budgets. Alternative modalities such as public–private partnerships, social impact investment, or blended finance could be explored.
   
• Scaling and phasing. We should prioritize scaling of effective pilot models in high-potential geographies, and phase expansion based on evidence, affordability, local capacity, and equity considerations.
   
• Care workforce development. A critical enabler is a well-trained, decently employed care workforce. Hence, we should invest in standards, occupational pathways, training institutions, certification, recruitment and retention, decent wages and protections, and career progression.
  
   
• Data, monitoring, evaluation and learning. We need to continue rigorous data collection such as care time use surveys, caregiver mapping, service usage, cost-benefit analyses, outcome measurement (for care recipients and caregivers). These analyses should inform course corrections, advocacy, and scale-up decisions.
   
• Advocacy, public awareness, social norms change. Shifting societal perceptions of care and caregiving is essential. Care should be valued, visible, and shared. We must sustain narratives that elevate caregivers, reduce stigma, and make care a public concern.
   
• Partnerships and innovation. Engage local governments, municipalities, civil society, private sector, academia, and technology partners. Innovations such as digital tools, assistive technologies, telecare, care coordination platforms can play a role especially in reaching remote or resource-constrained areas.
   
• Linkage to global, regional and SDG frameworks. Align national care economy interventions to the 2030 Agenda, the upcoming UNSDCF 2026–2030, regional initiatives, and normative UN standards.

As the UN system in Türkiye, our role does not end with this Joint Programme. We commit to continued advisory, technical, capacity-building support; to facilitation of partnerships; to knowledge sharing; to leveraging global UN platforms; and to exploring funding opportunities to sustain and expand care economy work across Türkiye.

I invite each of you - our partners in government, civil society, academia, private sector, local authorities - to stay engaged, carry forward the shared vision, and together bring care from the margins into the mainstream of Türkiye’s development.

Let us ensure that in Türkiye, care is recognized, caregivers are supported, systems are strengthened, and every citizen can access quality care without burden or exclusion.

Thank you all for your commitment, partnership and trust.