Outcome TUR_D_1.1

Women and girls have improved and equal access to resources, opportunities and rights, and enjoy a life without violence and discrimination

The outcome is on track as significant progress was made during the reporting year. In 2024, various duty bearer entities, including local and central government, private sector and civil society implemented specific measures with the support of UN Women to ensure that women and girls have improved and equal access to opportunities and services and practice their rights and agency. Access to justice and protection services Women and girls gained improved access to justice services in the reporting year. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) in Türkiye showed increased commitment to ending violence against women by providing better guidance to judges and prosecutors on implementing Law No. 6284 the main legislation in Türkiye aimed at protecting women, children, and family members from violence and ensuring their safety. Feedback from judges and prosecutors indicated more effective assessments of violence cases and better implementation of the law. MoJ and UN Women jointly developed the implementation guideline in 2024, distributing it to all judges and prosecutors in Türkiye. Additionally, 2,265 women and girls affected by the earthquakes and residing in hard-to-reach areas benefited from more accessible and quality justice services, thanks to UN Women’s support in strengthening the technical capacities of lawyers in partnership with the Union of Türkiye Bar Associations. Women and girls in earthquake-affected areas had access to uninterrupted violence prevention and protection services. Eight women’s shelters and violence prevention centers of the Ministry of Family and Social Services, along with three women’s centers of CSOs, provided continued services to approximately 500 violence survivors daily, thanks to UN Women’s refurbishment support. Additionally, 9214 women and girls in temporary settlements and rural areas benefited from protection services and essential hygiene items delivered by UN Women’s CSO partners. Among these, 158 survivors of violence agianst women were better able to address urgent protection needs such as court fees, medical treatment, and relocation to safe housing through cash assistance. Women’s Leadership and Agency Women in the EQ zone have also demonstrated their agency in decision-making mechanisms by advocating together in solidarity. Women Neighborhood Committees in temporary settlements advocated to the authorities for services addressing their needs in the field based on evidence. Their advocacy led to solutions such as improved transportation routes, establishment of a bakery and provision of childcare support during vocational trainings. UN Women contributed to these results by establishing Women’s Empowerment Centers in Kahramanmaras and Hatay, in partnership with Koç Holding and the Foundation for the Support of Women’s Work and also by partnering with Association for Freedom and Equality for Women (KÖVED), Support to Life and Community Volunteers Foundation. Women Civil Society Organizations, including grassroot-level ones supported through small grants and partnership programmes of UN Women, have utilized their improved capacities to exercise their agency more effectively. Among them, the Fisherwomen’s Association has actively involved fishery sector policymaking processes with the capacities they improved as result of the small grants programme. Their improved communication practices including social media and networking opportunities also increased their both visibility and credibility in the sector. Similarly, Association of Women with Disabilities (ENGKAD), gained access to broader advocacy and networking opportunities. Status, Needs, and Priorities of Women with Disabilities in Türkiye: A Rights- Based Research conducted by the ENGKAD with the support of UN Women Türkiye also enhanced the advocacy initiatives for evidence base policies targeting women with disabilities. UN Women Türkiye has partnered with 10 CSOs since 2021 within the scope of Strong Civic Space for Gender Equality project and provided 40 small grants to 36 CSOs. Good Practices at the Local Government and Private Sector Women and girls in Adana province now have a new mechanism to better reflect their needs and priorities in municipal services. Adana Metropolitan Municipality, with a population of approximately 2.3 million, has embedded the Purple Map, an interactive tool for gender-sensitive data collection, into its 2024-2029 Strategic Plan. This initiative aims to transform the city into a safer, more inclusive environment, empowering women and improving their quality of life. UN Women Türkiye designed the Purple Map in partnership with other metropolitan municipalities and provided capacity development support. Additionally, the municipality opened its first Women’s Consultation Center, offering vital guidance to women survivors of violence, as part of its Local Equality Action Plan launched in 2023 with UN Women’s support. Ten large-scale private sector companies in Türkiye, participating in the Women Empowerment Principles (WEPs) in Action programme, reported setting new women’s empowerment goals and establishing structures to sustain WEPs activities. CEOs noted progress in female manager ratios, female engineers, and women-tailored benefits like menstrual leave and flexible work hours. This progress is attributed to the UN Women’s WEPs in Action programme initiated in 2024, which provided information and tools to the WEPs signatories in Türkiye. The programme results will contribute to ensuring equal opportunities for women through expanding positive business practices in Türkiye.

Women and girls have improved and equal access to resources, opportunities and rights, and enjoy a life without violence and discrimination

There has been some progress against the achievement of the outcome in 2022. Civil society organizations (CSOs) and municipalities took concrete steps towards improving women’s participation in political life, representation in policy processes, access to municipal services and financial resources. Local and central level authorities improved their plans and procedures for advancing equality and combating violence and harmful practices against women and girls, specifically early and forced marriages. The need for Temporary Special Measures (TSM) and policy measures to eliminate violence against women in politics have been put on the agenda of the Committee on Equal Opportunities between Women and Men in the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA). In line with international best practices and the CEDAW Committee Concluding Observations to Turkiye’s 8 th periodic report (July 2022), UN Women advocated for the adoption of TSM to accelerate parity in political representation. Women’s civil society organizations conducted analysis of the existing legal and policy frameworks and identified areas for reform to improve the participation of women in politics. They drafted a package of legislative amendments on the Constitution, Political Parties Law and Laws related to elections, as well as the bylaws of the TGNA. UN Women supported the development of the package through technical assistance. Women are gaining improved access to resources and opportunities in Istanbul and Bodrum municipalities with the effective implementation of Local Equality Action Plans (LEAP). Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality LEAP (2021-2024) and Bodrum Municipality LEAP (2022-2024) have started to be implemented by integrating gender responsive budgeting approach as a result of the knowledge and skills local officials gained through trainings conducted by UN Women. Gender responsive municipal plans and budgets are key to ensure local level public services contribute to women’s empowerment and women and men benefit equally from these services. Moreover, Bodrum Municipality institutionalized its efforts by allocating resources to establish a Women and Family Services Department for the first time for coordinating the shelter, women’s counseling center and gender equality unit and implementation of the LEAP. The foundations to increase the mobility and safety of women in public spaces are set in Ankara by the Metropolitan Municipality. Ankara Metropolitan Municipality installed panic buttons in public parks and identified the locations for establishment of new child-care facilities. This will also contribute to increased participation of women with small children in economic and social life. The identification of locations for the child-care services and panic buttons is result of an innovative online tool developed with UN Women’s support. “Purple Map” ( Mor Haritam ) is an online interactive platform that supports municipalities to match the citizens’ disaggregated data with the services and to identify the gaps. Application users can provide feedback on their satisfaction with available services and their needs. The Purple Map tool can be used and adapted by any municipality in the country. In 2022, Eskisehir Metropolitan Municipality launched the Purple Map, with UN Women’s support. A civil society organization - Black Sea New Horizons Association - produced purple map for a district of Samsun called Atakum. In 2022, 17 provinces revised and four provinces newly developed comprehensive, evidence-based and needs-based draft Local Action Plans to Combat Early and Forced Marriages (EFM)-for 2023-2025 with the instruction of the Ministry of Family and Social Services in line with one of the goals of the 4 th National Action Plan on Combatting Violence against Women (2021-2025). The new and revised plans have been submitted to the Provincial Governorships for initial approval, upon which will be submitted to the Ministry of Family and Social Services for final approval. All plans have been developed in line with the international norms and standards, in particular the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and other UN conventions. In collaboration with the MFSS Directorate General on Women's Status and UNICEF, UN Women organized trainings on developing such local action plans for government and civil society representatives from the 21 provinces, reaching 132 public officials and 103 institutions. The trainings also resulted in the creation of a foundation for effective inter-institutional coordination in combating EFM; the incorporation of the issue of EFM into the institutional commitments of relevant stakeholders; and the identification and development of solutions for issues related to EFM that have not been prioritized or addressed in the provinces before. Ministry of Justice Legal Support and Victim Services Department started amending its circular 154/1 on Prevention of Domestic Violence and Violence against Women and issued the updated circular 154/2 in early 2023. These are important steps to enhance women’s access to justice and effective implementation of “Law No: 6284 to Protect Family and Prevent Violence against Women" with efficient victim services. The circular reflects measures relating to due diligence, risk management, prevention of secondary victimization, and rights-based approach; with a strengthened focus on evidence collection, increased use of ankle monitors, detention in cases of breach, and consideration of measures under civil and criminal law to complement Law No:6284 procedures where applicable. UN Women facilitated the workshops for judges and prosecutors on Law No:6284 and related legal framework and fostered a platform of discussion on gaps, challenges and opportunities in 2022. Legal arguments and field-level feedbacks from the workshops contributed to the finalization of the circular and inspired the content. 22 women’s rights/women-led civil society organizations increased their capacity and advocacy skills on advancing women’s rights in key areas such as: elimination of violence against women and girls and access to justice. These CSOs are now better able to deliver on their mandates and sustain their activities with improved corporate management, communication capacities and technical infrastructure. In some cases, the CSOs have piloted new models of service delivery that can be scaled in the future, most notably, the CSO KADAV, in partnership with Sisli Municipality in Istanbul, established a “First Step Station” - an intermediary institution to provide immediate temporary protection services for women exposed to or at risk of violence. In 2022, 23 other CSOs received funding and capacity development support to advance their work on women's empowerment, gender equality and elimination of violence against women. UN Women contributed this through its long-lasting technical support from 2021 on including financial assistance. UN Women started contributing to the highest level planning process of the Government’s development policy in Türkiye for enhancing women's access to rights and resources. . In late 2022, Government of Türkiye officially started the preparations of the next National Development Plan that will be effective for the 2024-2028 period and formed several multi-stakeholder Technical Committees. UN Women is taking an active part in the Technical Committee on Women in Development and is chairing the Sub-group on Economy, Education, Climate Justice and Participation to Decision Making Mechanisms. UN Women’s partners from civil society and the private sector have been as well invited to take part in the work of the Technical Committees. Country strategy and theory of change for this outcome is largely still applicable. However, given the ambition of the outcome and country’s political, social, and cultural context, outcomes and impacts are expected to be achieved in a longer time period.

Women and girls have improved and equal access to resources, opportunities and rights, and enjoy a life without violence and discrimination

There has been some progress against the achievement of the outcome in the reporting period. Local and central government institutions, civil society organizations, UN agencies, and private sector companies took concrete actions to ensure that women and girls have better and equal access to opportunities and services, also encompassing the humanitarian response after the Kahramanmaras Earthquakes on 6 February 2023. The Government of Türkiye included in the new 12th National Development Plan (NDP) 2024-2028 for the first time, provisions on mainstreaming of gender equality in plans, policies and budgets and temporary special measures, such as quotas on increasing women’s participation and representation in decision-making at all levels. UN Women actively engaged in the preparation of the 12 th NDP and chaired the sub-committee on Economy, Education, Climate Justice and Participation to Decision Making Mechanisms under the “Women in Development” Technical Committee that contributed to development of the NDP. Four Metropolitan Municipalities - Istanbul, Eskisehir, Edirne and Adana – with a collective population of almost 20 million people – have started using new interactive data collection and mapping tools in Istanbul and Eskisehir, and launched Local Equality Action Plans in Adana and Edirne. This will contribute to women and girls’ improved access to gender responsive and data driven municipal services. These were achieved as result of UN Women’s close collaboration with each municipality, capacity development efforts and technical support in the design of the tools and plans. 44 women's rights CSOs, including 34 grassroots-level ones, improved their capacities to exercise their agency in a more robust way as result of UN Women's civil society support mechanisms including small grants. They developed new organizational tools and communication skills as well as gained physical capacities. They served 3438 women and girls, providing various support, from counseling to climate change education. CSOs also strengthened their partner networks and solidarity, engaging in dialogues with public officials on key women’s rights issues facilitated by UN Women. In 2023, 90 new private sector companies signed the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) and committed to advancing gender equality d women's empowerment, marking a 20 % increase and reaching 540 WEP signatories nationwide, which is the second-highest globally, the use of female voices in the commercials reached a historic high of 38% (up from %24 in 2021) as per the Effie Gender Equality Research, covering 228 advertisements. UN Women played a crucial role in these accomplishments by collaborating with the advertising industry leaders and creatives under Unstereotype Alliance's National Chapter, and by developing capacities of companies for WEPs implementation. Following the devastating earthquakes on February 6 th which affected 11 provinces and close to 10 million people, disaster-affected women and girls’ rights and needs were at front and central in the humanitarian and early recovery response as UN Women redirected its operations and inter-agency coordination efforts to ensure this. Over 5500 women and girls gained access to legal and psycho-social counselling, awareness raising on safety and protection, skills development, and essential hygiene items delivered by UN Women’s CSO partners. More than 30,000 women and girls received clothing and personal hygiene items as UN Women leveraged its close partnerships with the private sector and local authorities. Ministry of Family and Social Services with support from UN Women refurbished two damaged Violence Prevention and Monitoring Centers, serving 65 women daily. Women’s access to justice was increased by enhancing their post-earthquake legal literacy in partnership with the Union of Turkish Bar Associations. Koc Holding, Foundation for the Support of Women’s Work and UN Women established the Women’s Empowerment Hubs in two temporary settlements targeting over 5000 women and girls with services and support to empower them to be resilient. Women entrepreneurs and cooperatives from the affected region gained access to Turkiye’s biggest e-commerce platform through the partnership of Hepsiburada and UN Women. Partnered UN agencies under inter-agency structures, used sex- and age-disaggregated data in programming documents and included actions targeting women and girls with a gender sensitive approach not only in the protection sector but also in the economic empowerment, cash assistance and WASH programmes. Local women’s organizations also accessed to the humanitarian structures that elevated their voices and priorities with facilitation of UN Women. The country strategy and theory of change for this outcome are largely still applicable. However, considering the ambition of the outcome, the country context and the impact of devastating earthquakes on women and girls, bold actions targeting gender equality and women's empowerment and gender mainstreaming in recovery programmes are necessary to preserve and build on the achievements.