Helping Turkey with Data for Development

 What's the situation ?

 Turkey's population of 72.8 million (State Institute for Statistics projection for 2005) is the largest of all of the countries which are seeking to join the European Union. Indeed, existing EU members, only Germany has a larger population.

 But the dynamics of Turkey's population have changed considerably over the last 30 years and policy makers will need to put more emphasis on collecting, analysing and applying data and other information about population trends in order to plan and formulate the most appropriate programmes and policies to address them.

 Migration from the countryside

Since the 1950s Turkey has seen a phenomenal rate of migration from the countryside to towns and cities . Currently 65 per cent of the population live in cities. A number of factors have contributed to this financial and employment difficulties during a series of economic crises, and security concerns, especially in the south-east of the country where there have been long years of fighting between the Turkish military and armed Kurdish separatists.

 The movement of so many people to the cities has resulted in economic, social and environmental problems both for the city-dwellers already there, and for the more recent arrivals and their families. These problems are not yet adequately considered in decision-making, development planning and policy setting.

 Turkey’s population growth rate peaked in the 1950s with 2.85 per cent and since then has declined to 1.8 per cent in the 1990s. Presently the rate is decreasing, but the next decade will still witness an increase in population.

 Young people

Turkey particularly needs more comprehensive data about its youth. Forty-seven per cent of the population of Turkey is younger than 24 but the national data available on young people's problems, health, attitudes and behaviour is very limited.

 Although young people in Turkey have greater sexual freedom than previous generations they are also at greater risk of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS. It is essential for policy makers and healthcare professionals to understand more about young people's attitudes and behaviour regarding sexual and reproductive health in order to help them safeguard their own health.

 An ageing population

The population of Turkey is also getting older. According to SIS projections, in 2005 5.8 per cent of the population was aged 65 or older and this age-group is growing. The average life expectancy is now 69.1

 This "ageing" of the population has happened because the total fertility rate has been decreasing and the life expectancy at birth is increasing resulting in a higher proportion of elderly people in the total population. In this way, Turkish population structure is becoming similar to that of most developed European countries. The elderly, particularly those living in rural areas, are among the poorest and most vulnerable groups, especially in developing countries. Ageing of the population will therefore be an important challenge for the Turkish government.

 What is UNFPA doing to help ?

 UNFPA has been active across Turkey since 1971. Since then it has supported a wide range of activities and programmes including a number of key initiatives to improve the gathering, analysis and use of data for population and development.

Achievements so far:

 Working together with UNFPA and guided by the Programme of Action which resulted from the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), the Government of Turkey has already made considerable progress in improving its ability to collect and use data for development:

 A web-based databank

Together with other UN agencies in Turkey, UNFPA Turkey continued to assist the State Institute for Statistics (SIS)  by providing technical and financial support for maintaining and updating a web-based data bank. This data bank monitors population and development strategies in Turkey as well as progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

Although it is still being developed, the data bank is already an important resource, providing   comparable and accurate data for the Common Country Assessment (CCA) for Turkey and the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF)  for Turkey.

The data bank currently contains 49 indicators related to population and development, of which 22 are MDG indicators.

 Priority research and studies:

In 2004, with technical and financial assistance from UNFPA, The Turkish Academy of Sciences started to develop a `policy kit` which would include suggestions from focus groups about governance, social structure, economics, education, urbanization, demography, health and environment. The reports from these discussions will be brought together, with crosscutting issues like gender, regional disparities and sustainability all taken into consideration.  A number of studies have been published.

 A National Committee to look at the issue of ageing

In 2004, UNFPA took part in the preparations of a national action plan for population ageing and became an active member of the National Ageing Committee.

 The National Ageing Committee was established by the State Planning Organization (SPO) and Social Services and Child Protection Agency and aims to revise and adapt a National Plan of Action for population ageing. As the sole UN agency represented at committee meetings, UNFPA took part in the technical working group which revised this Plan of Action and will continue its cooperation with the SPO in the reporting and dissemination phase of the Plan of Action.

 Ongoing initiatives:

 In its current programme for Turkey, UNFPA aims to provide further support to the Turkish government in making available disaggregated demographic data and information and to promote the consideration of such data in the formulation and implementation of social and economic policies.

 UNFPA plans to do this in a number of ways:

• By strengthening national and local capacity for collection, analysis, dissemination and application of disaggregated data.
• By providing support to strengthening vital statistics system.
• By continuing support for maintaining the Population and Development and Millennium Development Goals Databank
• By supporting further research and studies in priority areas

  

Current UNFPA projects in Turkey:

 

Educating Adolescents about their Health  

Developing Reproductive Health Services for Adolescents

Making Reproductive Health Services available to University Students

 Strengthening Management of Reproductive Health Services

 Updating a Key Tool for Reproductive Health Policy and Planning

 Helping to Collect Data to Assess Key Indicators

Providing In-Service Reproductive Health Training for Resident Doctors  

 Strengthening In-Service Training for Reproductive Health   

Augmenting and Improving Turkey's data sources on Population and Development

Advocacy for Gender and Reproductive Health Issues

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