WHY UNJP?

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 processes is a sine qua non. Hence democracy cannot affort to be gender-blind. It must strive towards equality and representation of women and men in decision-making processes 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. 

Individual funds and agencies of the UN have provided assistance to promote women’s rights in the past, approaching the issue from many different angles. By joining forces in this programme, the UN is able to provide interested local partners with a comprehensive package of support to address women’s rights and protect the most vulnerable women. UN Reform demands that UN agencies go beyond coordination and information sharing to pool resources for joint programmes. By joining both financial resources and expertise these programmes are able to provide the most effective means of addressing the many facets of specific development challenges. In addition, the UN Joint Programme is designed to articulate with other relevant individual agency programmes across Turkey.