Helping to Collect Data to Assess Key Indicators

Project name / Workplan:  Development of a Comprehensive Databank on Population and Development / MDGs

Budget: USD 65,000

Timeline: 2001-2005

What's the situation?

In Turkey the State Institute of Statistics (TURKSTAT) is the main institution which collects and analyses national data on a regular basis. There have also been many international initiatives in recent years to develop a set of global indicators for the monitoring and evaluation of strategies and policies in the field of population and development. However these indicators vary in number, details and quality. Thus the development of a databank was considered key to integrate comparable data and standard indicators so as to capture progress made in the implementation of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Plan of Action and the benchmarks agreed as well as for monitoring the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

 

What’s our mission?

As the lead United Nations organization for the follow-up and implementation of the Programme of Action of the ICPD, UNFPA is fully committed to working in partnership with the Government of Turkey, all parts of the United Nations system, non-governmental organizations and civil society, to provide easy access of users to reliable, comparable and up-to-date information at international standards. UNFPA collaborates and cooperates closely with other UN agencies within the UN system in Turkey to support TURKSTAT technically and financially in the establishing and maintaining the Databank.

How is UNFPA doing this?

• UNFPA provided financial support to the Turkish Academy of Sciences (TAS) in 2002 to carry out a research “Population and Development Indicators: National and International Practices” to identify the indicators required to monitor developments in the area of population and development in Turkey.
• TURKSTAT has created a database for selected indicators and evaluated data quality and comparability in the light of EU standards.
• UNFPA, in collaboration with other UN Agencies, assisted TURKSTAT financially in order to increase its capacity to set up and maintain the Databank. In this context, hardware and software were purchased. TURKSTAT experts were trained to be able to manage the web page and a study tour was conducted to Germany in 2002.
• Finally, the Population and Development / MDGs Databank was established and made available to users on internet at (http://nkg.die.gov.tr/) on 30 December 2002 by the TURKSTAT, in cooperation with UN Agencies in Turkey.
• A workshop was carried out in 2003 with the aim of informing related institutions, organizations and individual academicians about tools of development; sets of indicators; monitoring the MDGs and the Databank Project.
• UNFPA, in collaboration with the other UN Agencies,  is continuing its support for the annual update and maintenance of the Databank.

 

Who are our partners?

• State Planning Organization (TURKSTAT) www.die.gov.tr
• United Nations Agencies in Turkey www.un.org.tr

How will Turkey benefit?

The web-based Databank has been accessible to users since 2002, both in Turkish and English. Currently, it contains 49 indicators related to population and development, of which 22 are MDG indicators. The Databank is first of its own kind in Turkey in terms of providing easily accessible, reliable and comparable data about population and development. The Databank will also be able to provide regional and gender-specific data by the end of 2005. UNFPA and other UN Agencies is continuing its support to TURKSTAT for the calculation of new indicators so that the Databank will be able to cover more in the field of population and development and better serve Turkey in the monitoring of the progress made in the implementation of the ICPD Plan of Action, MDGs and other international consensus documents.

 

Contact Details: 

Dr. Selen Örs, UNFPA selen.ors@un.org.tr

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