Advocating for Gender and Reproductive Health Issues
Advocacy Sub-programme
Project name: TUR01 / P10 Advocacy Sub Programme
Budget: USD 1.000.000
Timeline: January 2001 – December 2005
What's the situation?
For those in Turkey who make policies, enforce legislation and for those who would like to see existing laws or policies modified or changed, or new mechanisms intoduced, this is an important time. As the country continues to prepare for accession to the European Union many key laws and instruments (for example the civil code and the penal code) have been modified to bring them closer to EU norms and to fulfil the criteria for accession.
Within many of these laws, policies and instruments which have been or will be discussed gender issues need to be considered.Across groups such as journalists, senior civil servants and non governmental organizations need help to advocate for the changes they would like to see, and which will help Turkey to realize more of the goals set out in the Programme of Action of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development
What’s our mission?
- With this programne, UNFPA Turkey aims to promote gender equality in three ways:
- By increasing support for policies and strategies promoting Reproductive Health, Gender Equality and Equity.
- By strengthening the capacity of Turkey's national and local media to support Reproductive Health, Gender Equality, Population and Development Issues.
- By strengthening the capacity of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and government agencies to carry out advocacy support
How is UNFPA doing this?
During the first year of the project, three target groups were identified, at which all programme activities were directed.
- Policy makers (Members of Parliament, governors, mayors)
- National and local media (including both professionals and students of media and communication)
- NGOs and government agencies.
- A wide range of activities have been realised for all three target groups:
Target Group 1 - Policy Makers
- Meeting with Parliamentary Committee on Population, Family Planning, Health and Social Affairs
- Meeting with female MPs
- Training for the advisors of women MPs
- Needs-assessment meetings with mayors
- Participation of MPs, State Minister and her advisors in local media seminars
Target Group 2 - Media
- A media advisory committee was established
Panel discussions and conferences :
- § The policies of gender equality and the role of the media
- Trafficking
- Reproductive health and gender
- Social responsibilities of the media
- Reproductive Health, the status of women; population/development issues
Training Sessions :
- Media training for the staff of General Directorate for Status of Women
- Local Media Seminars
Activities with future media professionals and young journalists:
- A Young advertisers’ competition - for students to design publicity campaigns on the subject Stopping Early Marriages and Early Motherhood. This was co-organised by the International Advertisement Association with financial support from UNFPA Turkey
- Young journalists' award
Advocacy through media:
- Reaching the public through TV on special UN days
- Reaching public through TRT regional radio broadcasts.
- Reaching the public by means of newspapers including both news items and "op ed" pieces.
- A goodwill ambassador, Ms Demet Akbag, was chosen to advocate for UNFPA activities.
A wide range of advocacy materials were produced, printed and distributed:
- Communicating Family Planning Booklet
- Trafficking Meeting Reports (2002 and 2003)
- Reproductive Healty/Gender Equality Book
- Population, Reproductive Health and the Millenium Development Goals
- 4320/ Family Protection Law
- New Civil Code Booklet
- GDWS booklet General Directorate for Women’s Status
- UNFPA Booklet
- Women`s Almanac of Turkey (CD)
- Young Journalists` Award Booklet
- Different kinds of promotional material were produced and distributed
- Different BCC (Behavior Change Communication) What is this ?materials were produced for special UN days
Media campaign
UNFPA also started a media campaign to Stop Violence Against Women in Turkey under the Advocacy Sub-programme
Violence against women (VAW) is a worldwide problem and it takes several forms in Turkey. It is a violation of basic human rights and as such is a significant obstacle to the achievement of social stability and Turkey’s sustainable development. UNFPA decided to tackle VAW with an awareness-raising media campaign which was led by the General Directorate of Women’s Status.
The campaign was supported by UNFPA both financially and technically and was launched on November 24, 2004. The State Minister Guldal Aksit, UNFPA Representative Anne-Birgitte Albrectsen, UNFPA local Goodwill Ambassador Demet Akbag and the President of the Turkish Football Federation delivered speeches on the importance of the issue.
This campaign was the first step in a long-term programme on violence against women in Turkey. A short publicity film was produced for the campaign with the support of three celebrities and a football star. The film was broadcast between the 24th of November and 7th of December on 15 national TV channels. As well as the film, a poster, pins, badges, stationery, banners and T-shirts were produced for the campaign.
The Turkish Football Federation ensured that all the teams of the Super League wore T-shirts bearing the campaign logo and carried banners saying “Stop Violence against Women” during the football matches played on three days in December. A dedicated football television channel, League TV, also gave information about the campaign and used the campaign logo during the matches and at half time.
In addition, on November 26, before Friday Prayers in all mosques across Turkey, all religious leaders (imams) delivered a speech, prepared by UNFPA, on stopping violence against women and women rights.
The campaign received extensive media coverage. Between November 24 and December 7 news about the UNFPA-supported campaign was broadcast in 53 programmes on various state and private TV channels, receiving a total of just under four hours of air time.
Target Group 3: NGOs and government agencies
-Training sessions were held to promote capacity-building among NGOs
Who are our partners?
- State Ministry, General Directorate for Status of Women
- Turkish Journalists’ Federation
- Local Journalist Associations
- Ankara, Anadolu, Istanbul, Hacettepe, and Kocaeli Universities
- International Advertising Association (IAA)
- Turkish Family Health and Planning Foundation
- Turkish Family Health and Planning Associations
- Turkish Football Federation
- KA-DER Ankara Branch
- TRT Radio
How will Turkey benefit?
This sub-programme is designed to assist Turkey in :
- Advocating for the mobilisation of human and financial resources
- Building coalitions and networks among government bodies, international organisations, NGOs and private sector to reduce RH / gender disparities
- Advancing the status of women
- Combatting violence against women
In the long-term, the networks and coalitions established within this project will create an infrastructure for further activities for the development of Turkey, since equal rights and status for women is an essential component of that development. Violence against women is a significant obstacle which prevents women enjoying their basic human rights. Thanks to the government-led campaign, which will become a national one supported by comprehensive training programmes, women in Turkey will become more aware of their rights. Others who have a role to play in tackling the issue of violence against women such as police, prosecutors, social workers, municipalities etc will also increase their awareness of their duty to protect women and provide the infrastructure and services to help them.
Contact Details:
Meltem Agduk: meltem.agduk@un.org.tr
Aysegül Özdener: aysegul.ozdener@un.org.tr
Leyla Coskun: leyla.coskun@ksgm.gov.tr
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