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?
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