Minister blasts UNDP for underrating Turkey’s rank

ERDEM GÜNEŞ ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

The Family and Social Policies Minister Fatma Şahin says the UNDP reports do not show Turkey’s progress, despite the country’s efforts on development. AA photo

The Family and Social Policies Minister Fatma Şahin has criticized the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), saying that the UNDP reports do not shed a suitably favorable light on Turkey, despite the country’s vigorous efforts on sustainable development and humanitarian progress.

“My professional origin is in engineering, therefore I give importance to seeing the progress in numbers. But we see that Turkey’s ranking in the UN reports remains the same despite the real situation. Turkey has shown effort on matters such as positive discrimination for women and disabled people, but UNDP’s reports still underrate Turkey,” Şahin said on March 23 in Istanbul. 

Speaking at a forum on sustainability and equity called the Global Human Development Forum, Şahin suggested that the UNDP ought to find solutions for motivating Turkey and developing countries to set their goals.

“Turkey is racing to becoming the 16th biggest economy in the world but on the human development index it remains in the same place. This is not right, and furthermore it demoralizes us,” she said.
Şahin also added that the government’s main goal was to enhance the people’s quality of life. “Not only in Turkey, but also in countries which are in need of humanitarian aid like Pakistan, Afghanistan and Somalia, we are trying to find solutions to people’s problems,” Şahin said.

Turkey was ranked 92nd out of 187 countries in the United Nations’ Human Development Index 2011 Rankings.