Sabancı, UN join forces for women

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Chairperson of the Sabancı Foundation Board of Trustees Güler Sabancı attends a meeting in Ankara for launching a joint program with the UN. AA photo

The United Nations and the Sabancı Foundation have joined forces to promote the human rights of women in Turkey through the launching of a program that aims to empower women at a local level.

The United Nations Joint Program to Promote the Human Rights of Women (UNJP) was launched on March 1 at a meeting in Ankara with the participation of Interior Minister Muammer Güler, Family and Social Policies Minister Fatma Şahin, Chairperson of the Sabancı Foundation Board of Trustees Güler Sabancı and UN Resident Coordinator Shahid Najam. At the launch, the UNJP-Sabancı Foundation Grant Program was also unveiled.

The UNJP will be run in 11 cities, including Aydın, Çanakkale, Edirne, Erzincan, Eskişehir, Gaziantep, Kahramanmaraş, Kastamonu, Kayseri, Kocaeli and Ordu in a joint program by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), UNWOMEN and Sabancı University. The Sabancı Foundation will be the main sponsor of the program, which will be carried out in cooperation with the Interior Ministry, National Education Ministry and Family and Social Policies Ministry, as well as the Union of Municipalities of Turkey.

“The UNJP seeks to enhance the implementation of pledges made to empower women and to promote the human rights of women by increasing the capacities of local governments. The UNJP focuses on three main areas. They include gender mainstreaming in budgeting, increasing cooperation among local governments, NGOs and universities and purple certificate program to enhance awareness among high school teachers in gender equality,” the U.N. said in a press release.

Program cities have been determined according to certain criteria. The first being the willingness of the local government and the second being cities that did not already take part in any U.N. or Sabancı Foundation program.