More and Better Jobs for Women: Strengthening Women for Decent Work in Turkey

ILO-İŞKUR Joint Project

The project ²More and Better Jobs for Women: Women’s Empowerment through Decent Work in Turkey² has been jointly implemented by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Turkish Employment Agency (İŞKUR) with the financial contribution of Sweden through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).

Launched in March 2013 and completed in March 2018, the major beneficiary institution of the project is İŞKUR which provides employment services.

What Are The Objectives Of The Project?

The main objectives of the project include supporting the development of an inclusive and coherent policy at national level to promote women’s employment, creating decent work opportunities for women through active labour market policies (ALMPs) and building awareness in the fields of gender equality and labour standards.

Who Benefited From The Project?

The major target group of the project is unemployed women registered with İŞKUR. The project will give priority to unemployed women. Trainings in gender equality and labour standards that will be delivered to unemployed men and women registered with İŞKUR will be expanded as to cover employed men and women as well. Project beneficiaries will cover:

• 200 women registered with İŞKUR who will receive training on entrepreneurship
• 200 İŞKUR personnel including employment counselors with half of whom are women who will receive training on public employment services and employment counseling through gender mainstreaming perspective
• 2,000 unemployed women registered with İŞKUR who will attend the vocational training courses
• 200 women registered with İŞKUR who will receive training on basic life skills,
• At least 10,000 women registered with İŞKUR who will benefit from employment counseling service
• 2,500 women and men who will receive training on gender mainstreaming and rights to work
•  50 members of the Provincial Employment and Vocational Training Boards (PEVTBs)
• 750 working people with half of them are women who will benefit from

Besides İŞKUR, PEVTBs in project provinces are also project beneficiaries. Further, local administrations, private sector representatives, women’s organizations and organizations of workers and employers will both benefit from the project and contribute to the policies and programs to be developed and implemented as part of the project.

Which Provinces Were Selected For The Project?

Along with the local activities, the policies and activities to be implemented at national level will be carried out in the pilot provinces of Ankara, Bursa, İstanbul and Konya.

Our Stakeholders?

The success of coherent policies at national level geared to promoting women’s employment depends on the participation of all relevant actors to the process. Hence, activities are planned to ensure the active participation of relevant organizations and agencies to all project activities envisaged.

Our Stakeholders: 

• Ministry for the Family and Social Policies
• Municipalities
• Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology
• Provincial Directorates of Labour and Employment Agency
• Ministry of Labour and Social Security
• DİSK (Confederation of Revolutionary Workers’ Union)
• Ministry of Economy
• HAK-İŞ (Confederation of Turkish Real Trade Unions)
• PEVTBs (Provincial Employment and Vocational Training Boards)
• Women’s NGOs
• Development Agencies
• Ministry of Development
• KOSGEB (Small and Medium Enterprises Development Organization)
• Professional organizations and related civil society organizations
• Vocational Qualifications Authority
• Ministry of National Education
• Directorates of Organized Industrial Zones (OIZ)
• Social Security Agency (SGK)
• Parliamentary (TBMM) Commission on Equal Opportunities for Men and Women
• Turkish Confederation of Employer Associations (TİSK)
• The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB)
• Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions (Türk-İş)
• Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK)
• Universities
• Governorates

 Outcomes Of The Project? 

• At national level, a National Action Plan on Women’s Employment and Gender Equality will be prepared.
• Development of women’s employment policies sensitive to gender equality.
• Further effective implementation of active labour market policies to be developed for women at local level through İŞKUR and PEVTBs.
• Extending İŞKUR services to unemployed women with limited access to such services
• Creating decent work opportunities for women through better job matching
• Awareness building in the fields of gender equality and labour standards among men and women.

INFO NOTE_ENG