UN Women in Türkiye conducted a workshop on men and boys’ engagement in gender equality for the senior officials of Adana Metropolitan Municipality. Located in the mid-south part of Türkiye, Adana is one of the largest provinces of the country with around 1.8 million habitants, and one of the pilot cities for the implementation of UN Women’s programmes in the country.

Working for the empowerment of women in Adana, a southern province of Türkiye, the Housewives Solidarity and Development Association (EVKAD) is such a CSO that benefits from a ‘small grant’ provided by UN Women. Now EVKAD can reach and empower more women than ever before, thanks to its improved technical, digital, and institutional capacity.

Huriye Göncüoğlu Bodur attended the Regional Forum on Sustainable Development convened by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) in Geneva on 6–7 April 2022. Bodur’s work contributes to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14 Life Below Water, which aims to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development. Her work also relates to SDG 5 on achieving gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls.

Well implemented gender-responsive budgeting means women, men, girls and boys are able to enjoy equal rights, services and opportunities. This is achieved through committed and systematic consideration of different and evolving needs and priorities of individuals in society. UN Women Turkey delivered a two-day seminar in Bolu, north-western Turkey, on gender-responsive planning and budgeting to senior members of the Ministry of Family and Social Services, as well as the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey Presidency of Strategy and Budgeting, aiming to build the knowledge and skills of senior government officials in this area.

Özlem Altıparmak is a lawyer based in Izmir, a western province of Turkey. She is an activist working in the fields of human rights, gender equality, climate change, and environmental protection for almost 20 years in Turkey. She is the legal advisor of Doga (Nature) Association, a grassroots organization defending the rights of nature and taking action to sustain biodiversity. She attended the Regional Forum on Sustainable Development in April 2022 held in Geneva with the support of UN Women Turkey, which she describes as a critical milestone in her activism.

Nilgun Binışık has been the principal of the Fenerbahce College’s Primary School and Kindergarten for four years. After participating in gender equality seminars organized by UN Women under the HeForShe movement – Fenerbahce Sports Club collaboration, she was inspired to become a change leader for gender equality and raise awareness about the issue among young people. Under the leadership of change leaders including Nilgün Binışık , a Gender Equality Education Programme was launched at Fenerbahce College, to spread a culture of equality in the school and beyond.

Ayşegül Küçükafacan is the founder of the Sil Baştan (Start from Scratch) Association for Combatting Violence Against Women and Child Abuse in Balikesir, a city in northwestern Turkey. Due to financial difficulties, she was about to close the association, however a small grant provided by UN Women under the Strong Civic Space for Gender Equality project funded by the European Union, changed the course of things for Küçükafacan. Now, her association continues to combat violence and abuse against women and girls and support those who are subjected to violence.

UN Women will provide needs-based and demand-driven technical and logistical support to existing and aspiring networks and platforms, and individual members or affiliates of women’s civil society organizations (CSOs) and women’s rights advocates in order to advance gender equality, women’s empowerment and the overall women’s rights agenda. UN Women invites eligible organizations and individuals to submit their requests for technical and logistical support, to finance a limited range of eligible activities as elaborated in this announcement.

UN Women Turkey invites women’s rights/women-led civil society organizations (CSOs) and other relevant rights-based CSOs legally registered and operating in Turkey to submit project proposals under this Call for Proposals within the framework of the “Strengthening civil society capacities and multi-stakeholder partnerships to advance women’s rights and gender equality in Turkey” (short name- ‘Strong Civic Space for Gender Equality’) project.

UN Women recently organized workshops in Izmir and Adana, cities in western and southern Turkey, for male participants to help them understand traditional masculinities and discuss men and boys’ engagement for achieving gender equality.

On International Women’s Day this year, UN Women announced famous Turkish actor Demet Evgar as its first National Goodwill Ambassador in Turkey. Advocating for women’s rights and gender equality, Demet Evgar has been using the power of her art to bring diverse stories of women into to the limelight. She recently kicked-off the #IamaWoman Campaign together with UN Women. Evgar will also work with UN Women to showcase the invisible stories of women.

Kadem Doğan is a board member of the Freedom and Equality for Women Association based in Adana, a city in southern Turkey. Born in a village in south-eastern Turkey, Kadem started to question the inequalities in society at a young age when she realized the heavy care and domestic work burden carried by the women in her village. Doğan secured a small grant for her Association through the “Strong Civic Space for Gender Equality” project, which is implemented by UN Women with financial support from the European Union. This support helps her strengthen the capacity of her Association in the fight against gender inequalities.

Besides being an actor, Demet Evgar is a strong defender of women's rights and gender equality who advocates through her TV series and movies. The announcement of Evgar as UN Women Turkeys’ first National Goodwill Ambassador was made at a launch event in Istanbul, gathering officials, media, civil society and youth on 7 March.

A combination of different fears mean many Syrian families are hesitant to send their girls to higher education institutions. Most commonly these fears are language barriers, economic challenges and social norms. Sisters Rama and Ariç Mohamad have overcome all obstacles and attended university. Now they have become a symbol of persistence in challenging social norms and lead their peers on the way to empowerment.

Strengthening Women’s Access to Justice Project, implemented by UN Women and the Ministry of Justice of Turkey, aims to improve women’s access to justice and ensure more effective implementation of the laws on elimination of violence against women.

UN Women in Turkey plans to award several Small Grants to eligible civil society organizations (CSOs) in the range of USD 2,500 to USD 30,000. Small Grants are intended exclusively to finance a limited range of eligible activities to support the development or strengthening of women’s CSOs and women-led CSOs’ institutional capacities. UN Women invites eligible applicants to submit Small Grants applications for the eligible activities, as elaborated in this advertisement.

UN Women held a two-day seminar from 18–20 February for the Members of Parliament (MPs) of the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA) Planning and Budgeting Committee. Organized in Afyon, in western Turkey, the seminar focused on gender-responsive planning and budgeting as well as promoting women's empowerment in Turkey.

Known as a pro-feminist and an advocate for gender equality, the famous actor Kerem Bürsin became the first National Advocate of the HeForShe Movement in Turkey. UN Women’s solidarity movement HeForShe offers an innovative and inclusive approach to mobilizing men as partners with women in challenging gender inequalities. 

Katarina Ponjavić is a final-year student of Dental Medicine at the Faculty of Dentistry in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. This young aspiring surgeon invented a device for medical and infectious waste disposal that received international patent protection from the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva.

Nino Enukidze, the rector of Business and Technology University, is 35 years old. With her direct participation, the university became a signatory to the UN Women’s Empowerment Principles in 2019, and to support the involvement of girls in technology, she launched the initiative “Coding School for Women”. With its support, more than 2,500 girls have been trained in technological professions, with 75 per cent of them employed in the industry.