Management Response

: Turkey
: 2022 - 2025 , Turkey (CO)
: Final Evaluation of Advancing Gender Equality and Women’s Leadership in Politics and Business Life
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Turkey

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UN Women Türkiye welcomes the independent final evaluation of the project “Advancing gender equality and women’s leadership in political and business life (Women Lead)”, which was implemented with the financial contribution of the Government of Sweden through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). The project had an overall objective to advance women’s leadership and participation in decision-making in Türkiye by focusing on key stakeholders and actors in the fields of politics and private sector. Two sub-objectives of the project were: i. Providing support for increasing women’s leadership in political decision-making, establishing a cadre of interested, diverse and capable women to run for political office at local level, increasing solidarity and gender equality awareness among women from different political affiliations and with women from outside government, advancing the national and policy legal framework, strengthening gender-sensitive governance at the local level. ii. Promoting women’s leadership and influence in the private sector, strengthen the engagement of men political and corporate leaders in advancing gender equality, work with media current and future professional and media outlets to advance non-stereotypical portrayal of women in media as political and business leaders and to practice gender-sensitive practices internally and externally. The final evaluation of Women Lead Project confirms that the project was highly relevant, effective, and efficiently implemented, strengthening institutional capacities, expanding women’s leadership opportunities in political and economic life, and increasing awareness of gender equality among key stakeholders. The evaluation also identifies critical areas for strengthened focus, notably sustainability and ownership, enhanced stakeholder coordination, stronger monitoring and follow-up, deeper male engagement, and consolidation of fragmented activities to maximize long-term impact. UN Women accepts these findings and is integrating them into forward planning under the Strategic Note 2026–2030 in addition to fine-tuning the project design, scaling up the good practices and considering the lessons learned for the development of the new project documents.

: Approved
Recommendation: UN Women should continue and reinforce its support to women’s political participation in Türkiye.
Management Response: UN Women accepts the recommendation and the suggested specific actions. UN Women in Türkiye will prioritize working in the field of women's political participation. However, as the only UN agency working with the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye, UN Women Türkiye CO will not only work to support women's participation into local politics but also to support strengthening women's leadership at national politics. CO will focus on mobilizing resources for the key actions.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Governance and participation in public life
Operating Principles: Oversight/governance, Advocacy, Resource mobilization
Organizational Priorities: Normative Support, Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness, Sustainability
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Strengthening the capacities of local political actors on GEWE and creation of conducive environment for women from diverse backgrounds at local level Programme Manager 2030/12 Not Initiated Resource mobilization efforts are ongoing.
Supporting the Committee on Equal Opportunity for Women and Men of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye (EOC) in implementing and monitoring the normative framework, including advocacy for gender responsive legislation and policy framework aligned with international norms and their participation to intergovernmental processes Programme Manager 2030/12 Initiated In 2025, through the Women in Politics Fund of the UN Women HQ and the funding by Sweden to the CO SN the actions will be implemented. However, for 2026 and beyond resource mobilization efforts are ongoing.
Recommendation: UN Women should continue supporting the private sector in promoting women’s leadership in business, leveraging on the project’s track record of successful activities, including the HeForShe campaign.
Management Response: Private sector is and will be treated as an influential actor to drive for change in terms of gender equality in the world of business. WEPs will be utilized as a tool to promote gender equality in the world of work and the experience and lessons learnt within the Women Lead project will utilized while engaging with the private sector. However, setting up an independent consultation mechanism is more of a systemic approach beyond the initiative of the UN Women CO.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Partially Accepted
Thematic Area: Governance and participation in public life
Operating Principles: Advocacy
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness, Sustainability
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Supporting private sector entities through knowledge sharing, capacity building, awareness raising etc. to change policies, practices and behaviours in line with the Women's Empowerment Principles. Programme Manager 2030/12 Initiated In 2025, through the funding by Sweden to the CO SN the action will be implemented. However, for 2026 and beyond resource mobilization efforts are ongoing.
Recommendation: In the next phase of the project, a networking mechanism should be established where stakeholders from different components of the project can regularly gather together, preferably face to face, sharing experiences, best practices, problems, and related solutions, and promoting mutual learning processes and synergies to improve participation, visibility, and dissemination.
Management Response: The current phase of the Women Lead Project already has a project advisory board to bring together diverse stakeholders relevant to the outcomes of the project. However, UN Women Türkiye CO will ensure a richer diversity of participants and the establishment of a virtual networking mechanism including UN Women staff.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Governance and participation in public life
Operating Principles: Advocacy, Knowledge management
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Efficiency
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Creating a virtual multi-stakeholder platform linking government, CSOs, private sector, media, academia, UN Women staff and other stakeholders that will be mapped in the inception of the project and holding regular learning and exchange forums with the platform. Programme Manager 2030/12 Not Initiated Resource mobilization efforts are ongoing for the comprehensive funding for the activities pertaining to women’s leadership in the UN Women Türkiye CO SN.
Recommendation: The sustainability of the project and its ownership by the stakeholders after UN Women’s involvement ends is crucial. The sustainability aspect should be considered and ensured starting from the early phases of the project and throughout the implementation.
Management Response: UN Women Türkiye CO partially accepts this recommendation and will try to make sure sustainability and increased ownership by the stakeholders will be embedded in a more systematic way.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Governance and participation in public life
Operating Principles: Capacity development
Organizational Priorities: Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Sustainability
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Introducing well-designed sustainability strategy at design stage Programme Manager M&E Analyst 2030/12 Not Initiated Resource mobilization efforts are ongoing for the comprehensive and long term funding for the activities pertaining to women’s leadership in the UN Women Türkiye CO SN.
Improving the reporting system of the project by collecting the contributions of stakeholders and partners (if any) from them Programme Manager M&E Analyst 2030/12 Not Initiated Resource mobilization efforts are ongoing for the comprehensive and long term funding for the activities pertaining to women’s leadership in the UN Women Türkiye CO SN.
Recommendation: Since long-term impacts of small-scale projects can be limited, UN Women should design policy-oriented projects to ensure high-impact, which will make an imprint of the organization on gender equality and human rights in Türkiye.
Management Response: UN Women Türkiye CO works in a harmonized way to achieve the targets set for in the SN of the Office. The projects are implemented in synergy. More efforts will be taken to include youth into the work of UN Women Türkiye CO.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Governance and participation in public life
Operating Principles: Resource mobilization
Organizational Priorities: Partnership, Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Impact
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Designing a more policy-oriented, high-impact initiatives focusing on systemic change in line with the international and national commitments. Country Director 2030/12 Initiated UN Women Türkiye CO SN for 2026 – 2030 will be on higher impact and integrated initiatives.
Engaging youth in the initiatives of UN Women Türkiye based on the youth strategy of the office Country Director UN Women Türkiye staff 2030/12 Initiated The Youth Strategy will be developed in line with the SN for 2026 - 2030 of UN Women Türkiye CO.
Recommendation: UN Women should leverage on its recognized comparative advantage in designing and implementing projects / programmes / advocacy activities aiming to advance GEWE in Türkiye. The organization should capitalize on its capacity and know-how, facilitate the participation of stakeholders from all sections of society, and further strengthen its influence on the policy-making processes.
Management Response: Influencing policy-making processes, playing a leading role in advocacy efforts for GEWE are at the core of UN Women Türkiye's work. The office is ready to leverage this work by creating enabling spaces for networking and making an influence on the responsible actors.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Advocacy
Organizational Priorities: Partnership, Normative Support
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Expanding evidence-based advocacy through conducting research and studies Country Director Programme Managers 2030/12 Initiated
Participating in the development of GEWE related national policies/plans Country Director Programme Managers 2030/12 Initiated
Recommendation: UN Women should increase efforts to include all relevant stakeholders while pursuing the objective of promoting gender equality.
Management Response: UN Women Türkiye agrees on the importance of inclusive engagement and appreciates the recommendation’s emphasis on men, youth, and innovation. The Country Office would like to underline that male engagement has been an integral component of programme implementation, including work with the Parliamentary Equal Opportunities Committee, local authorities, private-sector leaders, and media actors. Building on this foundation, UN Women will continue to pursue and strengthen targeted engagement of men and youth, particularly in decision-making spaces.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Partially Accepted
Thematic Area: Governance and participation in public life
Operating Principles: Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind
Organizational Priorities: Partnership, Operational activities, Engaging men and boys
UNEG Criteria: Efficiency, Relevance
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Working with male politicians to position them as transformative agents for GEWE Programme Manager 2030/12 Not Initiated Resource mobilization efforts are ongoing for the comprehensive and long term funding for the activities pertaining to women’s leadership in the UN Women Türkiye CO SN.
Increasing the engagement of youth in the initiatives of UN Women Türkiye Country Director UN Women Türkiye staff 2030/12 Initiated The Youth Strategy will be developed in line with the SN for 2026 - 2030 of UN Women Türkiye CO.
Recommendation: UN Women should adapt to new trends and innovative technologies to reach a broader audience. Expanding media partnerships to engage a wider range of platforms and integrate digital components across projects can increase awareness on new forms of violence and discrimination (i.e. digital violence) and enhance dissemination across different stakeholders.
Management Response: UN Women should adapt to new trends and innovative technologies to reach a broader audience. Expanding media partnerships to engage a wider range of platforms and integrate digital components across projects can increase awareness on new forms of violence and discrimination (i.e. digital violence) and enhance dissemination across different stakeholders.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Leadership and participation in governance systems (SP 2018-2021)
Operating Principles: Innovation and technology
Organizational Priorities: Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Adapting to innovation and digitalization by scaling up the digital advocacy, addressing technology facilitated violence against women and girls, expanding media partnerships. Communications Team Programme Managers 2030/12 Initiated