Engage Turkey

GOAL —

To increase the strength of civil society and public participation through new approaches to development.

FUNDER —

UNDP & Turkish Ministry of Development

WHAT HAPPENED —

Turkey has always been a critical bridge between East and West, and never more so than today. Turkey had the highest growth rate in the world in 2011. It has the net 7^th highest number of people using Facebook, and with a population of 75 million, is a regional super power.

Across the Middle East Turkey is seen as a beacon of how to combine Islam, capitalism and democracy. Brought in by the UNDP, Osca has been helping with the ‘democratic’ element of this. In particular, Osca has been exploring how Turkey can deepen its democratic culture as it develops. This is clearly not a simple or short term project. This goal is further complicated by the extreme diversity across Turkish society; the spectrum ranges from a level of education comparable to any Western nation to 10% of society being illiterate.

Our approach to this has so far consisted of four elements:

1. An analysis of the state of engagement in the Turkish Development Agencies
2. Training Development Agency staff
3. Production of Engagement Guidelines for staff
4. Policy support for the Ministry of Development

Photo credit: Alper Çuğun