UNDP Turkey continues to work on full speed to respond to drawbacks caused by pandemic and to increase Turkey's resilience through its Covid-19 Resilience and Response Project funded by Government of Japan.

The first step that accelerated the project was the signing of memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the UNDP and the Ministry of Industry and Technology, Directorate-General for Development Agencies to cooperate on Covid-19 response and resilience. UNDP Resident Representative Claudio Tomasi stated that it is not possible to attain sustainable development without acknowledging the risks, which go hand-in-hand with resilience. He also said that the Covid-19 is not just a health and humanitarian crisis, it’s a development crisis and rehearsal for possible crises we might face in the future. He underlined that what we can do better and what we will achieve in solidarity now, will be crucial in the mid and long-term on our main issues being the green economy, social protection, and digital economy.

UNDP's integrated response to Covid-19 crisis consists of both preparation, response, and recovery stages. In the first phase of the pandemic more importance was given to health systems. With this MoU six fragile sectors including tourism, automotive, machinery, textile, food, and logistics, which are most effected by Covid-19 crisis were identified to develop 35 region-based fragile sector analysis reports and guidelines to enhance these sectors’ resilience and adaptive capacities in all regions.

In addition to that experts for the development of new market analysis and region-based fragile sector analysis were mobilized and they already started working in collaboration to develop surveys and to analyze six fragile sectors based on their regional differences and to further validate with Development Agencies. The result of the analyses will provide a roadmap to support these sectors’ business continuity and prevent supply chain disruptions in the crises.

The project also helps Turkey perform an effective digital transformation to stimulate economic growth for the private sector and particularly for SMEs. 1,000 local SMEs will be provided for technical support and 30 SMEs operating in fragile sectors will be provided with one-to-one business advisory services.  The topics will include but not limited to digitalization and digital marketing, risk management, human capital, creating competitive advantage, data management, etc.

Within the project it was aimed to conduct capacity development activities for Development Agencies. The online trainings that address risk mitigation and post-disaster recovery policies and processes were started in the last week of November. The training will continue until mid-December and it is aimed to reach 150 people from Development Agencies.

Integrated and rapid response of UNDP on earthquake in İzmir

Covid-19 Resilience and Response Project has made great progress on its inclusive and integrated crisis management component. In the week following the earthquake İzmir, UNDP team was in the field and they conducted a field research in close cooperation with İzmir Development Agency (İZKA) to enable early response to the crisis.

UNDP team met with SMEs and marina sector in Sığacık and with the members of the Bar Association in Bayraklı region to assess the extent of damage and need for capacity development. More detailed damage reports and policy responses will be developed in consultation with İZKA.

The impact of Covid-19 on youth not in employment, education or training (NEET)

The Government of Japan funded Covid-19 Resilience and Response Project has a component of improving digital skills of youth not in employment, education or training (NEET) through digital programs and trainings.

Within the project, ILO and UNDP have united their forces for the assessment of the impact of Covid-19 on NEET youth and to ‘Build Back Better’, ultimately. The key findings of the report prepared by ILO will be validated and expanded within the scope of the cooperation through online workshops and the digital youth forum. The first online workshop on “Impact of Covid-19 on Youth” will be on 2^nd December.

In addition to that through Covid-19 Resilience and Response Project it is aimed to improve and upgrade the digital skills of 3,000 NEET youth through trainings and capacity building activities in cooperation with Ministry of Industry and Technology, Directorate-General for Development Agencies. The training modules and web site for the trainings were developed by Business for Goals (B4G) Platform. “Digital Skills Development Certificate Program”, which aims to reach NEET youth between 18-29 age will be on e-commerce, foreign trade and social media management in tourism, textile, logistics, food, machinery, and automotive sectors and will start in mid-December. The successful trainees will be provided with detailed trainings specific to private sector. 

Shifting productive capacities for the production of globally demanded PPEs

As part of the UNDP’s Covid-19 Resilience and Response project, Business for Goals (B4G) Platform will develop a guideline for PPE production, including standards and research on global market analysis. 10 SMEs will be provided with technical support and advisory services to invest in PPE production following the universal standards. While working on analysis and technical guidance to support SMEs, B4G Platform also started to work on raising awareness on what PPE is with a slogan of "If you don't have a mask/glove you're incomplete."

Development of digital capabilities of Syrian owned enterprises is part of Covid-19 Resilience and Response

To alleviate the negative impact of the pandemic on Syrian-owned enterprises operating in Turkey, UNDP has initiated the digitalization support including unlimited internet and cloud services, marketing support on starting e-commerce, online trainings on digital marketing and digital way of doing businesses and mini-recovery grant to cover their maintenance cost within the Government of Japan funded Covid-19 Resilience and Response project in June 2020. So far, over 100 enterprises have benefitted from the support, 17,5% of whom are led by women. For mini-recovery grant, UNDP focused on inclusiveness and achieved to reach 34 enterprises that are led by women and persons with impairment to support out of total 50 beneficiary enterprises for mini-recovery grant.