In 2007, after the General Elections, the number of women in Turkey’s Parliament doubled from 24 to 50 women, reaching about 9% out of the 550 seats in Parliament. This positive achievement is however still short of the 17% target that the country has committed itself in its 2005 MDG Report and it is very far away from the 30% committed through the ratification of CEDAW Convention back in 1986. As for the case of Turkey women’s participation in local governments, the challenge at the municipal level is even more daunting, with a female representation in elected offices of only 2%. Women should be natural partners of local administrators, and should be consulted for the planning and the management processes for the service delivery at the local level. The demand of women for equal representation in these decision making mechanisms is a constitutional right, an integral part of all good governance democracy. Even though many local decisions on housing, security, transport, education and health directly affect women, the policies planning, traditionally, has been handled by men in Turkey. In such planning, the needs of women, and therefore the needs of women and the family members are not generally considered. As an example of this, the insufficient lighting on streets, insufficient public transportation, and poor safety of the vehicles are barriers to women enjoying their basic rights to life. Furthermore, shelters where women can resort when they are subjected to violence, and hotlines through which they can contact authorities are elements that city planning should not ignore. Women constitute one of the groups, least enjoying the cultural, sports and recreation facilities of the cities. Therefore, instead of asking ourselves if women are incorporating gender perspective in the local planning, politics and policies, the strategy is to directly build awareness and sensitivize local authorities in order to promote gender perspective and consider specific women’s needs in the local planning and work at the same time promoting women’s participation in local politics and decision making mechanisms. The first goal is currently being promoted through the United Nations Joint Programme to Protect and Promote the Human Rights of Women and Girls (UNJP) that has as main objective the creation of "women-friendly" cities. As for concrete objectives, the UNJP, through the "women-friendly" cities pursues: To create an environment (plans, programs, policies, legislation) facilitating the protection and promotion of the rights of women and girls; to build capacity in local governments to design and provide quality services to women and girls; to empower non-governmental organizations to advocate gender equality, interact effectively with relevant agencies and organizations, and strengthen positions of women and girls and to raise awareness in public for the rights of women and girls. UNJP is being implemented in the six cities of Turkey (Izmir,Kars,Nevşehir, Şanlıurfa,Trabzon and Van) from different economic and social settings. As concrete outcomes on the process to achievement of the “Women’s Friendly Cities” category we can highlight the following results in a chronological way: 1. Awareness building and gender sensitization for local government officials and women NGOs on gender equality and women friendly local services with more than 500 beneficiaries. 2. Elaboration by those beneficiaries of Local Equality Action Plans (LEAPs) that were consequently approved by Local Assemblies. 3. Based on the (LEAPs) establishment of Gender Equality Commissions in the Municipal and Provincial Assemblies. 4. Integration of gender budgeting in local plans and policies. 5. Empowerment and Network promotion of NGOS and Civil Society Organization. Creation of Networks as e-groups to provide a platform to exchange knowledge and to collaborate. The e-group has 130 members. 6. Partnership building for public administration and civil society. 7. Gender Unit Creation as the Coordinating Body for Gender Equality Promotion at the decentralized level. It serves as well as the Secretary of Gender Equality Commissions of local assemblies and provides direct support to women’s who apply for its services. 8. Creation of Provincial Coordination Committee on Gender Equality as the Provincial Coordinating Body. 9. Agreement on Women’s Friendly City Certificate criteria (still being debated). As a parallel permanent activity, the private sector support has been integrated in the process. In this line, Sabancı University (funded through Sabanci Foundation) has held a series of training for high school teachers. 823 high school teachers participated to this programme while 51 held their certificates. Sabancı Foundation also launched a grant programme which aims at supporting the implementation of local equality action plans. After the two years of implementation 23 local grantees benefited from this programme. As for the second goal, in order to promote women’s participation in politics, UNDP Turkey has been working at the National and the local level for the General and municipal elections. Particulary for the 2007 General Elections, within the framework of the“Women in Politics” Project that served as pre-election project for greater political participation of women, the folowing results where achieved: • Establishment of the Women’s Coalition with representatives of women from different political backgrounds to engage them into a unified women’s movement. • Publication and disemination of a Public Perception Survey aimed at determining the public's approach to women's involvement in politics in Turkey. The Survey results showed that women’s issues can be decisive factors in 2007 General Elections especially for the political parties facing the risk of failing to surpass the election threshold. It can be said that, for the first time in Turkish electoral history, the issue of women’s representation issue has entered into the political agenda on the eve of 2007 elections. After the 2007 General Elections, the number of women in Turkey’s Parliament doubled from 24 to 50 women, reaching about 9% of the 550 seats in Parliament. As for increasing women’s participation in politics and decision making, a new project is currently being undertaken through capacity building trainings for potential women candidates with the participation of male counterparts, and awareness raising campaigns. At the current project, young women’s participation especially between the age of 25-30 are given importance, considering the legal change in Turkey which the age to stand for elections was brought down from 30 to 25. Another key component of the project is the key partnership established with media at the local and national level. Workshops with local media representatives at the local level will be conducted considering the media representatives as one of the key public opinion makers. I hope you find the above information useful. For more detailed information please consult the following web pages: http://www.protectingwomen.org/unjp/web/gozlem.aspx?sayfaNo=57 and http://www.undp.org.tr/Gozlem2.aspx?WebSayfaNo=1446 Sincerely, Orria Goni United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) / Turkey