Under the “More and Better Jobs for Women Programme” implemented by the International Labour Organization (ILO) Office for Turkey with funding from Sweden, Programme Advisory Committee held its second meeting online on 16 December 2021 to exchange views and monitor work progress during 2021.

Attended by the representatives of beneficiary or cooperating institutions of the projects implemented under the programme, academicians, NGOs and other UN agencies as well as the officials from the Embassy of Sweden at Ankara, the meeting was held to exchange views and experience on the activities undertaken in 2021, elicit suggestions of the Committee members, and ensure that the Programme would be implemented and monitored effectively.

“Monitoring and cooperation are important”

Expressing their views and recommendations at the meeting, the participants provided information on the activities undertaken in their institutions towards the Programme objectives, and noted the importance of and their readiness for cooperation in the context of the Programme.

The participants also highlighted the importance of monitoring and assessing the impact of the ongoing awareness-raising and advocacy campaign on domestic workers, and offered contributions and recommendations to further promote the ongoing work on enhancing ILO Academy, the digital training platform of the ILO Office for Turkey, combating violence and harassment at work, domestic workers, child care.

Mr. Numan Özcan, Director of the ILO Office for Turkey said: “All views and recommendations highlight the importance of coordinated work to achieve the Programme objectives and integrating all such recommendations into the Programme agenda.”

Advisory Committee is an indicator of social dialogue

Delivering the opening remarks for the meeting, Mr. Özcan stated that “The Programme Advisory Committee, intended as a monitoring mechanism for “More and Better Jobs for Women Programme” is an embodiment of our policy development approach based on social dialogue.”

Noting that ILO works to achieve the goal of decent work for all, Mr. Özcan indicated that the progress was slow towards preventing gender discrimination and achieving gender equality at work despite the noteworthy progress on fair wages, access to social protection and labour association in the world.

“It is obvious that more women working in better conditions contribute to achieving international goals in development, sustainability and human rights, to increasing the living standards of women, men, households and societies, and to building strong economies.”

“Gender equality should be addressed as a priority policy”

Mr. Özcan further said that “To build a fairer and better future, improving gender equality both at work and in society must be addressed as a priority policy. More to the point, for a better future for all, it is necessary to take urgent steps to increase investments in the care economy, develop policies towards building work-life harmony for all workers, increase women’s participations in decision-making mechanisms at all levels, promote social protection for all, and eliminate gender wage gap and violence and harassment in the world of work.”

Ms. Malin Stawe, Counsellor, Embassy of Sweden in Turkey, said at the meeting that “We, as Sweden, believe that women’s active and equal participation in the labour force will contribute to economic development. This is also an important dimension of gender equality, a requirement for democracy, and a fundamental human right.”

“Social dialogue is the greatest success of the Programme”

Thanking the ILO Office for Turkey, and cooperating public institutions as well as the private sector, workers’ and employers’ organizations and representatives for their support in the Programme, Ms. Stawe noted that they appreciated the contribution by the Turkish Employment Agency (ISKUR) to implementing and monitoring the Action Plan on Women's Employment, and by the public institutions to maintaining the social dialogue mechanisms between the private sector and trade unions.

Ms. Stawe also stated that they highly valued the work undertaken by trade unions and confederations to promote ILO’s Violence and Harassment Convention, 2019 (No. 190) to prevent violence and harassment at work, and particularly emphasized the pioneering work by Karsan, the domestic vehicle manufacturer of Turkey, in the private sector to achieve gender equality at work.

“The most important aspect of the work under the ‘More and Better Jobs for Women Programme’ is its ability to bring together all parties in this tripartite mechanism to operate ILO’s social dialogue process and achieve the Programme objectives in line with ILO’s tripartite structure.”

“EOC is doing many studies on women’s employment”

Speaking at the meeting, Ms. Fatma Aksal, Chairperson of the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) of the Turkish Grand National Assembly, noted that EOC has been undertaking many studies such as reducing the burden of care work on women, building work-life harmony, empowering rural women, women’s entrepreneurship, encouraging girls to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) so that women can participate in larger numbers in the world of work.

“Women’s participation in social and economic life is of utmost importance for social and economic development.”

“It is because women’s employment means the prosperity and well-being of a society. Women’s employment has more than its monetary and economic dimension; indeed, economic reasons also underlie several other issues such as violence against women. Therefore, women’s employment is highly important for resolving many problems.”

“Programme aims decent work for women”

Ms. Ebru Özberk Anlı, Senior Programme Officer at the ILO Office for Turkey, stated that the “More and Better Jobs for Women Programme” aimed that women would work in decent jobs and conditions, and provided information on the work already undertaken and planned future actions.

Ms. Anlı said they engaged in various awareness-raising and advocacy work in many areas including decent work for domestic workers who are mostly women, achieving equal pay for work of equal value, building work-life harmony, combating violence and harassment at work.