Turkey: Towards a green jobs strategy

In Turkey, the ILO project "Decent Work in a Green Economy" focused on the employment aspects of national efforts to a transition to a green economy.

The “Project Decent Work in the Green Economy”, funded by the Flemish Government, aimed at contributing to the creation of green jobs for women and men as a means to poverty reduction and social inclusion through the strengthening of national green economy initiatives. Its objective was to improve the ability of governments and social partners to assess the scope for green jobs and to formulate, monitor and review relevant gender sensitive strategies, policies and programmes.

Project activities initiated with a first national workshop on green jobs, held from 24 to 26 June in Ankara 2013. This capacity building event targeted government, workers’ and employers’ representatives and introduced the concept of green and decent jobs and ILO’s green jobs development strategies. This included a focus on green entrepreneurship and green enterprises, skills development, social dialogue and sector strategies. The workshop concluded with a discussion about policy options and possible core elements of a green jobs strategy for Turkey. The outcomes of the workshop were taken up and further developed by the National Task Force on Decent Work in the Green Economy created under the framework of the project.

A study was undertaken nationally to document the experiences of enterprises in going green and the employment implications. The report “Decent Work in the Green Economy. Business Cases from Turkey” presents the various case studies and aims to shed light to policy makers on the role of enterprises in the green economy transition process so that the necessary policy framework can be put in place accordingly.

This qualitative analysis was presented at the “Turkey Green Jobs Conference” on 26 march 2015, which concluded the project. This event provided a forum to discuss the way forward for Turkey in transitioning towards a green economy with roundtable discussions on the themes: “promoting decent work in transition to a greener economy” and “greening enterprises and workplaces in Turkey” were undertaken.