Welcome to the United Nations
TURKIYE HAS EMPHASIZED ITS COMMITMENT IN EVERY OCCASION TO CONTRIBUTE TO A SUSTAINABLE WORLD SINCE THE ADOPTION OF AGENDA 2030. DEMONSTRATING A STRONG OWNERSHIP, TURKIYE WAS AMONG THE FIRST 22 VNR PRESENTING COUNTRIES IN 2016.
Implementation of the Agenda has been started by linking SDGs with National Development Plans (NDPs) and sectoral strategies. Indeed, the concept of “sustainable development” has been embedded in the NDPs since 1996. This accumulated experience, along with strong infrastructure and institutional mechanisms provide a strong ground towards SDGs.
The Strategy and Budget Office under the Presidency, in charge of preparing NDPs, coordinated the 2019 VNR preparations. The process commenced with the highest-level political ownership, upon H.E. President Erdogan’s call on all government entities.
During the VNR, legislative and institutional framework, policies and projects were scrutinized through SDG lenses. Focus areas were identified for each SDG and targets examined systematically with a special attention to vulnerable groups. Additionally, practices that served the principle of “leaving no one behind” were elaborated under a separate heading.
The analysis reveals that most targets have been incorporated in policies, and legislation provides adequate framework for implementation. Considering policy, strategy and legislation, Turkiye stands at an advanced level, while there is room for improvement in practices and projects.
Significant progress was achieved in SDG1, SDG3, SDG6, SDG7, SDG9 and SDG11. More effort is required to address gaps in implementation, to increase quality of services, and to enhance financial and technical capacities.
Regarding monitoring, responsibilities were assigned to ministries for 218 SDG indicators and Sustainable Development Indicators Set comprised of 83 indicators was published in 2019. While the ratio of produced indicators is higher for SDG3, SDG7 and SDG9; further work is needed for SDG1, SDG2, SDG12, SDG13 and SDG14 indicators.
As a middle-income country, Turkiy has made progress in all three dimensions of sustainable development and taken fundamental steps in eradicating poverty, reducing inequalities and addressing the vulnerable. Based on a human-centered development approach and having a younger population, Turkiye has achieved remarkable progress in providing better quality, broader and more accessible public services, particularly for education and healthcare. Policies to reduce inter-regional infrastructural disparities and promote technological facilities across the country marked an inclusive development pathway.
Looking ahead, Turkiye will focus on maintaining the pace of progress, and improving the quality and effectiveness of services. With a special emphasis on “competitive production and efficiency”, high value-added production will be prioritized. On the basis of equity principle, efforts will be sustained to distribute increased prosperity among all segments of society. Improving R&D and innovation ecosystem, ensuring digital transformation and competitive production, strengthening human resources, logistics and other infrastructure required for those targets will be among Turkiye’s priorities towards 2030.
Turkiye promotes “leaving no one behind” principle both at home and abroad, and advocates raising the voice of developing countries in international decision-making mechanisms. As an emerging donor, Turkiye supports development efforts of developing countries. The establishment of the Technology Bank for Least Developed Countries as a UN entity in Turkiye in 2018 marked SDG17.8 as the first global target achieved.
In 2018, with its total ODA of 8.6 billion USD and ODA/GNI ratio of 1.10%, Turkiye was one of the few countries that fulfilled 0.7% ODA/GNI target. Our development assistance in 2014-2018 exceeded 38.7 billion USD, including 7.3 billion USD in NGO grants and private sector direct investments.
Ever willing to offer a helping hand to those in need, Turkiye has responded generously to the influx of Syrians since the onset of Syrian humanitarian crisis in 2011. Turkiye has granted temporary protection to these people. Hosting the largest refugee population in the world, Turkiye has spent more than 37 billion USD for the well-being of 3.6 million Syrians to date. They can access to public services equally as Turkish citizens, especially for their education, healthcare and humanitarian needs."
To achieve SDGs, ownership and engagement of all stakeholders including public and private sectors, local authorities, NGOs, academia and citizens are essential at all levels. Accordingly, during VNR preparations 2.962 representatives were consulted directly from government bodies, 312 NGOs, 2000 companies and 50 municipalities. Turkiye will continue to pursue its development efforts in an inclusive manner.
