Ankara- Marking the fifth anniversary of their collaboration, UNDP and the Government of Turkey said they would broaden their collaboration in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, as well as in Least Developed Countries (LDCs) elsewhere.

The partners will look into scaling up and replicating existing efforts to promote the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Kosovo*, Uzbekistan, Georgia and Comoros, where they are supporting livelihoods, skills training and community resilience.

Bosnia-Herzegovina will be considered for the next phase and the parties discussed the possibility of working together in Africa’s LDCs.

Concluding the annual partnership dialogue, Ambassador Emre Yunt, Director-General of Multilateral Economic Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, called 2015 “a very fruitful year for the Turkey-UNDP partnership”.

In 2014, the Government of Turkey issued a USD 15 million parallel contribution to UNDP’s regional programme, boosting the UN agency’s efforts to promote inclusive growth, good governance, resilience, and to advance the SDGs.

The partners also discussed the Syrian crisis. UNDP has already started to support communities in Southeastern Anatolia as they cope with new influxes of refugees. Activities include helping municipalities to manage waste and boosting the skills of refugees and host communities.

Turkey has been playing an increasing role in international affairs and development. It held the presidency of the G20 in 2015 and will organize in May the first World Humanitarian Summit and host an important meeting on the Istanbul Programme of Action for Least Developed Countries.

UNDP has been present in Turkey since 1957, focusing on inclusive and sustainable growth, democratic governance, climate change and the environment.

* References to Kosovo shall be understood to be in the context of Security Council resolution 1244 (1999).