Achievements of €50 million EU-funded project include improved livelihoods and new waste management infrastructure for host municipalities

Ankara, 21 October 2021 – Concluding a four-year, €50 million joint programme at an event in Ankara today, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the European Union (EU) highlighted the importance of comprehensive and sustainable solutions in strengthening the economic and social resilience of Syrian refugees, host communities and national and local institutions in the regions of Türkiye most affected by the refugee influx. 

Under the “Turkey Resilience Project in Response to the Syria Crisis,” UNDP worked in 11 Turkish provinces to build skills and expand the employment of both Syrians and vulnerable host community members; strengthened municipal public services; and provided Turkish language and other skills training for displaced Syrians. The initiative was implemented in partnership with the Ministries of Industry and Technology and Education and İLBANK.

“Türkiye has shown praiseworthy hospitality in offering refuge to 3.7 million displaced Syrians, and their inclusion in national education and healthcare systems and the labor market sets a good example for other contexts,” said UNDP Resident Representative Louisa Vinton. “Our guiding principle has been to ensure that improving refugee livelihoods and living standards does not occur in isolation but rather contributes to the broader wellbeing of host communities.”

Project funding came from the EU MADAD trust fund, which allocated €2.4 billion for Türkiye. The EU later committed another €6 billion from its Facility for Refugees in Turkey (FRiT).

“Since 2014, the EU and its Member States have demonstrated a firm commitment to support Türkiye’s remarkable effort to bring relief and assistance to Syrians and the host population,” said Andre Lys, Head of Cooperation at the EU Delegation. “Türkiye and the EU have a fruitful cooperation under FRiT, with numerous projects focused on humanitarian assistance, education, migration management, health, municipal infrastructure and socio-economic support. UNDP’s important and impactful Turkey Resilience Project has made a real difference and helped to address issues which affect the lives of thousands of people. The results are quite impressive and need to be shared.”

The influx of Syrians put huge pressure on public services in host municipalities, particularly in waste management. The UNDP project helped ease this burden by constructing eight new facilities at a total cost of €20 million. The largest of these is a €9.2 million state-of-the-art self-powering mechanical-biological treatment facility that UNDP built in Gaziantep, with a capacity to process 100,000 tons of solid waste per year while generating new revenue streams for the municipality through the resale of recyclable materials and the production of biogas.

“Our infrastructure work not only increased municipal capacity in waste management,” said Vinton. “It did this by putting into practice the ‘green’ principles of the circular economy.”

“We are living through times when we transform the economy into ecology, human and environmental development come to the forefront, and sustainable development and zero waste projects are extremely valuable,” said Gaziantep Mayor Fatma Şahin. “This is an area where early on we achieved highly important results under the MADAD programme with UNDP."

A second component of the project focused on expanding employment opportunities for both Syrians and their peers in Turkish host communities. One €8 million initiative involved the creation of three “model factories” and three innovation centers in urban centers with large Syrian populations as a way of spurring entrepreneurship and enhancing productivity. In contrast to traditional skills training programmes, this effort applied a development approach to creating new jobs by improving the long-term competitiveness of private-sector businesses.

To help refugees overcome the language barrier, UNDP provided certified Turkish language training to 32,000 Syrians (70 percent women) through 70,000 enrolments. To provide suitable venues for language learning, UNDP constructed a new Public Education Center (PEC) in Gaziantep and refurbished 53 other PECs in ten different provinces. Adapting to adult learning needs, UNDP developed a blended approach combining face-to-face and on-demand online instruction – an innovation that proved prescient with the onset of the COVID pandemic. The Ministry of National Education has since adopted this approach for other training programmes.

Today’s event showcased these and other results of the UNDP project. But the emphasis was also on lessons learned and next steps, given the persistent need to expand formal employment for Syrians and host community members while reducing reliance on the informal sector. A policy panel composed of representatives of Government, the private sector, civil society and international organizations debated fresh ideas on how best to help refugees transition from humanitarian assistance to self-reliant employment, including a more direct focus on filling private-sector skills gaps (in textiles, for example); launching “refugee impact bonds”; and leveraging trade preferences to promote expanded refugee employment in export industries.

UNDP used this occasion to launch a feasibility study on a “Türkiye Compact,” under which major trading partners would offer trade preferences for Turkish exporters that employ large numbers of refugees. The study argues this approach could generate 284,000 new jobs (including 57,000 for refugees) while boosting exports by 3 percent and GDP by 0.42 percent.

For more information:

Faik Uyanık, Head of Communications for UNDP in Türkiye, faik.uyanik@undp.org