Ankara, April 10, 2007 – Seven Turkish Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and the World Bank signed today Grant Agreements for projects to be supported under the Small Grants Program (SmGP) of the Bank. This year, the Bank’s Turkey Country Office made US$ 35.000 in grants available for projects focused on “Civic Engagement for the Empowerment of Youth in Turkey”. The agreements were signed by representatives of the NGOs and the World Bank’s Country Director for Turkey, Ulrich Zachau.
The seven grants awarded under the SmGP this year will help fund small-scale activities of grass-root level NGOs in support of social development and inclusion of youth and youth related matters. The seven NGOs are:
- Uluslararası Mavi Hilal İnsani Yardım ve Kalkınma Vakfı,
- Kütahya Gençlik Klubü Derneği,
- Gündem Çocuk,
- Sosyal Kalkınma ve Cinsiyet Eşitliği Politikaları Merkezi Derneği,
- İnsan Sağlığı ve Eğitim Vakfı,
- Batman Çatom, and
- Kaos Gay Lezbiyen Kültür Araştırmalar ve Dayanışma Derneği.
The grants aim to support increased participation and ownership by young people of development processes in Turkey.
The World Bank’s SmGP seeks to identify and help fund the best ideas in development from around the country. It complements and facilitates the social development agenda of the World Bank through its focus on civic engagement. By civic engagement, the Bank refers to the engagement of citizens, either individually or as organized groups, with the public sector to strengthen mechanisms for inclusion, accountability, and participation in order to enhance and influence development outcomes.
Since 2001, the SmGP for Turkey has awarded over US$200,000 to 43 winning proposals. This year’s SmGP competition received 101 proposals from all around Turkey, and after two rounds of assessment seven winning projects were selected for 2007. Winning project ideas ranged from Protecting and Improving the Rights of Children and Youth to Direct Access to Knowledge, to Supporting Self-Confidence among the Convicted Young People, to including the Young Women in university clubs into NGO organizations.
During the signing ceremony of the Grant Agreement Ulrich Zachau, Country Director for Turkey said: “For this year’s Small Grants Program competition, Turkish NGOs have come up with highly innovative projects to help empower Turkish Youth. I would like to thank and congratulate all those who participated in the competition for their initiative and high-quality proposals. Turkey has an important opportunity to take full advantage of the great potential of its large young population—ready to be employed, with good education, and to contribute to future growth of the country. Empowering Turkish youth to engage in all aspects of the economy and society will be critical for young people to realize their full potential. The World Bank believes that the winning projects that the Small Grants Program will support help attain this objective. ”
