The 2015 Activities of the Women in Foreign Policy Initiative founded by Associate Prof. Dr. Zeynep Alemdar, Rana Birden Çorbacıoğlu and Christina Bache Fidan were as follows:

1. Two activities were realized to commemorate the 15 th anniversary of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSRC 1325)  on women, peace and security which calls for the adoption of a gender perspective to consider the special needs of women and girls during conflict, repatriation, resettlement, rehabilitation, reintegration and post-conflict reconstruction.

a. On December 10,  a planning session was organized with two Sweedish Institutions: the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (RWI) and Operation 1325 .

     b. On December 17 we participated to the meeting organized by the  UN Women’s European and Central Asia Office which gathered  local sivil society organizations,academicians and specialists of the subject to  discuss the 1325 National Action Plan.  

2. In May we  organized the Women in Foreign Policy Speaker Series with the support of the Hollings Center for International Dialogue (Istanbul) .

     a.On May 27 we had our first meeting where the three founders of the initiative discussed their personal experiences.

b. On September 17, Asma Khader President of the Sisterhood Is Global Institute/Jordan (SIGI/J) shared her insights on the threats and challenges facing women in the Middle East with a specific focus on women refugees.

c. On November 16, Ferhan Salman Senior Economist at the Middle East and Central Asia and Member of the Gender Advisory Group of the IMF delivered a presentation on Macro Economic Impacts of Gender Equality.

3. We participated to the C20 (September), W20 (October)and G20 (November) meetings.

 

Woman of Europe Award / Women of Europe Network
With the aim of reviving the Woman of Europe Award, interested EMI members have met and shared ideas to prepare a new proposal for a Woman of Europe project:
Mission statement
Realising that the role of women in the European project remains largely unrecognized, the European Movement Woman of Europe Award aims to highlight the contribution of women in advancing the project of European unification, and to increase the involvement of women in European integration.
Woman of Europe Award
To this end, it aims to set up a European-level Woman of Europe Award and an adjoining Women of Europe Network composed of women active in European integration. The Award will honour women that strive or have strived to advance the European project, in their professional or private capacity.
Women of Europe Network
The network will bring together the European winners and nominees, as well as previous national winners, the women- and gender equality networks of the EMI’s International Associations as well as women networks of project partners. The network is inclusive, pro-European, and open to all genders. It aims to create linkages, share experiences and promote exchanges between women who work on European integration to enable them to increase their involvement in the European project.
Involvement of the European Movement
This project serves four goals that are important for the European Movement: it will recognise women for their contribution to the European project and aim to increase their role; it will stress the important values of human rights and gender equality; it will increase awareness of the work the European Movement International and its members undertake in the effort to advance European integration; and it will create new linkages between existing networks.
Action plan
To set up the proposed Award and Network, a Steering Committee will be formed, consisting of 6 members: the EMI Secretary General, one EMI staff member, and two representatives each of the National Councils and International Associations. They will undertake the following actions:
o Build partnerships with a leading European women’s organisation; a media partner; and an institutional partner;
o Raise funds (via sponsorship) for the organisation of the Award ceremony, the Award itself (possibly in-kind), and the set-up of the network;
o Organise the first Award ceremony and the adjoining Women of Europe Network, provide the enabling structures for a self-managing network, set up a database, and organise a first meeting in the margins of the ceremony;
o Collect nominations and form a jury to select the winner of the 2016 or 2017 Woman of Europe Award. Each member organisation can put forward one nominee, as well as (members of) the partnering women’s organisation (tbd). Eligible to be nominated are women who, in their professional or private capacity, strive or have strived to advance the European project.
All EMI members are invited to express their interest in the project and to join the project preparations.
Submitted for adoption by
EM Norway, EM Ireland, EM Germany, EM France, EM Serbia, AFEM, CESI, ALDE (ALDE GEN), CEMR.

Women of Europe Awards

The Women of Europe Awards is a new initiative by the European Movement International and the European Women’s Lobby, building upon the national awards of several National European Movement Councils. The awards will be handed out to honour women striving to advance the European project in their professional or private capacity. The role of women in the European project remains largely unrecognised, and the awards will highlight the contribution of women in promoting and advancing European issues, and to increase the presence and involvement of women in debates about Europe and its future.

For the first edition of the Award in December 2016, there are two prize categories:

• Jury’s Award: Woman in Power
  For women showing extraordinary leadership on a European level
• Members’ Award: Woman in Action
  For women undertaking extraordinary actions at grass-root level in Europe

A Jury composed of high-level stakeholders from the cultural, social, media and political sectors will decide on two shortlists based on the nominations received from members of the European Movement International and the European Women’s Lobby.

This is the abstract of a paper I presented at the Conference in , Gammarth Tunisia entitled  «Femmes du Sud, Femmes du Nord, Osons La Réussite»

The size and quality of the human capital in countries is one of the driving forces behind the economic and social development.The policies pursued and activities carried out recently in Turkey are being aware of the fact that women are the subject of the economic and social development and this has yielded an increase in the women’s rates of employment and labor force participation.

Since 2005 there is an upward trend in female labor force participation force due to growing number of women shifting from working in agriculture to salaried work.Women’s employment rate according to turkish statistics in 2004 was 20.8 rose to 26.7 at the end of 2014.According to figures it is observed that women are mostly employed in the service sector with a rate of 49.9%.Women’s employment rate in the agricultural sector which was 50.8% in 2004 decreased to 33%.

The government has taken various measures in the past decade to create employment opportunities in the formal sector and to remove gender related barriers to education and employment.Introduction of compulsory education Law , Employment package 2008, Treasury Support to the credit guarantee fund for women entrepreneurs, Board of National Monitoring and Coordination of Women’s employment constituted.

Many projects are being run at national , regional and local levels for socio economic empowerment of women.Some examples ı can site are ; Equality at Work Platform  , this platform aims to minimize the gender gap in the field of economic participation and opportunities in Turkey. Trainings are held for women vocational courses given by turkish employment agency işkur , trainings for women farmers 4000 women were trained in all 81 provinces.Small and medium industry development organization kosgeb credit supports , micro loan practices for women who have idea to do business and in this way to improve their self confidence.Development agencies are available for reducing inter-regional disparities and achieving regional development.The agencies support the projects aimed at promoting women’s labor force participation.Lastly the ministry of food , agriculture and husbandry provides Project supports for rural development cooperatives and the ministry of customs and trade offers Project supports for other cooperatives such as small enterprises and crafts to encourage women’s cooperatives.

Besides governmental actions taken to increase women labor force participation çivil society organizations like c20 work locally , nationally and internationally .The idea to create this policy and advocacy platform to tackle inequalities was given in Turkish G20Presidency  meeting.As a policy and advocacy platform the c20 brings together civil society organizations from around the World to engage with G20 Governments on key issues of mutual concern. Female labor force participation has crucial importance for Turkey and necessary actions are taken to increase this number both by government and çivil society organizations