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Establishment Staff About REC Turkey Contact address

Year of Establishment:
2004

Official Opening
REC Country Office Turkey opened on May 27, 2004, in Ankara, Turkey. It is legally based on the REC Charter as well as a Bilateral Agreement between the Republic of Turkey and the REC. Its establishment was ratified by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey in 2004 and financed through a EUR 2.3 million grant from the European Commission, through which most of its activities for the first two years of operation were also financed

About REC Turkey

REC Turkey’s activities for the first two years of operations were based on a feasibility study, where stakeholders clearly identified the need for the REC’s traditional services such as capacity building, grants management and information programmes. The REC Establishment to Turkey project therefore focuses on these areas. Moreover, once the REC Turkey office was established, a detailed needs assessment was carried out to analyse the capacity building, information and granting needs of governmental organisations, local authorities and environmental NGOs as environmental stakeholders in Turkey. Thus, more specific needs and priorities of stakeholders were identified in the summer of 2005.

REC Turkey assists in solving the environmental problems of Turkey by promoting cooperation between governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), private institutions, businesses and other environmental stakeholders, and by promoting the free exchange of information and public participation in environmental decision making. Although REC Turkey currently works more intensively on horizontal issues, there will be an increase in vertical issues such as new projects on climate change, nature conservation and education for sustainable development.

REC Turkey’s activities are currently structured around four programme areas:

1. The Capacity Building Programme strives to strengthen the capacity of environmental stakeholders in legal, institutional and technical matters through trainings that are specially developed and tailored around the specific features of the environmental sector in Turkey. Trainings can be classified under three fundamental topics:

Institutional Capacity Building for Environmental Stakeholders

Project cycle management trainings aim to strengthen the institutional capacity of NGOs and local authorities. The content of these trainings is project cycle management, including problem identification, needs assessment, strategy development and planning, proposal writing, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

Project implementation trainings for recipients of REC grants strengthen the institutional capacities of NGOs that receive grants from REC Turkey in order to ensure high quality project implementation. Training sessions involve related topics such as strategy and methodology of project implementation, the legal framework relevant to Turkish NGOs and local authorities regarding the use of international funds and project management, project budget and human resources management, monitoring, evaluation and reporting.

Project cycle management trainings for governmental institutions aim to strengthen the institutional capacity of governmental institutions in developing, planning and implementing EU projects on regional and national environmental issues.

The Training for Trainers Programme aims to create a pool of trainers to address the capacity-building needs of the NGO sector and governmental institutions in Turkey by delivering sessions on topics where the REC has the required expertise. The successful participants are expected to deliver their own institutional development trainings.

Workshops on communication and public relations for NGOs were designed to strengthen the institutional capacity of environmental NGOs on communication and public relations to enable them to conduct effective public awareness campaigns and to ensure sound and sustainable communication with the public through mass media and other means. The training topics were principles of communication, fundamentals of public relation for NGOs, NGO-mass media relations, developing effective public awareness campaigns, and fundraising techniques.

Trainings for young environmentalists target the professional staff and volunteers of NGOs aged 20-30 in order to strengthen the capacities of environmental NGOs. One-week training courses include strategic planning, project development and financial management for NGOs, communication, management of volunteers and conflict resolution.

The Training for Environmental Journalists provided journalists with skills and techniques they can immediately apply to improve the quality and outreach of their stories and reports concerning the environment and sustainable development. During the course, participants were invited to perform guided journalistic research on water issues in Istanbul, a newsworthy subject at the time.

Training programmes on priority areas for the EU accession process are delivered on EU legislation and acquis communautaire focusing on specific environmental topics determined together with the Ministry of Environment and Forestry. The ministry, other central governmental institutions and ministries, the Turkish Grant National Assembly, national NGOs and regional NGO platforms attend to this programme. Each training topic is specifically identified based on the target group. In the first half of 2005, trainings focused on the general introduction to EU environmental policy and acquis communautaire, and directives on horizontal legislation. In the second half of 2005 there were a variety of additional trainings planned under this section including:

• Seminar on the EC Directive on Strategic Environmental Assessment;
• Seminars on the EC Directives on Access to Information and Public Participation in the Field of Environment;
• Training on Economic Instruments for Environmental Financing, and the Conference on EU Environmental Funding Mechanisms;
• Seminar on Waste Management for Local Authorities; and
• Conference on Sustainable Development and EU Environmental Policies.

Training programmes for local environmental action plans are organised in order to guide the local authorities in preparing local environmental action plans (LEAPs) to strengthen their capacity in legal, administrative, institutional, technical and financial issues. The programme includes preparatory activities, identifying participants, creating coordination bodies and working groups, assessing environmental issues, forming community visions, setting priorities for LEAPs, developing action plans, and setting priorities for implementation and the legal and administrative framework for LEAP implementation in Turkey.

2. The Environmental Information Programme initiates and facilitates the flow of information, through online, electronic and printed media, addressing the needs of all environmental stakeholders. In order to meet the information needs of Turkish environmental stakeholders, REC Turkey’s Environmental Information Programme provides two types of services:

- environmental information exchange services; and
- publications.

In addition to these services, REC Turkey’s Environmental Information Programme coordinates public and media relations and promotes the products and services of the REC in Turkey. REC Turkey offers methods and tools to its stakeholders that can be used to access information easily and freely. REC Turkey provides:

• an informative, up-to-date and well constructed website;
• a comprehensive weekly newsletter;
• the REC’s magazine, Green Horizon, translated into Turkish, with a national flavour;
• a comprehensive database of environmental stakeholders;
• an online library;
• publications in the field of stakeholders’ needs, such as the Developing Skill of NGOs series, including Project Proposal Writing, Project Management, Evaluation and Monitoring, Presentation and Communication, Public Education to Raise Environmental Awareness, The Right to Know, Local Environmental Action Programmes, and the Guide to Implementing LEAPs; and
• an interactive, user-friendly portal allowing all stakeholders the chance to participate and contribute.

3. The Grants Programme provides financial support through small and national grants to environmental NGOs and local administrations (national grants only). Through partnerships with NGOs and local administrations, other stakeholders such as businesses and academic institutions may participate in the Grants Programme.The Grants Programme provided support 36 projects in four different categories:

• Small Grants Programme - in November 2004, among 134 project proposals 15 of them were selected and awarded grants for the first call;
• Thematic National Grants Programme for NGOs - in December 2004, among 43 concept papers three project proposals were selected and awarded grants for the second call;
• National Grant Programme for Local Authorities - in December 2004, among 137 concept papers five projects were selected and awarded grants for the second call;
• Classical National Grants Programme for NGOs - in April 2005, among 46 concept papers thirteen project proposals were selected and awarded grants for the second call.

4. Special Programmes provides services to the business sector and other environmental stakeholders. The programme gives utmost importance to local, national and regional initiatives to empower cross-sectoral and multi-stakeholder partnership in Turkey. Therefore, it aims to build partnership at every level to develop new areas of activities within the framework of sustainable development initiatives such as climate change, eco-efficiency, eco-tourism, cleaner production and waste management.

Providing assistance for EU environmental acquis compliance: Special Programmes develops training modules with respect to the EU’s horizontal directives, which are relevant for most of the polluting sectors, and organises trainings on the topics identified as being priority and necessary for the EU accession process.

Climate change initiatives: In order to support the Special Programmes’ objectives, REC Turkey works on sustainable development initiatives where it can play a crucial role in promoting sustainable development practices in the country and in accordance with the principles of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). To this end, the Climate Change Work Programme was developed with the goal of increasing the technical and institutional capacity of all major stakeholders in Turkey, and REC Turkey is designated as a national focal point for UNFCCC Article 6 — education, training and public awareness. Within this scope, REC Turkey’s Climate Change website has been operational since February 2005. In addition, a quarterly climate change bulletin, CEMRE, was launched in December 2005.

Business awards for the environment: REC Turkey has been designated as the national focal point for the organisation of a national award scheme within the framework of the European Business Award for the Environment (EBAE). In June 2005 a call for applications was announced. In December 2005 three applications in the management category were selected from the 17 received, two were chosen in the product category, and one in the process category. The applications were forwarded to EBAE to compete at the international level.

Raising awareness of corporate social responsibility: REC Turkey is launching an initiative on business responsibility in the country. This initiative identifies how to contribute and build partnership for the protection of environment with the aim of attaining the goals of sustainable development. Within the framework of this, a CSR database for the environment has been developed to promote Turkish companies that have responsible business practices and to facilitate the exchange of information between them.

The Green Pack Project in Turkey was designed to develop capacity and materials for sustainable development education. The results of this project related to environmental conservation and sustainable management will be seen in the long term. The project will improve educational capacity on sustainable development in Turkey, which will lead to better informed citizens, and greater awareness of environmental issues, the citizen’s own role in sustainable development and possibilities to make a difference and improve the state of the environment by being better equipped to deal with problems and find solutions that contribute to nature conservation and sustainability.

Contact address:
Ilkbahar Mah. 15. Cad. 296. Sok. No:8
Yildiz Cankaya Ankara - Turkey 06550
Tel: 90 312 491 95 30
Fax: 90 312 491 95 40
E-mail: info@rec.org.tr
website: www.rec.org.tr

Achievements of REC Turkey 2004-2005
(1.5 Mb PDF file)

REC Extension to Turkey
(1.1Mb PDF file)

Turkey's Environment
(0.5 Mb PDF file)

REC Extension to Turkey in Turkish Language
(1.6 Mb PDF file)

Related information:

Map of Turkey

This page was last updated: 
June 2006

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