Youth and Development in Turkey

An Action-Packed Year

• UNDP Human Development Report 2008—Youth in Turkey (PDF)
  This report focuses on the situation of youth in the country and recommends policies to improve things.
• Best Practices in Youth Work (PDF)
  Great examples of youth work across different NGOs in Turkey

Slideshow: Preparing for future earthquakes in Istanbul

September 14, 2009—As far as youth and development goes, Turkey has been in the news a lot lately. Here's a look at what's been happening—and what's coming up—on the youth front in this Mediterranean country:

• The World Water Youth Forum, March 2009
  He's no aquafiestas! Blogger Joao Felipe Scarpelini kept us updated on this event.
• Alliance of Civilizations Youth Forum, April 2009
  Our man in Istanbul (at the time, anyway), Zeeshan Suhail, helped us understand this forum on intercultural understanding.
• World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings, October 2009
  This year, the Annual Meetings of the World Bank and IMF will be in Istanbul, and will focus on the world economic outlook, poverty eradication, economic development, and aid effectiveness. Ok, so you're wondering where the youth angle is. Well, Youthink! blogger Isik Oguzertem will be there to raise questions of youth concern and give the rest of us an inside look.
• Turkey Development Marketplace 2009
  The Development Marketplace is an annual World Bank grant program that takes place globally and regionally. In Turkey this year, the competition focused on the theme: Youth in Turkey: Shaping Our Future. The result? Loads of innovative ideas from young people across the country.
• 5th World Youth Congress 2010
  This annual meeting on youth-led development will happen in—you guessed it!—Istanbul, and will be based on the concept of imece, a Turkish word that refers to "joint action." According to the Congress website, "in daily life, imece refers to coming together to help an individual or a community, finishing the work as quickly and cheerfully as possible,  like a festival."

Getting to Know Turkey and Its Youth

Turkey is a nation of about 73 million people with an average age of 27. So, what's life like for young people there? What challenges do they face and what opportunities? Here is some info about Turkey and also some facts from a 2008 UNDP report (PDF) on its youth:

• Turkey's economy is among the world's 20 largest, with a GDP of around $400 billion
• Over 73% of its 73 million people live in urban areas
• More than 12 million people in Turkey are between the ages of 15-24
• At 27.5%, the youth unemployment rate is double that of national unemployment

There are millions of young people who are in the category of "invisible youth" in Turkey. These include:

• Young people actively looking for jobs: around 1 million
• Women who are neither in education nor at work: around 2.2 million
• The physically handicapped: around 650,000
• Young people who have given up all hope and stopped seeking jobs: 300,000
• Juvenile delinquents: around 22,000
• Children and youth who are living on the streets,  internally displaced, or are victims of human trafficking, and others who rarely get noticed or mentioned in survey studies or in the media

There is good news too. In recent years, school enrolment rates for girls have increased and gender gaps in enrolment and attendance in primary education have closed by 15%.

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