April 23: Celebrating the 104th Year…

This year, as a country, we celebrated the 104th anniversary of the April 23 National Sovereignty and Children’s Day.

Sharing some important statistics about children’s education, health, and living conditions in Turkiye and around the world, we act with the awareness that reminding everyone of this special day is an important duty.

  • As of 2024, 18% of children worldwide do not have access to preschool education. In Turkiye, 95% of children of primary school age are receiving education.
  • According to the World Health Organization, approximately 5 million children under the age of five died worldwide in 2023, most from preventable diseases. In Turkiye, the child mortality rate has decreased by 30% over the last 10 years, showing promising progress, yet child deaths still occur.
  • According to UNICEF’s report, one in six children worldwide lives in extreme poverty. In Turkiye, the child poverty rate is determined to be 23%.

These data show that we need to work even harder to ensure a better future for our children. Today, let’s raise our voices for our children and take steps to ensure they achieve the living standards they deserve. Let’s think more collectively about children’s rights!

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Rana Birden Joins INGEV Advisory Board

As İNGEV continues to strengthen its governance and move towards a more institutional direction, it has included an important figure from the private sector in its executive board. Rana Birden, Head of Corporate Communications and Impact Investments at Kale Group, has become a member of the INGEV advisory board.

Born in 1975, Rana Birden graduated from the Department of International Relations at Galatasaray University in 1998 and completed the European Union Master’s Program at the same university in 2005.

Between 1999 and 2012, Birden served sequentially as a Senior Research Specialist at the Economic Development Foundation, Assistant Project Coordinator for the European Union Civil Society Development Program, EU Research and Documentation Coordinator at Bahçeşehir University, and Director at the Foundation for Social Participation and Development. Birden has also consulted for numerous foundations and associations, including the Sabancı Foundation, Third Sector Foundation of Turkiye, and Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. She continued her work as the General Manager of the Global Relations Forum Association from 2012 to 2014 and as a member of the Executive Board of the Turkiye Europe Foundation and C20 from 2014 to 2016, before joining Kale Group in 2016. We welcome her once again!

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Hande Soğancılar Appointed as Resource Development Coordinator!

Hande, who completed her undergraduate degree in Political Science and International Relations at Boğaziçi University, went on to earn a master’s degree in Human Rights at the University of Manchester.

Following her education, she worked in Project Management in both international and national civil society organizations. Her work, which began with refugee programs, has been focused on Livelihood Resources since 2017. She had previously served as the coordinator for Women’s Empowerment programs at INGEV in 2023.

In the new term, Hande will continue as the coordinator of both Resource Development and Women’s Empowerment programs. Vural Çakır, the President of INGEV’s Executive Board, commented on this appointment, saying, “Hande combines her personality, which has internalized the concepts of human development and civil society, with her professional experience in Livelihood Resources, making critical contributions to INGEV. With the expansion of her authority, we aim to further strengthen INGEV’s benefit to society in the coming period.”

Hande Soğancılar said, “With this new role, we aim to realize INGEV’s vision, diversify its resources, and increase its impact on society. Being a part of the INGEV management team is both a pride and excitement.

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Determinants of Violence against Women in the Southeast

NGEV TAM, in collaboration with its partners in south-eastern Türkiye, in particular KAMER, conducted a research study on the urgent issue of violence against refugee women.


The research study is supported by CARE International Türkiye as part of its ECHO-funded protection programme for women victims of violence. The project aimed to provide a comprehensive picture of the patterns of violence against women in the South-East.


The research sheds light on the seriousness of the situation by revealing trends and root causes of violence that inhibit reporting and seeking support in cases of violence, and provides insights and suggestions for effective intervention strategies.

Report can be viewed here: https://ingev.org/reports/Research-on-Violence-against-Refugee-Women-in-Southeast-Turkiye.pdf

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ActHuman VI Focuses on Women’s Employment

In Turkiye, the employment of women and their access to the labor market and livelihoods are gaining increasing importance every day.

While women make up 49.9% and men 50.1% of Turkiye’s population, according to the Household Labor Force Survey results, the labor force participation rate for individuals aged 15 and older was 32.8% for women and 70.3% for men in 2021.

Education plays a critical role in women’s participation in the workforce. When examined, only 12.4% of women who are illiterate are part of the workforce, whereas this figure is 65.6% for women who are graduates of higher education.

Studies in this field have the potential to offer new employment opportunities to women from different segments of society, and, importantly, the removal of barriers to women’s employment plays a critical role in the transformation process of the labor market.

Through the collaboration between INGEV and Sabancı University’s Istanbul Policy Center (IPC), the ActHuman Social Inclusion Initiative aims to develop strategies to increase women’s employment and participation in the labor force in its sixth year. Under the title “Women’s Employment and Barriers & Opportunities in the Workforce: A Guide to Moving Forward,” our main goal is to increase women’s representation in the economy and their active participation in decision-making processes.

In this context, we will present social policy recommendations integrating a gender equality perspective with the social policy document to be released in May. These recommendations are expected to facilitate the employment of women and include measures to remove barriers in the workforce. This approach aims to both increase women’s economic independence and contribute to Turkiye’s goals of promoting sustainable development.

The academic coordination of the process is undertaken by Dr. Esra Durceylan Kaygusuz, a faculty member of the Sabancı University Economics Program, while the advisory board meets on April 3rd.

Boosting Social Impact

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In Solidarity with Women in the Earthquake Region

We shared the findings of our “Hand in Hand” project, which has been ongoing since November 2022 for young women aged 18-29 who are not in education nor employment (NEET) living in Gaziantep, Şanlıurfa and Mardin, at the Minerva Han, hosted by the Istanbul Policy Center (IPC) on February 12th.

We listened to young women participants from the three provinces and other experts who have conducted successful projects in the NEET area.

In the program implementation, we discussed the importance of localization, the necessity of correct NEET segmentation for a proper beneficiary definition, thinking outside of traditional job patterns for women’s employment, the importance of the private sector’s involvement at the local level in all stages from needs assessment to implementation, and establishing a correct balance between home care economy and wage.

In the “Hand in Hand” project, various economic empowerment activities were offered to 110 NEET women in Mardin, Şanlıurfa, and Gaziantep to access the labor force, employment, and livelihoods.

The project included activities such as career webinars, employment counseling, and vocational training certificates approved by e-Devlet (e-Government), and the employment conversion rate was promising.

As of February 2024, within the scope of the project:

  • It was revealed that 372 women living in Gaziantep, Mardin, and Şanlıurfa need support for access to the labor force, employment, and livelihoods.
  • 62 partnership meetings were organized with representatives from relevant public institutions, municipalities, the private sector, and NGOs.
  • 971 women applied for the project to benefit from the offered services; 349 women were selected to participate, and 260 women joined the project’s online platform.
  • 77 NEET women gained knowledge about job searching and applications by participating in various career webinars.
  • 110 NEET women received certificates by completing vocational training courses in Basic Accounting and Digital Marketing, Social Media in October and November 2023.
  • 103 women accessed mentor support through 201 career planning sessions.
  • 97 women aged 18-29 increased their employment participation capacity with career roadmaps prepared together with their mentors.
  • 14 NEET women accessed permanent employment opportunities using the knowledge and skills they acquired.

The “Hand in Hand” project is implemented within the framework of the “Strong Civil Space for Gender Equality” project by UN Women with the financial support of the European Union.

We continue to work to spread “Hand in Hand” throughout Turkiye and to create collaborations in this field with our stakeholders.

“Hand in Hand” Project’s Press Reflections:

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Bridging Entrepreneurs in Şanlıurfa: Bridges

Entrepreneurship plays a critical role in increasing employment. Especially in Southeastern Anatolia region, entrepreneurship is becoming more meaningful with small-scale businesses allowing women to choose their own working hours and places.

Under the “Incubation and Small Grant” Program carried out by INGEV in Şanlıurfa, those who want to become entrepreneurs have continued to receive basic and advanced entrepreneurship training for the last four years.

INGEV, in collaboration with DRC (Danish Refugee Council), provides partial grant support covering the establishment costs for the businesses of entrepreneurs who complete these trainings. Additionally, the project supports new businesses to be more sustainable by providing financial, legal, and business development consultancy services to fresh entrepreneurs.

The Bridges project continues to contribute significantly to the development and social cohesion of Şanlıurfa in its fifth year.

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“Local Impact” for Social Inclusion

In the field of municipal administration, social inclusion is vitally important for enabling individuals from all segments of the community to actively participate in city life. Through inclusive municipal practices, many communities are able to benefit more from urban planning and services, and their quality of life can improve in social harmony.

INGEV has recently started the “Local Impact” (Yerel Etki) project aiming to ensure more comprehensive inclusion of vulnerable groups in both metropolitan and district municipalities without leaving anyone behind.

In the scope of the project, it aims to increase the awareness of social inclusion among mayors and civil society representatives in Bakırköy, Beşiktaş, Eyüpsultan, Sarıyer, Ataşehir, Fatih, Sultanbeyli, Kağıthane, Beykoz, Sultangazi districts and to strengthen the capacities of local governments and non-governmental organizations in this context.

With the “Local Impact” project, a social inclusion mapping website will also be established, creating a website that locates institutions serving in the area of social inclusion across Istanbul. Additionally, training in the area of social inclusion will be video graphed, and a social inclusion guidebook will be prepared and shared with local governments as an e-book in September 2024.

The “Local Impact” project, conducted with the support of the Matra Fund of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, will play a critical role in understanding the situation of various sensitive groups living within the boundaries of different local governments and taking appropriate actions accordingly.

The views expressed here are solely those of INGEV and therefore do not in any way represent the views of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

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Food Entrepreneurship in Kars: “Future in Kars”

The “Future in Kars” (Kars’ta Gelecek Var) project continues, aiming to enable young people living in Kars, especially in rural areas, to access high value-added dairy products production and food entrepreneurship training.

The project offers technical training in “Basic Cheesemaking,” “Gravyer Expertise,” and “Cheese Maturation Methods,” while comprehensive food Entrepreneurship training aims to bring out the entrepreneurial aspects of young people living in Kars.

Supported by the Turkish Ministry of Youth and Sports and conducted by INGEV under the Rural Area Youth Empowerment Program, the project aims to support young people on their path to becoming entrepreneurs by providing business establishment support to successful participants.