Huge Turnout for The First Conference of ActHuman Social Inclusion Hub

The first conference of ActHuman Social Inclusion Hub, which was carried out by the cooperation of INGEV and IPM and with the support of UNHCR and Syrian Economic forum, was held on 27 September 2017 in Salt Galata. Important repsentatives form public and private sectors, NGOs and academic world attended to this conference which was named as “To Improve the contribution of the companies, established by Syrians, to Employment and Economy”

 

This was the first time that Syrian entrepreneurs came together with the specialists of the public institutions and with the NGO managers.

 

The opening speeches were made by Vural Çakır, President of INGEV and by Prof. Dr. Fuat Keyman, Director of IPM. The conference was moderated by Berk Çoker, Director and Member of the Counseling Committee of INGEV. In the conference, Işık Oğuzertem, Country Director of Building Markets presented the results from the report called “Another Side to the Story”. A panel about the stories of the Syrian entrepreneurs was held where participants listened some success stories from Syrian entrepreneurs. And Ambassador Adnan Keçeci made a speech about the general condition of Syrians in Turkey. According to official records, the number of the companies (with the statue of foreign capital) established by Syrian refugees is around 8 thousand. But off the books it is estimated that this number surpasses 30 thousand.

 

The topic of how to support the entrepreneurship of Syrian refugees in order to increase the contribution of them to Turkish economy, employment and general integration was also discussed during the conference. As part of this discussion, Rami Sharrack, Director of Syrian Economic Forum, presented the Draft Policies Document which was prepared by Syrian Economic Forum, İPM and İNGEV. Incentives, tax and exemptions, working conditions, employment, business network, official framework and financial inclusion for Syrian entrepreneurs were all evaluated and discussed during this special session.

 

In the second part of the conference, two panels were held about Regulations and Business Related Comments within the scope of Draft Policies Document.

 

After the conference, The Draft Policies Document will be finalized and the final report will be shared with the people and organizations who work in this area.

ActHuman-Sosyal-Kapsama-İnisiyatif

ActHuman Social Inclusion Initiative Launched with a Meeting

ActHuman-Sosyal-Kapsama-İnisiyatifi

ActHuman Social Inclusion, INGEV initiative in cooperation with IPC, was launched with meeting held at Point Otel Barbaros. Turkey’s most important NGOs and Syrian opinion leaders from Gaziantep and Istanbul attended the meeting.

The opening speech was given by İNGEV President Vural Çakır. Moderators of the meeting were Assoc. Prof. Murat Erdoğan (Hacettepe Migration and Politics Research Centre Director) and Renan Burduroğlu (INGEV Advisory Board Member)

During the meeting, issues such as, how to approach the topic, how to organize the conference were (on September 27th) discussed in detail. Besides that, the agenda of the next steering committee meeting was also set.

Turkish Enterprise and Business Confederation Secretary General Arda Batu, TOBB Chairman Advisor Bahri Can Çalıcıoğlu, International Labour Organization Turkey Programme Officer Nejat Kocabay, Business World and Sustainable Development Association Secretary General Konca Çalkıvik, Price Waterhouse Cooper (PwC) Senior Manager Çağıl Şahin, Hacettepe Migration and Politics Research Centre Director Assoc. Prof. Murat Erdoğan, Bahçeşehir University Center for Migration and Urban Studies (BAUMUS) Founding Chair Assoc. Prof. Ulaş Sunata, İNGEV Advisory Board Member and Project Director Berk Çoker, Istanbul Policy Center Research and Administrative Affairs Coordinator Cana Tülüş, OXFAM Turkey Migration Policy Executive Ceren Topgül, Association of Syrian Businessmen Chairman Khaled Babbli, Syrian Economic Forum Director Rami Sharrack, RIZK Turkey representative Amr Abboud, Syrian Associations Platform Chairman Mehdi Daoud and Syrian entrepreneur Mojahed Akeel were within the participators of the meeting.

 

ActHuman Social Inclusion Initiative aims to focus on 3 or 4 topics every year. Here are some other topics that İNGEV has on its agenda:

  • Systematics of Anti-Cyber Violence
  • The House Women’s Contribution to Household Economy
  • Elderly Care Policies
  • Strengthening of the Relationship Between Employment and Education
  • Agricultural Development & Urban Farming
  • Social Aid Impact Analysis
  • Turkey and Catching up with the Industrial Revolution 4.0
  • The Inequality of Income Distribution
  • Environmental Sustainability

ActHuman Social Inclusion Initiative has started with the cooperation of INGEV and IPM

The first conference of ActHuman Social Inclusion Initiative will be held on Wednesday, September 27 in Salt Galata.

 

Topic: THE ENHANCEMENT OF SYRIAN ENTERPRENEUERSHIP TO CONTRIBUTE

EMPLOYMENT AND INTEGRATION

 

  • With ActHuman, we intend to develop social inclusion policies with research and then discuss it at an effective conference to conclude with a resolution paper which would become a strategic document that any decision maker would benefit from.
  • The works are directed by a Steering Committee which includes representatives who are capable of analysing the work through every aspect.
  • Steering Committee’s co-chairmen are the director of IPM Fuat Keyman and İNGEV President Vural Çakır.

 

Venue: Salt Galata / İstanbul

Date: 27 September 2017

Time: 13:00 – 17:00

For more info: berk.coker@ingev.org

işszilik-oranı

IPSOS and INGEV’s Joint Work, “Refugee Livelihood Monitor” Introduced!

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INGEV-Finalized-“Labor-Market-Assessment”-Research-2

INGEV Finalized “Labor Market Assessment” Research

Projects targeting the urgent needs of more than 5 million Syrians seeking refuge in the neighboring countries due to the Syrian Crisis which entered its 7th-year last month are increasingly leaving their place to projects that meet longer-term needs. Especially, the importance of income generation and skills building projects is increasing. One of the projects which are in line with these is the INGEV’s Labor Market Assessment project which targeted Syrian and economically disadvantaged Turkish youth living in Istanbul.

Funded by a humanitarian aid organization specialized in the child protection field, this project was composed of two phases; phase one aiming to find out action sectors which can offer entry level positions to Syrian youth aged 18 to 25, and phase two which focused on identifying the suitable job opportunities, technical and other skills needed by these opportunities and training institutions which can offer the necessary skills training.  The research which was initiated towards the end of February 2017 was finalized and reported in May.

In the first phase of Labor Market Assessment, which was supported by desk research, interviews with leading employers, training institutions, employment agencies and vocational training centers and focus group discussions, Construction, Textile, Retail, Hospitality and Health sectors stood out due to reasons such as penetration by Syrians and the need of Arabic speaking employees in these sectors. After the first phase of the research, in the second phase, interviews with the sector representatives, HR representatives of companies, NGO representatives, and public officials were conducted and three group discussions were held with similar participants in order to receive their opinions about potentials of these sectors and possible challenges and opportunities. In these discussions, the main opinion was that Syrians can contribute to local economy especially by being employed in the occupations which are no longer desired by the host community but the legal procedures and fees are negatively affecting the employers.

In addition to these studies, a focus group discussion with Syrian youth aged between 17 and 25 was conducted to receive their opinion about their skills, job aspirations and the difficulties they encounter during their work life in Istanbul. Syrian youth who participated in the group discussion mentioned about cultural differences in the workplaces and the pay gap between them and the Turkish employees. The youth, who voiced their desire to returning to their country after the crisis, stated that their stay in Turkey may be longer than expected due to the continuing civil war in Syria and therefore they might have caused problems in Turkey, but still there is a need for thinking about the coexistence of the two societies.

 

 

Human Development Index – Districts (HDI-D) Workshops Are Ongoing

The HDI-D workshops are continuing to discuss the solutions for a better human development for each district/municipality. The workshops’ aim is to offer action proposals according to the indicators and criteria that are used in HDI-D.

 

At the workshops, the presentation of the results of HDI-D are shown to participants chosen by the municipalities. After the presentation, for every single municipality, İNGEV sets up table discussions where the suggestions are gathered at “Fikir Tepsisi” and grouped to be reported as “Ele al – Öne Çıkar – Geliştir/Koru”.

INGEV was at KUSIF “Social Value Matters” Summit

Strategic Management Advisory Board members Binnur Çakır and Berk Çoker represented INGEV at Koç University, April 10-11. This year’s motto at KUSIF was “Raise the voice, influence the change, maximize the value.”

On day one INGEV participated in table discussions “Turkey Specific Modeling Perspectives for Social Impact Measurement” and “Impact Evaluation in Migrant Integration” under the moderation of Özge Bilgili, Chairwoman for Dutch Association for Migration Research (DAMR).

On the second day INGEV joined two roundtables “Developing Social Impact Networks” and “Brand Effects at Creating Social Values”. The last session, “How to pursue different stakeholders to help Syrian refugees reach the labour market in Turkey?” was moderated by UNDP representative Ozan Çakmak.

INGEV’s 2017-2018 Objectives are Set at the SMA Board meeting

The SMA Board (Strategic Management Advisory Board) meeting was held on April 14 at Point Hotel Barbaros. The participants were İNGEV president Vural Çakır, members Necati Özkan, Prof. Dr. Fuat Keyman, Prof. Dr. Halil Nalçaoğlu, Tonguç Çoban, N. Berk Çoker, Binnur Çakır, Renan Burduroğlu, Pelin Yusufi, Evren Doğanç, Ebru Arzu Çağdaş, Levent Özkula and Prof. Dr. Murat Şeker.

Like in 2016, INGEV aims to lower unemployment, poverty and improve income distribution. Besides these core targets, 2nd ActHuman Summit and network capacity expansion were discussed. Members were informed about the ongoing and upcoming projects.

INGEV’s “Low-Income House Wives” Project is a Go!

İNGEV, in cooperation with a private multi-national along with Maltepe Municipality, executes “the low-income house wives” project in order to provide job and income.

18 house wives who live in Maltepe district were selected by individual house visits. In Altıntepe Entrepreneur Kitchen, they have been educated in the fields of hygiene, food preparation and cooking. At the same time, voluntary restaurants were identified that which are willing to participate INGEV’s project.

18 house wives now will be able to cook and sell their products to the restaurants after the course and get their special Public Education certificate. After this programme our Maltepe house wives could use their income to help the household economy.

With the support of İSTKA, INGEV initiated the “Identification of the employment trends in İstanbul” project

İNGEV has started the “Identification of the employment trends in İstanbul” project with the support of İSTKA (Istanbul Development Agency). The project explicitly focuses on the relation between employment and education.

 

In this project INGEV’s aim is to:

  • To focus on the employees and active unemployed young adults between the ages of 15-34.
  • To understand the time spent while seeking a job and being employed according to criteria such as education, age, gender.
  • To identify the trends on employment according to their educational background and identify their needs.

 

Following the project, there will be literature review, 1400 phone survey, 2 meetings and a workshop. INGEV will also print the outcomes from this project and share it with 200 institutions and a press conference will be held for media coverage.