How Has Poverty Reduction Policy in Turkey Succeeded - Essay Example

143725 OF THE PROJECT: WORD COUNT: 2,582 WORDS including Bibliography. Attacking poverty had been one of the main aims in the world in recent times and Turkey had been no exception. It is important to know more about the programme and assess how well Public economic management in Turkey is progressing. No doubt, poverty reduction cannot be done in a few years, or as a result of a few policies. This has to be based on a very sound continuous economic programmes and right directions. All over the world, there are many impediments in the way of poverty eradication. In the world of globalization, economic change also depends on many other world problems and economic fluctuations. Hence, expecting an overnight result cannot be exactly practical. In the Press Release No. 39, September 19-20, 2006, Ali Babacan, Governor of the IMF for Turkey, said in the 2006 Annual Meetings of Board of Governors held at Singapore held: “Inflation is likely to exceed the 2006 target mainly because of adverse energy and commodity price developments. However, it is expected that, in the medium term, it will converge to our target. Current account deficit has widened on account of rising cost of energy imports and accelerating investments whereas the composition of the financing significantly improved by the increasing long term capital inflows” http://www.imf.org/external/am/2006/speeches/pr39e.pdf Turkish economy has undergone a series of changes with the tightening of the fiscal policy and central banking. This does not mean that Turkish economy does not have any worth-mentioning growth. It is considered to be one of the fastest growing economies, in spite of many connected cultural, social and economic problems. “Since the formation of the modern state of Turkey in 1923, the economy had grown rapidly. However, economic growth slowed in the mid-1990s in the wake of a fiscal and monetary crisis. There are wide disparities in income between the more prosperous, industrialized parts of the country in the west and south-west, and the less developed provinces in the rest of Turkey. In 2002, gross national income was USD 2 490 per capita” http://www.ifad.org/operations/projects/regions/PN/factsheets/tr.pdf Today many institutions and organisations are connected with the poverty reduction programme of Turkey. The International Fund of Agricultural Development (IFAD) supports this effort in an overall involvement. Under this far reaching project, roads, schools and hospitals are planned for the remote hilly regions. Mobility increasing infrastructures are being constructed through the poverty reduction programme. Policies are not only trying to help the rural poor, but also are mainly of assistance to women. It is realised that living conditions of the rural poor has to be tackled before any other economic improvement. In the early 1970s Agrarian Reform Act was passed with the intention of improving the agricultural situation of the country. “The objective of the Agrarian Reform Act is to promote rural development, to improve farm structures and the conditions for cultivating the land. Apart from economic considerations, the Law is inspired by the principle of social justice,” Agricultural Policy in Turkey, (p.58). There are many ongoing rural projects today, like Sivas-Erzincan Development Project and some of them, are co-financed by Islamic Development Bank. Since 1982, IFAD has lent a total sum of USD 91 million to help Turkey in her poverty eradication programmes1. It had been imperative to better the lot of women through improvement in agriculture, as 90% of them are employed in some way or other in agriculture and 45% of the total working population are in agricultural sector2. Turkey has flourishing economic possibilities. It is the second largest exporter of Pasta in the world and its wheat is almost 10 percent of the total world production and export. Environmental degradation is plaguing the country’s agricultural production though many active projects are trying to decrease the effect. The rural poor are being encouraged to participate in the new programmes so that they could adopt newer methods of agriculture and improve their income and living conditions. Agriculturists are being introduced to other programmes like bee-keeping etc. Many small and big scale irrigation systems are being introduced in various agricultural areas of Turkey. IFAD has adopted various measures in the direction of poverty reduction. Projects also address the unfortunate gender inequality in the country and try to empower the women as the first step. As natural resources becoming scarcer, Government, through its policies, is trying usher in sustainable development, so that natural resources are not ruined. Managing the natural resources without much cooperation from the masses had not been a highly successful programme. Trying to find alternative income for the rural poor and diversifying the productive activities so that agriculturists could have an alternative and finding out various methods so that crop failure need not hit them very hard have been the major goals of recent projects. They have definitely achieved a certain amount of success in community development and institution building. IFD’s programmes are trying to involve people from diverse work background not only in Turkey, but also in other countries, wherever it has started its projects. “These projects have enabled more than 250 million small farmers, herders, fisher folk, landless workers, artisans and indigenous people to take steps, to achieve a better life for themselves and their families,” http://www.ifad.org/operations/projects/regions/PN/factsheets/tr.pdf Poverty eradication and rural development have to go hand in hand in Turkey. Country is comprised of rural regions, high mountains with considerable population living there, employed in agriculture wherever possible. But the infrastructure, sometimes even due to geographical remoteness, is highly inadequate. Turkey’s Government has realised that poverty reduction cannot be achieved without rural development and development of the mountainous area. “Poverty must be eradicated to ensure an improvement in living conditions for all and ensure international peace and security, it was stated. Rural development will help prevent or deter rural-urban migration and its attendant problems”. http://www.un.org/Conferences/habitat/eng-pres/3/habist23.htm There is no doubt that Turkey has to go a long way, to compete with the European countries and Member States of European Union, where it is hoping to join as one of the Member States. But its achievements had been, till now marginal, and it received a severe set back after the economic crisis of 2001. Since “According to the 2002 Household Survey data, prepared by the State Institute of Statistics (SIS), 0,20% of the total population in Turkey is under the absolute poverty line. This rate increases to 2,9% for food poverty line. Furthermore, it dramatically increases to 28.3 % for food and non-food poverty line, which is defined according to the local cost of basic needs basket including non-food” http://www.undp.org.tr/Gozlem2.aspx?WebSayfaNo=29 Turkey has a Country Program for 2006-2010 and this programme has designed many ways of fighting poverty including, establishment of a poverty combat portal, encouraging debate on how assistance could be given on such a programme with social inclusion and community participation, encouraging significant research on the issue so that sociologists, economists and environmentalists could guide the Programme. It has designed on the knowledge that poverty eradication cannot take place without constant help from society and people. Meetings and workshops have been held continuously to know the underlying problems that are invisible to an outsider, but relevant to the rural people in their framework, because this programme could not be undertaken without attending to the practical issues first. This programme is partnered by Genera Directorate of Social Assistance and Solidarity and gets assistance from State Planning Organization, the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, the Social Services and Child Protection Agency and many other connected departments. These departments keep in touch with rural and urban folk in various capacities and are conversant with the nagging problems of most of the regions. They are also well aware of the region-based issues and this knowledge will help the poverty eradication programmes and in turn, help the needy, by increasing their choices and opportunities. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, with its mission statement “to achieve the highest sustainable economic growth and employment and a rising standard of living in Member countries, while maintaining financial stability, and thus to contribute to the development of the world economy3” promoting ‘Pro-poor Policy Coherence’, has shown growing commitment in Turkey’s poverty reduction with practical goals like meeting the immediate need of food, water and other basic necessities, increasing opportunities for the poor to help themselves, and ‘creating a pro-poor enabling environment from which the poor stand to benefit.’4 World Bank Institute has made conditional bank transfers to get global boost to 300 participants. These awards are based on the government aim to support poor families. The awards are hoped to decrease the poverty level and help in forming the future human capital. Turkey’s programme under the Social Risk Mitigation Project had been on for the last four years, and has reduced the impact of the severe economic crisis Turkey went through in the year 2001. As this programme is also concerned with health and education, it has become one of the key poverty reduction programmes in Turkey today. 2.6 million people, approximately 8% of Turkey’s youngsters have been benefited by this programme with proven results. “Results from first-generation programs elsewhere in mostly middle-income countries show that CCTs have had proven success in both their short and long run goals.  Targeting has been quite good in the first programs, with effects on the depth of poverty and inequality proportionate to the total size of transfers.  The programs have raised enrolment rates where they were low and increased use of preventive health care services, for children especially”  http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/WBI/0,,contentMDK:21013218~pagePK:209023~piPK:207535~theSitePK:213799,00.html There are policies with disaster risk reduction connected with the present programmes, as Turkey’s rural and mountainous areas are disaster prone. Turkey’s poverty reduction has been a very ambitious plan, considering all negative environments working against it. World Bank has realised that poverty reduction and country assistance strategies have to go hand in hand during project cycle. The South-Eastern Anatolia region project is concentrating on target groups like small farm households, poor women of the rural regions, seasonal poor workers, and the rural unemployed young and hoping to improve the livelihoods and living conditions of these target groups. Their objectives include diversifying employment opportunities wherever possible and feasible, improving economic efficiencies from all possible angles, supporting the existing, but dwindling businesses, strengthening the small industries that are about to be closed due to lack of support, lending a helping hand to running businesses like farm business or any other business alike, establishing new and profitable businesses that could provide employment to the needy. These programmes are covered by a broader structure that comes under Village Improvement Programmes, Rural Economic Growth, and capacity building for employment. United States, United Nations Development Programme and other programme clients are expected to provide for this far-reaching project. Another programme that is marching along with poverty eradication project is Gender Equality Programme and this is considered to be part of poverty eradication. World is realising today that poverty cannot be uprooted from any region if half of its population was living a downtrodden life. Turkey has definitely achieved a lot in the area of legal gender equality; the same cannot be said in society or in personal life and its choices. In these spheres a lot has to be achieved and this remains as one of the main impediments in Turkey’s entry into European Union. The picture that emerges is as bad as any other Muslim country, but with a slight improvement in the legal situation, but continues to be disturbing. “Advocacy, awareness, and resources appear to be the key: public attention to issues of violence against women, including domestic violence, honour killings and trafficking is limited. Women are often restrained in exercising their rights fully or are unaware of the scope of their rights. Organizations working to protect the rights of women need more support to be able to do so. Collaborative efforts between government (local and national), NGOs, labour market partners, media and private co-operations in the area of womens rights are virtually needed” according to United Nations Development Programme report. http://www.undp.org.tr/Gozlem2.aspx?WebSayfaNo=86 Unfortunately, Turkey had been unable to emerge out of the religious, ancient restrictions and offer a better life to its women folk. Involved agencies argue that there cannot be significant improvement as long as the lot of women remains deplorable and hence, the stress on gender equality and giving importance to women in pilot programmes, especially in the rural and mountainous areas, where women are especially neglected and enslaved. So both the programmes are linked and an additional Small Grants Project is created entirely focussed on the improvement of women’s financial independence. Turkey, the 6th largest economy in Europe, comes last when per head income is taken into account. It also has problems with the most corrupt administrative system resulting in an uphill task for the social risk mitigation project. “High though Turkey’s growth rates have been, so have been its rates of inflation. Although the country has not since 1980 experienced triple-digit inflation, prices have increased each year by as much as 70 per cent, and never by less than 25 per cent. Inflation put considerable pressure on the Turkish lira over the review period, leading to several successive devaluations of the currency,” National Policies and Agricultural Trade (1994, p.27). The economic and agricultural situation has not been absolutely disheartening. Turkey is marching with long strides towards self-sufficiency and prosperity. The Five Year Development Plans have worked quite well, taking into consideration all the adverse circumstances plaguing the country. High population growth has led to high rates of migration. Objectives of national agricultural policies have been ensuring adequate levels of nutrition, raising production levels and yields, reducing the vulnerability of production to adverse weather conditions, increasing employment opportunities to rural youth, raising levels of self-sufficiency, providing more opportunities to the rural poor, increasing agricultural incomes and improving income stability, empowering the women folk of rural Turkey, increasing exports, developing rural areas etc. Turkey’s environmental policy, environmental awareness, tourism improvement and sustainable tourism have been interconnected with the poverty mitigation. “The aim of the Law, which considers the environment as a whole, is not only to prevent and eliminate environmental pollution, but also to allow for the management of the natural and historical values and the land in such a way, as to utilise and preserve its richness for future generations,” Environmental Policies in Turkey (1992, p.24). After economic liberalisation, country has launched an ambitious market-oriented development programme, aiming at very high economic growth, by rising industrial production and exports. As the State has strong political and administrative centralisation, control is very effective in Turkey and hence, the environmental institutions are mainly designed and controlled by the central power. Turkey is definitely improving the poverty level, but the growth had been rather low, due to many adverse factors in the economy and society. Ignorance and lack of education amongst the rural masses, especially women, had been another impediment and government is taking every step to reduce this sad phenomena. Turkey has achieved good results in the field of education. Unfortunately, social and cultural hindrances are creating havoc here and women are still excluded from taking advantage of all these ambitious projects. BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1. Agricultural Policy in Turkey (1974), Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris. 2. Environmental Policies in Turkey (1992), Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris. 3. National Policies and Agricultural Trade 1994), Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris. ONLINE SOURCES: 1. http://www.imf.org/external/am/2006/speeches/pr39e.pdf 2. http://www.ifad.org/operations/projects/regions/PN/factsheets/tr.pdf 3. http://www.un.org/Conferences/habitat/eng-pres/3/habist23.htm 4. http://www.undp.org.tr/Gozlem2.aspx?WebSayfaNo=29 5. http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/16/6/1885912.pdf 6. http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/WBI/0,,contentMDK:21013218~pagePK:209023~piPK:207535~theSitePK:213799,00.html 7. http://www.undp.org.tr/Gozlem2.aspx?WebSayfaNo=86 8. Read More