Social & Ecological Transformation

Ünal Akkemik Belgrade Forest, to the north of Istanbul’s European coast, covers approximately 5300 hectares with mostly broadleaf trees. Recent archaeological excavations in Yenikapı confirm that...

The Heinrich Böll Stiftung Turkey Representation together with the Development Center Association and Traces of Seed Association is invits you to the conference between 16-17 November 2012, based on the book “Alternative and New Approaches to Rural Development” published by the Development Center Association in Turkish and Kurdish in 2011. During the two-day conference, the main topics will be “Food Sovereignty”, “Peasantry” and “Rural Development and Gender”. The first day will consist of panels addressing these topics followed by workshops on the second day of the conference.

In the last major set of economic crisis in 1990s the IMF made some serious mistakes that adversely affected the economies of many countries. Instead of acting as a lender of last resort, when it was most urgently needed, the Fund imposed procyclical policies and in (some cases) set unrealistic inflation targets that would be impossible to achieve, given the currency depreciation, without a severe economic contradiction

Women and girls, who are living in communities affected by extractive projects bear the brunt of environmental, social and economic impacts. Women for example mostly face livelihood loss, increased carework, forced prostitution and human traffiking, rape and sexually transmitted diseases due to the presence of extractive industries in their communities

Turkey′s post-crisis adjustments under the AKP administration traces the steps of many developing countries, which are dependent on foreign capital and are conditioned to adopt or maintain contradictonary policies. In order to secure ″investor confidence″ and ″international creditworthiness″, Turkey maintained high real rates of interest in anticipation of increased foreign capital inflow into the domestic economy

Today, the debate and advocacy about human rights has spread beyond its initial confines to numerious fields of action, though it´s unclear to which extent this change in attitude will impact governments an institutions, such as the World Bank. Looking at the institution of the World Bank today, it can be said,that most of its commitments to human rights has been largely rhetorical so far

Especially developing and low- and middle-income countries respectively are hit by the financial crisis in a heavy way, although they mostly did not play a vital role according to the dynamic processes which led to this situation.'The crisis' actually implies two components: a financial an a recession one. Not the fiscial system is hitting these countries in a harsh way, but the lack of trade with the high income countries

History shows that financial crisis have been distinctly harsh on women and poor. Especially when it comes to instability of jobs, women are hit harder than men, which is mostly connected with the sectors female workers are employed, aswell related with political inequity women in most societies still have to deal with. Summary of “The Current Economic and Financial Crisis: A Gender Perspective” by Rania Antonopoulos, March 20, 2009

Looking at the structure of the IMF governance it seems that it is much more a reflection of the world of 1944, when it was established, than of the world today. A hugh mismatch between the ′Northern countries′ and the mid- and low- income countries, with a dominant position of the USA according to the decision-making process, can stil be seen

There can not be any fair and equitable global climate agreement, if there will not be a comprehensive global climate financing understanding, And the latter can only have a fair, equitable and comprehensive character, if it includes and incorporates gender awareness and strives toward gender equitable climate financing solutions