Women around the world continue to face challenges in accessing equal rights in economic, social, and political life. Civil society organizations and women’s movements have an important role in promoting reforms, influencing policies, and strengthening the legal frameworks that underpin gender equality and women’s rights.

The partner organizations active in Türkiye’s vibrant women’s movement are committed to ‘Leaving No One Behind.’ They provide services to the most vulnerable, including women with disabilities, refugee women, and rural women. Women’s organizations actively advocate on women’s behalf with the ‘duty bearers’ – those responsible for implementing Türkiye’s national and international commitments to women’s rights. Their knowledge, experience, and leadership are vital to Türkiye achieving its targets in the 2030 Agenda and implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

UN Women in Action in Türkiye

UN Women in Türkiye supports civil society organizations through its convening power, advocacy efforts, and catalytic programmes. UN Women creates platforms and opportunities that bring together civil society with policy makers and relevant stakeholders, ensuring that civil society voices, perspectives and demands are considered at all levels of policymaking. Such support means that women’s organizations can foster lasting and transformative change towards gender equality. 

UN Women launched the Strengthening civil society capacities and multi-stakeholder partnerships to advance women's rights and gender equality in Turkey - Strong Civic Space for Gender Equality project in Türkiye with the funding from the European Union. The Strong Civic Space for Gender Equality project aims to reduce gender inequalities in Türkiye by working with civil society organizations that are strong advocates for gender equality and women's rights. Here you may see the brochure for the results of the first phase of the Strong Civic Space for Gender Equality project which was implemented between 2021 - 2024. The second phase of the project will continue until October 2027.

Another initiative for multi-stakeholder partnerships in civil society is the 'Reimagining Gender Equality across Generations and Communities in Türkiye’ project, which received financial support from the Government of Norway in December 2023. This project aims to increase awareness of gender equality at the local and national levels and to build a discourse and approach that will enhance the impact of advocacy work in the field.