Dr. Ayşe Yorgancıoğlu, a board member of the SES Equality and Solidarity Association, attended the conference, organized by the United Nations Women Turkey office. She wrote about the “We Are Many and United” conference for the SES Equality Justice Women’s Platform.
On September 23, an important conference on civil society and gender equality took place. Hosted by UN Women Turkey and financed by the European Union, the civil society conference “We Are Many, We Are One” in Ankara discussed not only the importance of civil society for gender equality but also topics such as the significance of financing for civil society, strategies to support women in rural areas, and the importance of the Beijing Declaration.
I had the opportunity to attend this important gathering as a panelist, representing the SES Equality and Solidarity Association, alongside civil society representatives, academics, and policymakers from Turkey and abroad. I’d like to share with you some of the key points I emphasized during the panel.
SES Equality and Solidarity Association
As you may know, SES is an association that supports gender equality and solidarity in Turkey. As an organization, we believe that gender equality is the backbone of democracy, and in advocating for gender equality, we take the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as our roadmap.
In this context, we have been both implementing various projects and producing media content for the past six years. We compile and comment on news from Turkey and around the world from a feminist, egalitarian, and objective perspective. We distribute our Turkish and English newsletters to both decision-makers and the general readership. Through this, we believe we are fulfilling the function of being the media archive of the women’s movement.
UN HLPF and Systemic Collaboration
In 2022, with the support of UN Women, I had the opportunity to participate in the United Nations High-Level Political Forum (HLPF), representing our association. Attending these meetings increased the visibility of the Turkish civil society organizations advocating for gender equality in the global arena. It provided us with the chance to engage with global decision-makers. At the forum, many important topics were discussed, from girls being deprived of the right to education to the rollback of abortion rights, and how the climate crisis disproportionately affects women. But if you ask what my most important takeaway from the forum was, it is that the discussion kept circling back to the importance of collaboration among all players in the system.
We often ask ourselves why these inequalities cannot be solved. They cannot be solved because it is not enough for a single party or institution to work on the solutions to entrenched social problems. Meaningful results can only be achieved with the collaborative involvement of public institutions, civil society organizations, the private sector, the academic community, and broader segments of society, all working toward the same goal. Without such a broad-based partnership, true success cannot be fully realized.
The Importance of Macro and Micro Solidarity
This issue of collaboration is crucial not only at this macro level but also when we zoom in on civil society’s work and our individual efforts. This systemic collaboration perspective is essential for all of us. It is incredibly valuable to learn from the perspectives and good examples of different organizations working toward the same goal, to share our own experiences, and to establish new global networks and collaborations on a global scale.
While these learnings may initially seem like gains specific to civil society in Turkey, there is also a flow of knowledge from the local to the global—from Turkey to the world. Sharing our experiences from this region with other global stakeholders is crucial because the issues we are trying to overcome are both local and global in nature. Therefore, partnering with our global stakeholders is truly valuable for them as well. In the end, the same issues are being discussed in America, Poland, and Hungary, too. Thus, exchanging knowledge and collaborating with international networks is a tool that strengthens both the local and the global civil society.
Democratization and Gender Equality in Turkey
I would like to emphasize another crucial point: when we look at Turkey specifically, gender equality for us is not just a value in itself. As the esteemed scholar Deniz Kandiyoti has said, gender equality is the “litmus test of democracy” in our Turkey. Therefore, these efforts are vital for the democratization of the country and for rights and freedoms. Hence the work done by the civil society organizations and various collaborations, both locally and globally, are extremely valuable.
SES’s International Collaborations
With this perspective, I would like to share with you five international collaboration initiatives that SES is currently part of or plans to join in the near future.
• We are a member of the Vital Voices network.
Founded in 1997 by Hillary Clinton and Madeleine Albright, Vital Voices works in three main areas worldwide: human rights, equal economic opportunity, and political leadership. Every year, in collaboration with Vital Voices, we, as SES, organize the Istanbul leg of their global project, the “Women’s Mentoring Walk.”
• We are a member of the Connected Women Leaders (CWL) group.
This is a collective advocacy community that aims to achieve the goals announced at the UN Women Generation Equality Forum. Notable female leaders such as former Irish president Mary Robinson are part of this group.
• We are part of the Global Democracy Coalition and the only member from Turkey.
This is a multi-stakeholder alliance of over 100 democracy organizations worldwide, working to advance and protect democracy. It serves as a platform for dialogue, knowledge exchange, experience sharing, and advocacy.
• Closer relations with the EU and the renewed agenda of membership is a leverage issue for our mission. We value the embrace of the values surrounding this, and we believe it would be highly beneficial to bring our request for EU membership back to the forefront, especially through local governance. In this regard, we aim to work together with the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. We are planning a collaboration with the European University Institute, funded by the European Union, where we will bring together municipalities from Florence and Istanbul to develop joint projects focused on gender equality.
• Lastly, in the coming months, under the European Union’s Horizon research program on rebalancing democracy and capitalism, we are planning to organize a women’s rights and democratization conference in collaboration with SES, the University of Bath (UK), and Şişli Municipality as part of the Rebalance project.
Next Steps
For the near future, we have similar goals. But we also need support. Sometimes, small organizations can achieve things that larger organizations cannot. Their agility and reflexes can be better. They can move quickly and act on the ground. However, on the other hand, they are usually in need of financial support and capacity-building assistance.
This is where the support of institutions like UN Women makes an enormous difference for the civil society. Being able to collaborate on projects, receive financial support, and be included in international networks is incredibly meaningful to us. We hope that the Un Women’s support for civil society will continue to grow, and we can walk this path together, stronger.
Dr. Ayşe Yorgancıoğlu
SES Equality and Solidarity Association