What is the project about?

Efficient use of resources such as land, soil, energy, raw material, technology, and human capital in the economic production processes play a crucial role for achieving sustainable development as well as competitive growth at national and regional levels.

The project will contribute to the improvement of the competitiveness of GAP Region by ensuring effective and efficient use of factors of production and resources in agricultural production and agro-industries. The project is being implemented in close cooperation by UNDP and GAP Regional Development Administration (GAP RDA).

What has been the situation?

The agriculture sector accounts for approximately 9% of Turkey’s Gross Added Value, while this figure is about 17.6% in Southeast Anatolia Region.

The effective and efficient use of resources in production processes is a primary principle adopted by the GAP Regional Development Administration. In this context, the GAP Master Plan drafted in the late 1980s aimed to develop the region along a sustainable axis; and the GAP Competitiveness Agenda prepared by the cooperation of GAP RDA and UNDP in 2007 aimed to use the regional resources effectively and efficiently, and thereby position the Region as the “sustainable cradle of civilizations”.

In line with this vision, GAP Organic Agriculture Cluster (OAC) Development and Utilization of Renewable Energy Resources and Increasing Energy Efficiency in Southeast Anatolia Region (RE&EE) projects implemented by GAP RDA with technical cooperation of UNDP aimed at effective and efficient use of factors of production such as natural resources (soil, water, energy), raw materials, technology, and human capital. 

What is our mission?

The project aims to model and promote the most efficient use of resources including particularly water and energy in agricultural production and agricultural product processing as dominant sectors in GAP Region, and increase efficiency in primary production and processing. 

How are we doing this?

The project will achieve its objectives through strategic and regional products/value chains identified by a filtering approach which will constitute backbone of the project strategy; maturity models developed for the regional strategic products/value chains to asses and synthesize the levels of resource efficiency in agriculture and agro-based industries; regional strategical framework developed to define economic, social and environmental priorities and leverages  for the regional strategic products; replicable and scalable pilot projects implemented at farm and enterprise levels in alignment with the maturity models and strategical framework; sustainability structure supported by governance and coordination mechanism as well as communication, capacity and competency development and dissemination strategies and actions. The project will be implemented through four components as follows:

• Baseline Analysis: Assessing the current situation in agriculture and agro-industries in Southeast Anatolia Region using global and national trends and benchmarks,
• Strategic Planning: Development of the strategic framework for integrated resource efficiency in agriculture and agro-industries,
• Pilot Actions: Creating scalable and replicable models to increase resource efficiency through pilot projects,
• Building Sustainability Infrastructure: Building sustainability infrastructure to sustain the impact of the project.

The project will benefit both from GAP RDA’s and UNDP’s vast experience on rural development, agricultural clustering, gender mainstreaming, energy efficiency and renewable energy, total factor productivity, biodiversity and ecosystem services.

How will Turkey benefit?

Efficient use of resources in economic activities is among the priorities of both national and global policy agenda. In national context, the 10. National Development Plan (2014-2018) puts particular importance to ensuring effective and efficient use of resources in order to increase competitiveness in agriculture and industry, and ensure sustainability. In global context, transition to resource-efficient economies became a major agenda item in the world in the last decade. The European Union established a Union-wide institutional structure and policy framework to develop the European economy into a more resource-efficient framework. UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) also prioritize efficiency and hence the project contributes to the SDGs and the corresponding objectives of each goal.

The project addresses efficient use of resources such as land, soil, water, energy, raw material, technology and human capital in the economic production processes which in hence contributes to sustainable development and competitive advantage of the GAP Region. The project will serve as a model which illustrates how environmental sustainability and socio-economic development can work hand-in-hand.