New US$2.5 million initiative prioritizes vocational training to meet industry needs while bringing vulnerable groups into the labor force

Istanbul, 17 July 2023 – The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) today announced a new US$2.5 million initiative to fill up to 3,500 vacant positions in the textile industry and related sectors in the earthquake-affected region while integrating women and other underserved groups into the labor market. The new program, funded by the Government of Sweden with additional contributions from Korea and Finland, is aimed at addressing the acute labor shortages that have emerged with the outward migration of skilled workers from the south and southeast of Türkiye after the devastating earthquakes of February 2023.

The new initiative was announced today at a UNDP-convened meeting of textile producers in Istanbul.

The program builds on an ongoing UNDP partnership with the Education Foundation of the Istanbul Apparel Exporters' Association (IHKIB) that was forged in 2022 with an eye to finding durable employment for unemployed Syrian refugees and host community members in “labor-absorptive” industries like textiles. The idea here was to challenge the stereotype that refugees were “stealing” jobs from host community members by identifying labor market sectors where demand for workers was going unmet. Even before the earthquakes, the textile industry was experiencing a voracious need for new workers. 

“The earthquakes have stood our assumptions on their heads,” said UNDP Resident Representative Louisa Vinton. “Now we see an entire region where industrial producers are growing desperate to find and retain employees. So the solution we aim to apply together with our private sector partners is to provide vocational training as widely as possible to bring women and other underrepresented groups into the workforce.” 

UNDP is focusing on the textile sector (including also apparel and shoes) owing to its overall role in the Turkish economy – it accounts for around 7 percent of GDP and 2.9 percent of exports and employs up to 2.5 million people overall – and its outsize role in the 11 earthquake-affected provinces – where 1,616 garment and 1,290 textile companies operated before the disaster, employing up to 350,000 people. Estimates vary, but the earthquakes are believed to have reduced this number by more than half. 

“The goal of the initiative that we are launching today is to create decent and sustainable job opportunities in the Turkish apparel and textile sectors for people who have been left jobless by the earthquakes, including refugees,” said İlker Karataş, IHKIB Education Foundation Board Member. “In helping vulnerable and traumatized people get back on their feet after the earthquakes, this project and similar support initiatives will also work to accelerate the recovery of vital industrial sectors, including textiles and apparel.”

Based on a range of studies and guidelines presented at the meeting, UNDP plans in the short term to provide on-the-job vocational training to 500 newly hired textile workers in the earthquake zone, while extending broader life skills training and psychosocial support to 3,000 textile workers and their families. Psychosocial support has been identified unanimously by industry representatives as a key need for their workers, spurring a commitment by UNDP to establish a Vocational Mental Health Center in Hatay. While seeking to remedy labor shortages, UNDP will also work with employers to meet “decent work” standards. 

Looking ahead, UNDP plans to expand the vocational training program to ensure employment of at least another 3,000 people in the textile sector, and also to roll out a support program oriented specifically to the needs of producers of handmade shoes in Hatay. These initiatives will be closely coordinated with an ongoing US$4.5 million UNDP program to provide recovery grants to small businesses in all 11 earthquake-affected provinces, and additional vocational training, business support and social care initiatives that the organization has under way both within and outside the earthquake region.

For more information: 

Umut Dulun, Communications Associate for UNDP in Türkiye, umut.dulun@undp.org