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I P A T U R K E YH R D O P I M P L E M E N T A T I O N M A N U A L ANNEX

H.01.

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INSTRUMENT FOR PRE-ACCESSION ASSISTANCEHUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT COMPONENT

OPERATION IDENTIFICATION SHEET

1. Title of the Operation: Strengthening the Impact of the Conditional Cash Transfer Programme in Turkey for Increasing High School Attendance

2. Operating Structure: The Ministry of Labour and Social Security (MoLSS) – EU Coordination Department

3. Organisation Responsible for the Implementation of the Operation: Ministry of Family and Social Policy (MoFSP)

4. Compatibility and coherence with the Operational Programme4.1 Title and number of the Programme: Human Resources Development Operational Programme – CCI No. 2007TR05IPO001

4.2 Title of the priority axis: Priority Axis 2: To enhance investment in human capital by increasing the quality of education, improving the linkage between education and the labour market, and raising enrolment rates at all levels of education, especially for girls.

4.3 Title of the measure:Measure 2.1: To increase enrolment rates particularly for girls with a view to developing female human resources and access to labour market. 5. Description of the Operation

5.1 Contribution to the achievement of the Operational Programme:

This Operation will focus on the second priority axis of the HRD OP, whose objective is described as “To enhance investment in human capital by increasing the quality of education, improving the linkage between education and the labour market, and raising enrolment rates at all levels of education, especially for girls.

More specifically, the Operation will contribute to the implementation of Measure 2.1 of the HRD OP which intends “To increase enrolment rates particularly for girls with a view to developing female human resources and access to labour market. In this respect, the Operation will aim at strengthening poor students’ attendance rates and decreasing early school leaving and early school leaving rates at high school level through removing the financial obstacles by providing monetary support for high school attendance.

M I N I S T R Y O F L A B O U R A N D S O C I A L S E C U R I T YI P A I V – H U M A N R E S O U R C E S D E V E L O P M E N T

A N N E X P a g eH . 0 1 . O I S O P E R A T I O N I D E N T I F I C A T I O N S H E E T 2/26V E R S I O N : M A N U A L : 5 . 0 – D E C E M B E R , 2 0 1 3

C H A P T E R : 1 . 0 – D E C E M B E R , 2 0 1 3

As stated in the HRD OP, for enhancing human capital the very first challenge is the low school attendance rate especially for girls at all levels of education, particularly in secondary education and Vocational Education Training (VET). In this regard, this Operation will contribute to the achievement of the mentioned objectives through, firstly, by decreasing early school leaving rates of disadvantaged high school girls and boys by providing financial support; secondly, by reaching the target group and stakeholders through regional focus group studies, informative meetings and enhancing the institutional capacity of the Directorate General for Social Assistance (GDSA) Programme of the Ministry of Family and Social Policies(MoSFP) and Ministry of National Education(MoNE) .Since, the main target group of the Operation is high school students in poverty, which will be described further in the following parts, this Operation will also contribute to the achievement of the objectives of Measure 4.1 of the HRD OP, which aims at social inclusion of disadvantaged persons. In the long term it is expected that as having graduated from high school is positively correlated with higher chance of being employed, the Operation will also facilitate girls’ labour market participation. This operation will contribute to the achievement of diminishing low school attendance rate particularly in secondary education also through initiating a coherent collaboration between MoSFP and MoNE on the field activities which will be provided for the target group. A comprehensive Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)1 which is ensuring this collaboration is signed between MoNE and MoFSP. By having signed this MoU with MoFPS, MoNE has reassured to collaborate with MoFSP firstly on finalizing to design all activities under service component during preparation of Terms of Reference (ToR) of Operation and then take part in implementation phase.

Particularly, the Operation will contribute to the following indicators stated in the HRD OP:

- Number of girls accessed to secondary education as a result of programme intervention

- Number of early-school leavers accessing education again as a result of programme intervention

- Number of parents who are given counseling - Number of families persuaded to send their daughters to school.

5.2 Overall Objective: To increase school attendance rates of young boys and girls who are at the age of high school education and in poverty.

5.3 Operation Purpose: The purpose of this Operation is to provide additional financial support for increasing school attendance rates of high school students in poverty who are potential and current beneficiaries of Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) Programme2 with a view to reducing the risk of early school leaving. This purpose will be attained through the following:

- Strengthening the effect of the CCT programme on attendance rates in high school by providing financial incentives for high school students in poverty who are potential and current beneficiaries of the CCT programme (9th, 10th and 11th grades),

1 The original Turkish version of the MoU with signatures and translated version are attached to the OIS. 2 Conditional Cash Transfer Programme is a conditional cash assistance programme in Turkey implemented by GDSA. Implementation details of the programme are described under section of 5.7 (Description of the Operation and Background).




- Increasing the high school attendance rates of both male and female students who are CCT beneficiaries and potential CCT beneficiaries by supporting them to the last level of high school education

- Diminishing the high early school leaving rates of CCT high school students and potential CCT high school students

5.4 Location(s):

The base of Operation will be Ankara. The activities of the Operation will cover 81 provinces of Turkey.

5.5 Duration:

Service Component: 12 monthsDirect Grant Component: 15 months

5.6 Target group(s):

In accordance with its objective and purpose, the Operation addresses below target groups indicated under the Measure 2.1 of the HRD OP, which are:

- High school students (9th, 10th and 11th grades) who are CCT beneficiaries and potential beneficiaries of the CCT programme in the same grades who are early school leavers, as well as the parents (preferably mothers) of the aforementioned groups.

5.7 Description of the Operation and background:

5.7.1. Poverty and Conditional Cash Transfer

The terms of poverty and social exclusion are two major issues on the agenda especially since the 2001 and 2008 global financial crises have hit many countries dramatically. It is commonly recognized that the impact of the global financial crisis has led to an additional rise in poverty and social exclusion specifically in developing as well as developed countries, while it was previously a common phenomenon predominantly for undeveloped countries for decades. The term of “Poverty” has more than one definition based on different methods and approaches. According to one of these definitions, poverty is about not having enough money to meet basic needs including nutriment, clothing and shelter. However, poverty has more aspects, much more than just not having enough money or food. The World Bank Organization (WBO) describes poverty in a multi-approach way3; poverty is hunger, lack of shelter, being sick and not being able to see a doctor, not having access to school and not knowing how to read, or not having a job, fear for the future or living one day at a time.

Children are the ones most dramatically affected by poverty on the basic level beginning from the very early stages of life. According to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) the legal definition of children is "people under the age of eighteen". According to UNICEF "children living in poverty are those who experience deprivation of the material, spiritual and emotional resources needed to survive, develop and thrive, leaving them unable to enjoy their rights, achieve their full potential or participate as full and equal members of society".

Worldwide child poverty is even worse than the common poverty with underlying myriad causes for the future poverty which is defined as cycle of poverty. The situation of cycle of poverty which is also referred as intergenerational cycle of poverty or chronic poverty occurs when a family remains in poverty over many consecutive generations without having any chance or human capital to produce any exit strategy from poverty situation. Within this context poverty is

33 www.worldbank.org /en/topic/poverty


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycle_of_poverty



not only associated with lack of financial resources, but also with lack of any internal desire to improve the situation which only attained by having equal opportunity to access to the basic needs in order to complete physical development and basic services such as education and health to advance mentally starting from the very early period of life4. Reducing child poverty and investing on children have been recognized by most of the governments as a way to break this cycle especially through the Universal Declaration of Human Rights introduced by United Nations in 1948. Improving the quality of education and progressing in tools to eliminate the obstacles for accession to education services provided to the poor is seen by most as the best way to break this cycle. Improving the environment the child grows up in, ensuring access to health, providing financial incentives (either through benefit schemes or reducing taxes) and promoting family values have all been suggested as ways to break the cycle. Boys and girls have equal rates of poverty through their childhoods; as women enter their teens and childbearing years the rates of poverty between the genders broadens. Globally, women are far more disadvantaged than men and poor children are more likely to live in female-headed households.

To tackle chronic poverty or cycle of poverty or intergenerational cycle of poverty, governments need to build a solid foundation and inclusive policies and strategies. Policies covering inclusive plans are referred as social protection which is associated with preventing, managing, and overcoming situations that adversely affect people’s well-being5. An inclusive social protection consists of performing policies and implementing programmes designed to reduce poverty and vulnerability by promoting efficient labour markets, diminishing people's exposure to risks, and enhancing their capacity to manage economic and social risks, such as unemployment, exclusion, sickness, disability and old age6. Investing more on social expenditures is a key indicator for countries for succeeding to build a social protection system.

Conditional cash transfers (CCT) are one of the important assistance tools used as a part of a social protection system. CCT programmes transfer cash, generally to very poor households, on the condition that those households make pre-specified investments in the human capital of their children or themselves. Education conditions usually include school enrolment, attendance on 80–85 percent of school days and occasionally some measure of performance. Most CCT programmes transfer the money to the mother of the household or to the student in some circumstances. Currently there are more than 20 countries implementing CCTs worldwide. Turkey is one of these countries implementing CCT programme since 2003 with a stable political support to combat its poverty problem.

5.7.2. Poverty, Education and Labour Market in Turkey

In spite of progress in the past decades poverty and social exclusion are also a fact in Turkey. Unequal distribution of income is still one of the most crucial hitches in Turkey, though the Gini coefficient has a decreasing tendency in the last decade. However, the values are not known for the period between 1994 and 2002, where the Gini coefficient, which was 0.49 in 1994, has decreased to 0.44 in 2002 and then, lastly in 2013 it has decreased to 0.402 7. The macroeconomic steadiness sustained especially after 2001, the decreasing trend in inflation rate, increasing rate of social transfers towards low-income groups and improvements in sectoral policies especially in education and health could be listed as main reasons for this significant progression. Although there is a descending tendency in the Gini coefficient values that reflects a less unequal distribution of income, income distribution is more unequal in Turkey than in the EU (0.305 for EU 18 countries8).44 Sophia Addy, William Engelhardt, Curtis Skinner, “Basic Facts About Low-income Children”, Mailman School of Public Health Colombia University, New York, 2011.5 United Nations Research Institute for Social Development6 World Bank, 2001, Social Protection Sector Strategy Paper: From Safety Net to Springboard. Washington DC, USA7 TURKSTAT, Income and Living Conditions Survey, September, 20138 EUROSTAT, 2013




On the other hand, according to the TURKSTAT data regarding population under poverty line by educational status in 2010, the percentage of poverty for illiterate youth is 63.9 %. This rate is 49.9 % for men and 67.7 % for women. This rate is 11.0 % for young people graduated from high or upper schools. These numbers also approve that education is significant not only for employment prospects, but also for chronic poverty risk of the young people. Another result that could be revealed from these indicators is the relationship between employment rate of young people and level of education. Low level of education is more likely to result in low labour force participation with lower salaries, while higher education participation is more likely to result lower level of unemployment. Educational attainment level of the labour force is also low compared to EU countries. In 2005, 62 % of the labour force had under secondary school level of education and only 12 % of total labour force is high school and university graduates. Labour force participation rate is positively related with education level and this relation is more striking for women. Labour force participation of women is 31 % for upper secondary school graduates where it rises to 70 % for high school and university graduates.

One of the main reasons behind the high youth unemployment and low labour force participation rate in Turkey is the low level of education or leaving school earlier without any degree among young people. With the respect of educational attainment, despite the improvements particularly in the enrolment rate in primary education, which has rose from 80% to 98% in the period of 2002 to 2014 , the enrolment rate at secondary level is still low with 82%. Furthermore, there are also regional and gender differences at all levels of education. In fact, the low attendance rate at secondary education level and high early school leaving rates particularly for girls are the main challenges in increasing qualifications of the young people.

5.7.3. Poverty and Early School Leaving in Turkey

Early school leaving (ESL) is defined by European Commission as young people between the age of 12 and 23 who leave education and training without a degree or with only a lower secondary level degree9. ESL is a multi-dimensional and complex problem caused by a cumulative process of disengagement. Personal, social, economic, education or family-related reasons are of the underlying causes of ESL. Reducing ESL can help towards the integration of young people into the labour market, and contribute to breaking the cycle of deprivation that leads to the social exclusion of too many young people10.

ESL is one of the most challenging problems for most of the European Union Countries (EUC) which lead to higher unemployment rates, and to large public and social costs. In 2012, 12.7% of all 18 to 24 years olds had not completed upper secondary education, which means approximately 5.5 million young people, and were no longer in education and training11. Hence, setting the 10% headline target on the level of ESL is one of the five EU targets for 202012.

ESL rates among EUCs show a heterogenic structure, some have rates well below the European headline target of 10% and some other still have very high rates above 30%. Turkey, Portugal, Spain and Malta have the highest ESL rates compared to other EUCs with the total rate of above 30%, while Croatia, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Poland and Slovenia have the lowest rates around 5%13. These differences are in part due to certain characteristics of the education

9 European Commission, 2006. 10 Reducing Early School Leaving: Key Messages and Policy Support, Final Report of the Thematic Working Group on Early School Leaving, November 2013.11Labour Force Survey 2012 http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm/table.do?tab=table&init=1&language=en&pcode=tsdsc410&plugin=112 Europe 2020. A strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, COM (2010)2020; http://ec.europa.eu/europe2020/index_en.htm13 EUROSTAT


MINISTRY OF FAMILY AND SOCIAL POLICY

THE FUND BOARD

GENERAL DIRECTORATE OF SOCIAL ASSISTANCE

SOCIAL ASSISTANCE AND SOLIDARITY FOUNDATIONS

(1000)



system, but also to historical, economic, and social reasons. In most countries, boys are more likely to leave school prematurely than girls. ESL is higher in VET than in general education although good quality VET can be successful in helping many young people complete upper secondary education14.

When researches on reasons of dropout in high school are examined, these reasons are classified as familial, individual, social and educational reasons. Studies indicate that there are early or forced marriages and domestic forced working for especially girls, low educated parents, problematic behaviors of teenager, failure of lessons, self-distrust or distrust against teachers or school, social-economic problems causing forced to work, school expenses not to be met among these reasons of dropout in high school. Besides, it is revealed that early school leaving reasons depend on multi-variants rather than only a variant. In other words, students may leave school earlier because of both familial and educational reasons or their social problems cause individual reasons.

According to the report called “Policy Recommendations of Repetition of the Grade, Reasons of Dropout and Children Outside the Formal Education in High School” prepared by MoNE and UNICEF, the highest leaving rates occurred in 9th grade with 6,8% and failure of lessons was revealed as the most important reason of early leaving school in Turkey (37.1%). Other important factors include dislike of school (27.8%), forced to work (20.0%) and difficulty in meeting the costs (16.6%) because of economic problems.

Even though the rate of early school leaving because of economic problems is approximately %37, it is possible to say that socio-economic problems may cause other reasons such as failure of lessons, dislike of school, early marriage and domestic forced working.15

5.7.4. Combating Poverty in Turkey and General Directorate of Social Assistance

As stated in the previous section, despite progress, poverty, social exclusion and as a result the number of people with lack of chance to reach education is still one of the most challenging problems in Turkey.

Turkey has a long past in poverty alleviation pursuit, however has a short history in the implementation of widely spread and coherent social assistance programmes as just as three decades. Social Assistance and Solidarity Fund has been founded in 1986 according to Law No. 3294 which is the most comprehensive law defining the principles of social assistances and explaining the term of “living in poverty” for the first time in Turkey. Social Assistance and Solidarity Foundations (SASFs), local branches to reaching assistances to citizens, have been established in every province and sub province of Turkey through this law.

General Directorate of Social Assistance (GDSA) has been carrying out its activities under the umbrella of Republic of Turkey's Ministry of Family and Social Policies (MoFSP), through 1000 SASFs located in all provinces and sub-provinces across the country since 1986 by using Social Assistance and Solidarity Fund resources. MoFSP’s fundamental responsibility is to make social policies for Turkey and implement social assistance and service programmes.

14 Reducing Early School Leaving: Key Messages and Policy Support, Final Report of the Thematic Working Group on Early School Leaving, November 2013.

15




Figure 1: The Structure of Ministry of Family and Social Policy in the context of social assistances.

Social Assistance and Solidarity Fund (SAS Fund) is the only resource for the assistance programmes. GDSA is the only governmental institution responsible for implementing nationwide social assistance programmes according to Law no.3294 which is the law also defining all the principles for the eligibility criteria for social assistance programmes in Turkey.

According to law no.3294, the terms of “living in poverty” , and “eligibility criteria” are defined as;

“The Turkish citizens/households or residing foreigners/households who have no social security from any formal institution, who are not receiving any regular pension from any of these formal institutions, and the people who could become beneficial and productive for the society if any monetary or educational support would be provided.

Or people who have social security from formal institutions, and receiving regular pension from any of these formal institutions, but living in a household in which the monthly income or expenditure per capita is below approximately 100 Euro which is calculated by dividing the national minimum wage amount into 3 (it is subject to change due to the amount of minimum wage changes).”

Programmes are basically divided into 5 different categories; Family Assistances, Education Assistances, Assistances for Specific Purposes, Thematic Central Regular Cash Transfers and Allowance Programmes to the Specific Groups.

SASFs have their own legal personality declared by the private law and they have their own local community-based decision-making bodies consisted of selected and appointed members which are defined in the Law No. 3294. “Local Board of Trustees” consists of representatives of municipality, several government units, philanthropist locals and NGOs, as well as Mukhtar. The head of the Board of Trustees is the administrative chief. The structure of decision-making body of Foundations consists of equal number of assigned and selected members. The Foundations are headed by the Governors at the provincial level and the other appointed representatives of Local Board of Trustees include Provincial Director of Finance, Provincial Director of Education, Provincial Director of Health, Provincial Director of Agriculture, Provincial Director of Family and Social Policy and Provincial Mufti. The selected representatives in provinces include Mayor, Village Mukhtar, Neighborhood Mukhtar, Representatives of NGOs and Charitable Persons. The district governors head Foundations at the sub-provincial level and other appointed members are Sub-provincial Director of Finance, Sub-Provincial Director of Education, Sub-provincial Chief of Health, Sub-provincial Director of Agriculture and District Mufti. The selected representatives in sub-provinces include Mayor, Village Mukhtar, Neighborhood Mukhtar, Representatives of NGOs and Charitable Persons (see Appendix-2-The Structure of Social Assistance and Solidarity Foundations- for detailed information).

GDSA and 1000 SAS Foundations are legally related with each other. All the decisions of the SASFs should be in compliance with the regulations defined by the GDSA and the Law no.3294.

All the applications are accepted by SASFs. Local Foundations are responsible for determining the final beneficiaries for all programmes according to the principles and rules determined by GDSA which are in compliance with the Law No. 3294 (see Appendixes-3- The Eligibility Criteria for People Living in Poverty- and 5- General Application Processes- for detailed information).


EDUCATION

PRESCHOOL CHILDREN (ages 4-5)

PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN (ages 5-14)

SECONDARY SCHOOL

CHILDREN(ages 14-20)

HEALTH

CHILDREN AGES0-5

PREGNANT WOMEN

From the 13.week

LACTATING WOMEN

2 months after birth



5.7.5. Conditional Cash Transfer Programme in Turkey

In Turkey, CCT programme has been implemented by the GDSA since 2003 with education and health components in which almost 1.5 billion Euros has been allocated to about 3.5 million beneficiary households. In order to be paid regularly in CCT, students (ages 5-20) have to attend school regularly and children (ages 0-6) have to be taken to health centres regularly. All the compliances are being monitored by GDSA from the databases of Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education by the means of Integrated Social Assistance Services Information System (ISASIS), which is a web-based software system being used by all SAS Foundations (see Appendix-4- Integrated Social Assistance Services Information System- for detailed information).

The conditional education grants are provided to children of the target group on school enrolment condition, from the pre-school period to the end of the twelfth grade. Once qualified as beneficiaries, children should maintain at least 80 per cent attendance rate in a month to continue to receiving monthly payments regularly (see Appendix-6- The Structure of CCT Programme in Turkey- for detailed information).

Figure 3: The components and the target groups of CCT programme in Turkey.

The amounts of individual payments vary according to different components. Girls are paid higher amounts than boys in education component to encourage poor families to send their daughters to school. Besides, due to increasing early school leaving rates in higher grades, secondary school (9th-12th grades) students are paid higher amounts than primary school ones in order to ensure the effect of the programme on decreasing the early school leaving rates in high school education (Table 1).

GRADEPayments Monthly(T

L)Payments Monthly(€)

EDU

CATI

ON

Male Primary School Student (1th-8th grades) 35 12Female Primary School Student (1th-8th grades) 45 14Male Secondary School Student (8th-12th grades) 50 17Female Secondary School Student (8th-12th grades) 60 21

HEA

LT Children ages 0-5 35 12Pregnant women (only for 9 months) 35 12Women gave birth in hospital (just for one) 75 26




H Lactating women (only for 2 months) 35 12 Table 1: Monthly individual payment amounts of CCT programme in Turkey.

Currently, there are about 1 million beneficiary households with almost 2.1 million beneficiaries who are paid regularly in the CCT system. Of these beneficiaries, almost 1.6 million (75%) are education and 500 thousand (25%) are health beneficiaries. The distribution of male and female education beneficiaries are almost the same in all grades.

5.7.6. CCT Level Attendance Incentive Operation

The CCT programme in Turkey can be regarded as a successful endeavour within some aspects. It has proved its advancement in the context of targeting poor families and in raising attendance rates for both genders which have also been supported by two different impact studies conducted in 200616 and 201117. According to the study conducted in 2011, the targeting mechanism of the CCT programme works well in the context of finding disadvantaged households, with the results nearly 22% of the beneficiaries are illiterate and 53% of them have only primary education that lead to difficulties in finding employment. It is also stated in the same study that the CCT programme has been effective in increasing secondary school enrolment ratios particularly in urban areas. Besides, the empirical results indicated that high school CCT beneficiaries had higher secondary school attendance rates and lower absenteeism rates compared to the treatment group who had applied to CCT program, but been denied to be beneficiaries.

On the other hand, besides the positive impacts on the attendance rates, it is also revealed that the percentage of beneficiaries who have been aware the fact that in CCT programme secondary school students receive more monthly payment compared to primary school students increased from 34.5 per cent to 37.07 per cent for beneficiaries in 2012. This awareness and the amount of payments are also expected to play an important role in changing parents’ attitudes towards high school attendance.

However, the programme has also some inadequacies especially in achieving high attendance rates in high school, which was also specified by the studies. Even though enrolment to high school is done automatically by Ministry of National Education (MoNE), 45 days school absence results in failing grade for the first year and in the following year failing class again results in automatically registering to distant education. Within CCT programme, the distribution of beneficiaries in different grade levels is significantly different. The number of the CCT students is declining drastically as the grade level increases (Graph 1). Considering the fact that secondary school education is the only way to access higher education which is probably linked with skilled jobs with higher salaries, while primary school is reasonably linked with unskilled jobs with lower salaries; raising the number of secondary school students in CCT programme should be one of the most important strategies for fighting with intergenerational poverty in Turkey.

16 Ozdemir, S., Acar, M., Kose, N., Ocal, J., Boyacı, A., Sezgin, F., 2011. “Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of Impact of Conditional Cash Transfer Programme in Turkey”. Gazi University.17 Ahmed, Akhter, Michelle Adato, Ayse Kudat, Daniel Gilligan, and Refik Colasan. 2006. “Interim Impact Evaluation of the Conditional Cash Transfer Programme in Turkey: A Quantitative Assessment.” International Food Policy Research Institute.




Graph 1: Distribution of male and female Education CCT beneficiaries.

Besides the negative effects on the chance of employability stated above, leaving high school education increases the risk of early-age marriages especially for girls. Insufficient family income for covering approaching academic year expenditures, such as new clothes or new books, might still be considered as one of the most important reasons why families tend to force their children to leave school, especially in higher grades.

The current numbers of high school CCT students in 2013-2014 education semesters also supports the fact that early school leaving rates still show an increasing tendency (Table 2)18. The average early school leaving rate for CCT high school beneficiaries is 31.06%; 29.84% for female students and 32.27% for male students. The highest rates are seen in 9 th grade for female students with 33% and in 10th grade for male students with the rate of 52%. The table also indicates that the early school leaving rates are decreasing dramatically in the last grade for both genders which probably means that the students enrolled up to 11th grade are most likely to continue to 12th grade in any way.

GRADENumber of

FEMALE CCT Beneficiaries

Number of MALE CCT

Beneficiaries

% of LOSS in FEMALE CCT Beneficiaries compared to

previous grade

% of LOSS in MALE CCT Beneficiaries compared to

previous grade

8 83.377 87.270 --- ---9 55.850 72.021 -33,02 -17,4710 39.316 34.534 -29,6 -52,0511 28.732 25.103 -26,92 -27,3112 28.421 25.423 -1,08 1,27

AVERAGE (12th grades are excluded) -29,846 -32,276

Table 2: Early school leaving rates of CCT beneficiaries in high school education

Early school leaving is still a big problem for CCT programme as stated above, and except for the impact evaluation studies about CCT programme in Turkey, there are also some other studies searched for underlying reasons for early school leaving. There are some studies reveal the importance of economic problems in leaving school. The study “Drop Outs in Turkey's Basic Education – policies for monitoring and prevention” done by Mother Child Education Foundation (AÇEV) in 2006 indicates that the main reasons of early school leaving include economic, socio-cultural and familial issues. M. Ozer also reveals that the children of families who have socio-economic problems form the most hazardous group in the context of leaving school19. Besides, according to Hosgor & Smits (2006), the main indicator of the children’s school enrolment and

18 The numbers stated in Table 2 are derived from CCT system by the end of August 2014. It indicates the numbers of high school CCT students in 2013-2014 semesters and it is subject to change due to the changes of numbers of high school CCT students in the next years. 19 Özer, M., İlköğretim Okulları Ikinci Kademe (Ortaokul) Öğrencilerinin Öğrenimi Terk Etme Sorununun Analizi, Yayınlanmamış Yüksek Lisans Tezi. Ankara Üniversitesi Eğitim Bilimleri Enstitüsü, 1991, Ankara.




attendance is the education level of the parents20. Besides, the study done by Tansel21 (2002) and a research conducted by MoNE & UNICEF (2013) also support this result.

In the light of these findings, it can be assumed that the main reasons of early school leaving are socio-economic problems and parents’ education level. In this context, the target group of this Operation, the CCT beneficiaries, will be consist from the poorest and low-educated people. Additional financial support which will be provided by the Operation is supposed to increase the school attendance for the target group. Besides, taking into account that the only reason of early school leaving is not only economic issues, the beneficiaries and their parents will be supported through awareness raising activities about importance of education; the relation of education and employability; and also the effect of education on decreasing poverty, other further reasons such as seasonal agricultural work, working in minimum wage or low-skill jobs, transition to distance high school, domestic labour imposed on the girl child, early and forced marriages, gender stereotypes.

In addition to awareness raising activities, in line with additionality principle, the activities such as individual guidance or counseling services which are currently provided by MoNE and other national resources will be enhanced under the service component funded by EU Funds. MoFSP currently has no training, counseling or guidance programs and awareness raising activities targeting high school students in the risk of early school leaving. However, MoNE has some standard guidance services although directly targeting early school leavers, but all the students; provided by counseling teachers, for students having school-related problems and some pilot activities such as orientation programs for the 9th grades. The activities related to the goals of this operation currently provided by MoNE will be specified in collaboration with MoNE and activities under service component will be designed in the line with additionality principle.

Due to the abovementioned reasons, it is assumed that adding extra incentives into CCT education programme aiming to support high school education attendance would provide stronger reinforcement for the CCT families. The scope of this operation is to provide grants for parents (preferably mothers) of high school (9th, 10th and 11th grades) CCT beneficiaries suffering from lack of financial resources to cover educational expenditures especially in the beginning of each year. Operational incentives will be provided for the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 academic years. High school CCT beneficiaries and their parents will also benefit from the activities conducted in the context of service component of the Operation.

This operation will have added value in six respects. First of all, by means of the EU contribution to GDSA under this operation, approximately 30% reduction in the early school leaving among the existing high school level beneficiaries of the CCT programme will be achieved; namely about additional 35.00022 CCT high school beneficiaries will be enrolling higher grades and continuing their high school education in first year. The second added value will be ensuring awareness among high school CCT and potential CCT beneficiaries and their parents on the services provided by the GDSA and MoNE, particularly CCT programme and the operation, Various occupations that students may be involved during their high school education.. The third added value, through education counsellors, beneficiary students and their parents will be provided with regular tailor-made guidance services in order to increase awareness on the importance of education. The fourth added value will strengthen institutional capacity of MoNE by ensuring active participation of MoNE trainers into trainings on Pyscoeducation, group psychological guidance and counseling programmes. The fifth one will be improving the visibility of the CCT programme among public and stakeholders, particularly among beneficiaries and transforming CCT programme to a more robust national programme with the engagement of other relevant actors in the field of education. The final added value will be institutional 20 Hoşgör, A. G. & Smits, J., Effects of Family Background Characteristics on Educational Participation in Turkey, International Journal of Educational Development, 26, 2006, pages 545‐560.21 Tansel, A., Determinants of school attainment of boys and girls in Turkey: individual, household and community factors, Economics of Education Review, 21, 2002, 455‐470.22 The additional number of high school CCT students is an estimation based on data derived from CCT system. The data indicates the numbers of 2013-2014 semesters and it is subject to change due to the changes of numbers of high school CCT students in the next years.




capacity building which will increase the effectiveness of GDSA’s, SASFs’ and MoNE's services aiming at CCT beneficiaries potencial CCT beneficiaries through providing structured trainings and also informative and awareness raising activities in order to make them more capable of handling early school leaving problem.

Within this scope, there will be one Direct Grant and one Service Contract under this Operation. With regards to Direct Grant component; for the years of 2014 and 2015, financial incentives will be paid completely in line with the regular implementation of the CCT programmes in Turkey until December of each year for each high school CCT beneficiary through the CCT system on the condition of attendance to 9th, 10th and 11th grades (Table 3). The amount of incentives provided to each beneficiary under the operation for each year will be 60 Euro. In the context of Operation, attendance status to 9th, 10th and 11th grades is defined as having been attended to class at least 80%23 of monthly school days in the months of October or November regarding the regulation on secondary education institutions issued by the Ministry of National Education. Attendance data of beneficiaries will be extracted by the GDSA automatically from the e-school database of Ministry of National Education (see Appendix-6 for detailed information about the CCT monitoring system).

GRADE

Total Number of

CCT Beneficiaries in 2013-

2014

GRANT for Grade

Enrollment

(Per Person €)

TOTAL (€)

30% DECREASE IN EARLY SCHOOL LEAVING

RATES in all Grades with

the estimated

impact in 2014-

2015

YEARLY Grants

with the ESTIMATED

increase (€)

TWO YEAR Grants with

the ESTIMATED

increase (€)

TOTAL Budget of

Direct Grant with

the %1 SAFETY RANGE in TWO YEARS

(€)

9 127.871 60 7.672.260 140.703 8.442.180 16.884.359 17.053.203

10 73.850 60 4.431.000 90.058 5.403.482 10.806.963 10.915.033

11 53.835 60 3.230.100 59.839 3.590.366 7.180.731 7.252.539TOTAL 255.556 - 15.333.3

60 290.600 17.436.027 34.872.054 35.220.774Table 3: Incentive Budget for High School Attendance for CCT beneficiaries.

The total budget of Direct Grant is estimated by using the numbers of high school CCT student enrolled in 2013-2014 education semester derived from CCT system. By the total impact of the operation expected to be achieved in two years, the total number of students will be increased with the 30% decrease in early school leaving rates. In accordance with this increase, the yearly amount for grants will be 17.436.027 € which is 34.872.054 in two years. By performing 1% safety range to this amount, the final budget of Direct Grant is expected to be 35.220.774 € in two years (Table 3).

The amount of direct grant component is expected to cover part of the expenses which families should afford each academic year. The expected educational costs for a high school student consist of expenses for once such as uniform, shoes, shirts, jackets; school materials such as bags, notebooks, books, pencils; and regular expenses such as transportation, meals, accommodation. Some of these expenses are partially covered by the SAS Foundations through educational material assistances, transportation, accommodation and lunch assistances for students as cash and/or in-kind transfers. CCT programme also provides a regular cash flow to disadvantaged families throughout the semester. Besides these supports, school books are provided free of charge for all students enrolled to public schools, which is financed by SAS

23 One of the basic conditions of CCT system in Turkey is to attend to class at least 80% of monthly school days. Since, the Operation is based on the conditions of CCT system, the same rate is used.




Fund. However, it seems that all these supports are still remaining insufficient to cover all the expenses for poor families and this continuous to be a major problem as the high early school leaving rates revealed. According to the study conducted by Research Centre of Union of Educators Alliance (EGITIMBIRSEN) the average expenses of a high school student at the beginning of the academic year is approximately 600-TL (200 €) in 2014. Educational expenses which might not be covered at the beginning of the semester by supports mentioned above are estimated approximately 180-TL (60 Euro). This estimation is used for calculating direct grant amounts for the Operation. In the context of the Operation, while CCT payments are expected to cover regular educational expenses, the top up financial incentives are also expected to compensate mostly the expenses that occur in the beginning of the education semester. Hence the financial support provided by this operation will compensate the costs incurred by the families at the beginning of the school year, a few months later. Since, incentives provided in the context of the Direct Grant component are aiming to change the decisions of parents and children towards high school attendance, informing activities will be expected to play an important role. In the first year of the Direct Grant component, by the date the contract is signed, informative activities will be initiated and conducted by the MoFSP through press meetings, press releases, official announcements, informative brochures, text messages and SAS Foundations. In the second year of the operation these facilities will also be supported by the service component activities.

Promotion by the SASF staff and selected members of the local Board of Trustees in the context of the operation is one of the important steps towards informative facilities for both years. SASFs staffs and selected members such as Mukhtar, representatives of NGOs and charitable persons are the people getting direct face to face contact with disadvantaged groups in the locals every day. Promotion by these people means to initiate a community-based information flow system among the locals which is more efficient than other tools. This system has been used vigorously by SASFs for announcing beneficiary lists or the time of upcoming regular payments and it is the main reason to define the SASFs as a bridge between citizens and government.

The result of the direct grant is estimated as 30% decrease in high school early school leaving rates among the CCT beneficiaries in two years. Corresponding from this rate, the total number of high school CCT beneficiaries will increase from 255.000 to 290.000 which means approximately 35.000 high school CCT beneficiaries attending to 9 th, 10th and 11th grades will be added to the system within two years (as indicated in Table 3). Since, it is expected that operational beneficiaries will serve as a reinforcing factor for the future/potential beneficiaries; in the second year of operation higher proportion of this outcome is estimated to be achieved. Families having made final decisions not to send their children to higher grades is expected to change their minds when they see their neighbors or relatives got incentive support from the operation.

The service contract will firstly focus on increasing the awareness of the high school CCT beneficiaries and potential CCT beneficiaries and their parents, teachers, SASFs staff and professionals by providing structured informative meetings. Besides, a number of informative visits to chambers of commerce and industry, factories, governmental institutions and universities for CCT high school beneficiaries and potential CCT beneficiaries will be provided. Secondly, it will focus on guidance services by introducing effective educational guidance and counseling activities for students and their parents, particularly in the context of education-related problems. Thirdly, through providing structured training sessions for SASFs staff and MoNE staff, exit strategies and effective guidance for target group, and making study visits to related EU countries, providing internship possibilities and relevant structured training programmes to GDSA staff and MoNE staff; a permanent institutional capacity building will be achieved both at the local and central levels. Finally, a continuous monitoring and evaluating system for the GDSA will be established by regular focus group meetings, a comprehensive impact evaluation study will be carried out, workshops and an international closure conference (in Turkey) will be organized.




Throughout the implementation of the contracts, activities and particularly visibility events will be organized in a way that will ensure visibility at highest level like participation of highest level officers of relevant institutions to attract media and public attention.

Visibility of the grants to direct grant component will be ensured at the highest level. Several information activities will take place. The beneficiaries will be made aware of the EU funding at the time of contract signed between the CA and the MoFSP through appropriate written visibility enshrined in the contract package. An award ceremony will be organised with the participation of top officials from the relevant Ministries and the European Commission. The dates and agendas for such events will be determined jointly by the parties.

5.8 Results with measurable indicators:

Result 1: Increased high school attendance rates of current and potential high school CCT students.

Result 2: Increased Attendance rates achieved through covering schooling costs.

Result 3: Increased Institutional Capacity for GDSA and SASF staff and MoNE staff achieved through trainings and study visits.

5.9 Activities:

Result 1: Increased high school attendance rates of current and potential high school CCT students.

Activity 1: Research, awareness raising, guidance and informative visits for increasing the high school attendance rates (Service Component)

1.1. Making researches and studies about the poor, high school students in the context of social inclusion, school success, educational level of their parents and education orientations by giving particular attention to early school leaving rates and educational attainment level of the labour force.

1.1.1. Conducting regional studies (desk study), on the social inclusion, school success and educational level of their parents and education orientations of high school CCT students targeted by the Operation.

1.1.2. Recruiting regional coordinators(X people) who are responsible for leading regional coordination of activities, measuring the tendencies of target group in the context of early school leaving, preparing periodical reports, and organising informative meetings (at around X provinces),) for the purpose of tracking the Operation implementation in collaboration with MoNE.

1.1.3. Implementing both qualitative and quantitative impact analysis of the Operation and preparing an impact analysis report.

1.2. In line with regional needs, revising training and guidance programmes which contain interventions for high school students and their parents who receive support within the scope of CCT programme and/or who are under risk of dropping out, and training of the trainers. 1.2.1 Regional focus group studies will be conducted with the participation of MoNE schools teachers/administrators, students, their parents and officials from relevant NGOs and public




organizations in order to get their views, observations, expectations and solution proposals about school drop outs (in X cities) 1.2.2. Collecting and processing the data revealed from focus group studies and preparing need analysis reports based on the outcomes.

1.2.3 A working group (approximately 30 people) consisting of teachers and academics will be established and will revise “psycho education, group psychological guidance and counseling programmes” in a way that will encompass the students who receive support within the scope of conditional cash transfer and/or who are under risk of dropping out. The TAT will support with its experts and organize the logistics of this activity.

1.2.4 Training of trainers on “psychoeducation” and “group psychological guidance and counseling programmes” will be conducted for MoNE and Ministry of Family and Social Policies personnel (guidance teachers, psychologists, social workers) .A total of approximately X participants will be trained in X days. Training material support such as; handbooks, booknotes will be provided during these services.

1.3. Organizing events in pilot provinces.

1.3.1. Organizing workshops regarding the (interim) results of the operation, preparing an exit strategy for the operation and the overall CCT programme on early school leaving (minimum X participants for X days of workshop)

1.3.2 Organizing an international closure conference in Turkey with the participation of representatives from beneficiaries, stakeholders, social partners and academicians in order to present the final results of the Operation, the achieved results.

1.3.3 Organizing informative visits in pilot provinces to chambers of commerce and industries, factories, governmental institutions and universities for CCT high school beneficiaries in order to inform about working life (X visits with approximately X participants at each)

1.4. Preparing promotional documents, awareness raising spots, audio-visual materials and printed materials as well as developing and implementing alternative methods for increasing the reach-out of the CCT programme (social media, newspaper announcements) hence contributing to reduction of early school leaving through the involvement of new beneficiaries.

Result 2: Increased Attendance rates achieved through covering schooling costs.

Activity 2.1: Providing financial incentives for targeted high school (9th, 10th and 11th grade) current and potential CCT beneficiaries for 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 academic years X

Result 3: Increased Institutional Capacity for GDSA and SASF and MoNE staff achieved through trainings and study visits.

Activity 3.1: Institutional Capacity Building (Service Component)

3.1.1 Providing X trainings to SASF staff about the Operation, the target group and the services provided to those ones approximately X participants)

3.1.2. Study visits to related EU states in which best practices implemented for diminishing high rates of early school leaving. The main aim of the study visits is to see the best practices implemented for increasing attendance of high school students (X study visits for X persons in total).




6. Implementation arrangements

6.1. Institutional Framework: The overall management of the Operation will be carried out by the following structures:

Contracting Authority (CA) Operation Beneficiary (OB), Senior Representative of the Operation Beneficiary (SROB), Operation Coordination Unit (OCU).

This operation will be implemented under the Human Resources Development Operational Programme (HRD OP) which is managed by Ministry of Labour and Social Security (MoLSS) as the Operating Structure (OS) which also fulfils tendering and contracting tasks as the HRD Contracting Authority. The OS will be represented by Deputy Undersecretary of MoLSS as the Head of Operating Structure while the CA will be represented by the Head of EU Coordination Department. Contracting Authority: The CA will be responsible for tendering, technical and financial management of contract under the operation. It ensures that all the documents, reports submitted by contractor are duly checked /controlled/ read/ approved by the OB which cooperates with the CA in managing the operation and any other aspects with relevance to the implementation of the Operation. Operation Beneficiary: General Directorate of Social Assistance of the Ministry of Family and Social Policy (GDSA of MoFSP) as the operation beneficiary will be responsible for the implementation of this operation. To that end, GDSA of MoFSP will assign a high level manager who will act as SROB that will be the official representative of the OB. OB will establish an OCU which is the responsible body for supervision of implementation of the operation. The specified OCU will include at least 2 staff from MoNE; to work in MoNE premises (General Directorate of Special Education and Guidance Services) in coordination and cooperation with the Project’s key experts. During the implementation of the operation (for activities 1.2.,1.3.2, 1.3.3, 1.4, 2.1, 3.1.2 and publications and materials related to MoNE) the transactions regarding activities related to MoNE will be performed by MoNE staff in OCU. After the pre-approval of MoNE staff (in this case, General Director of the General Directorate of Special Education and Guidance Services), the approval will be provided by SROB.

Senior Representative of the Operation Beneficiary: The operation will be implemented under the authority of the SROB on the side of beneficiary. The SROB will act as the formal representative of the GDSA of MoFSP and will assume ultimate responsibility for the successful implementation of the operation against the OS. He cooperates with the teams responsible to implement contracts ensuring that the tasks are performed in accordance with the pre-defined deadlines and the standards of quality required. He will provide preliminary approval of the reports of the contracts, or any technical and financial documents (such as approval of invoices with “read and approved” stamp) or deliverables and outputs, before final approval by the Contracting Authority. He will appoint one risk manager and one irregularity officer among OCU members, responsible for the operation on behalf of the OB.

Operation Coordination Unit: GDSA of MoFSP will establish an OCU which will be adequately staffed composing of an Operation Coordinator and (at least) five GDSA of MoFSP experts. Existence of a professional and stable staff of OCU is guaranteed by GDSA of MoFSP as a crucial factor for the timely and proper implementation of the Operation. 2 MoNE staff will be assigned in OCU.

OCU is responsible for supervising the implementation of the operation will be managed by the CA. It will perform the following tasks (it is not an exhaustive list):




- Following operation activities and working in close cooperation with the teams responsible to implement contracts,

- Coordinate and facilitate processes between SROB, the internal and external teams responsible to implement contracts and the CA regarding any kind of reports, requests, documents which need approval of SROB.

- Ensuring the required coordination with other departments within the beneficiary institution and other institutions related to the implementation of the operation.

- Ensuring timely delivery of all electronic and in paper reports, documents, transactions and information from grant beneficiary as well as first level check and control of administrative, technical and financial aspects of the reports in accordance with the forms and instructions forwarded by the CA. OCU will act in line with the instructions delivered by the CA in terms of on desk and on spot checks/controls.

- The OS, as Contracting Authority of the Operation, keeps its rights to conduct relevant ex-ante, ex-post controls and monitors the activities of the GDSA of MoFSP in accordance with the provisions of the grant contract that will be concluded. The OS may also conduct monitoring activities to the grant beneficiaries and make technical and financial verification on the project activities and expenditures. For both components, technical and financial verification of the OS will be in accordance with the clauses of the Contract which will be made between the parties after the approval of this document

6.2 Proposed Monitoring Structure and Methodology: The overall monitoring of the Operation will be performed by the following structures and tools under the daily supervision and secretariat of the OCU:•Operation Steering Committee Meetings,•Operation Monthly Management Meetings (and other if necessary),

Operation Steering Committee (OSC): OSC will be established to serve as a platform to share results achieved, follow-up of progress of the Operation (including different types of components/contracts) and exchange experiences, ideas etc. The SROB will initiate the establishment of a core OSC in coordination and participation with MoNE, which will be composed of representatives of OCU, the teams responsible to implement contracts, the CA, stakeholders such as, General Directorate of Women Status of Ministry of Family and Social Policy (GDWS of MoFSP), General Directorate of Children Services of Ministry of Family and Social Policy (GDCS of MoFSP), SASFs, schools, universities and relevant NGOs. Contracting Authority and the European Union Delegation in Turkey (EUD) are ex officio members of the Committee. The OSC will meet on a semi-annual basis. First OSC will be organized 6 months after the first service or grant contract signed under the Operation. Organization of OSC meetings is under responsibility of the GDSA of MoFSP which may use TAT when available. Agenda of the OSC and brief note on the issues that will be discussed in the meeting will be provided to the members of the OSC at latest 1 week before. Minutes of OSC meetings will be kept by GDSA of MoFSP (or TAT when available) and submitted to the participants in the meetings for their approvals at latest 1 week after. Minutes, agenda and brief notes can only be sent to the participants after the approval of the CA.

Operation Monthly Management Meetings (OMMM): It will be convened in order to monitor the activities of the operation, discuss and assess the progress of the operation and provide solution to the problems arising during the implementation of the operation. These meetings will be chaired by SROB. Contracting Authority, EUD, OCU, Ministry of National Education and representatives of the contracts composing the operation (such as TAT) will be participants of the monthly management meetings. Minutes of OMMM will be kept by GDSA of MoFSP (or TAT when available) and submitted to the participants in the meetings for their approvals. OCU may organize additional meetings with the teams responsible to implement contracts if necessary.

As regards monitoring of operation on the basis of reports;

In terms of entire operation; GDSA of MoFSP will submit progress reports to the CA on the overall progress of the operation. The format of the progress reports including irregularity reports will be provided by the CA. Progress reports (PR) will cover the progress in all components in relation




with the operation, gap analysis in terms of indicators, the strategic contribution of each component of the operation in terms of quality, efficiency, relevance of intervention to the objectives of Operational Programme, issues of sustainability, lessons learnt, risks and remedial actions incurred under the operation. PR will be submitted once in a year. First progress report will be submitted exactly one year after the contract is signed between CA and GDSA of MoFSP.

GDSA of MoFSP will prepare Final Component Reports (FCR) when a component (service contract, and grant scheme) under the Operation is concluded. The format of the FCR including irregularity reports will be provided by the CA. FCR will cover an executive summary regarding the finalization of the related component, output effectiveness diagram, gap analysis regarding gaps in between the expected and realised results and outputs of the component, strategic contribution of relevant component in relation with the operation, issues of sustainability, lessons learnt, risks and remedial actions incurred under the operation. For service component, GDSA of MoFSP will submit final component report within two months after the end of service contract. For grant component, The GDSA of MoFSP will submit final component report within 2 months after final reporting deadline defined in relevant special conditions of grant contracts.

In terms of contracts; GDSA of MoFSP with its OCU will ensure that the responsibilities regarding delivery, check, control and approval of documents as stated in 6.1 part of the OIS are duly performed. Types, frequency and content of the documents and reports will be defined specifically in the relevant tender documents of the contracts.

GDSA of MoFSP is aware of its responsibilities as the OB including reporting requirements which will be defined in the Operational Agreement in detail. GDSA of MoFSP is also aware that in addition to the reports mentioned above, ad hoc reports may be requested by the CA on various aspects or issues related to the implementation of the operation. The content and time of submission of such ad-hoc reports will be agreed between GDSA of MoFSP on a case-by-case basis.

6.3 Required procedures and contracts for the implementation of the operation and their sequencing:

7. Risks and Assumptions:

Risks:- Traditional obstacles in front of high school attendance, unwillingness/lack of

interest/lack of commitment of the target groups/stakeholders/final beneficiaries which may cause a lack of interest in incentive.

- Political, economic or social instability that would hinder the smooth running of IPA in Turkey.

- Lack of effective cooperation among different actors in the field. - Traditional obstacles in front of high school enrolment, unwillingness/lack of

interest/lack of commitment of the target groups/stakeholders/final beneficiaries which may cause a lack of interest in incentive.

- Changes in the Turkish administration leading to discontinuation of the scheme. Assumptions:

- Effective cooperation is ensured among all the stakeholders/parties and different actors in the field.

- Target groups are willing to take part to the activities of the Operation.- The stakeholders are committed to the Operation.- Obstacles other than poverty are overcame by service component.




8. Expected impact of the operation on the target group and multiplier/spill over effects:

It is expected that as having graduated from high school is positively correlated with higher chance of being employed, the Operation will also facilitate poor student’s labour market access through increasing the skill-set.

Moreover, high school education is a means for university education. Since university education in Turkey has low tuition rates and several scholarships are available for students in need; the probability of CCT Beneficiaries having undergraduate education increases. This Operation is expected to increase CCT beneficiary high school graduates and consequently their attendance to higher education and access to better paying jobs.

Furthermore, in the long term the grantees are expected to attend higher level of education, which is expected to achievement of better positions in the labour market; thereby decreasing chronic poverty. This was labour market inclusion of the disadvantaged will increase.

Since the operation will also increase attendance/attendance of female students, in the long term a higher level of women labour market participation is expected.

9. Sustainability:

Financial Sustainability:

The Direct Grant component of the operation is expected to be implemented through the IPA Fund and co-financing from Turkey. Besides, after the end of operation, by improving the implementation details according to results of impact assessment, incentive component will be implemented by the means of SAS Fund for the next years.

In addition to co-financing which is guaranteed by Turkish authorities, if the number of beneficiaries exceeds the expected number of beneficiaries (the operation budget is calculated by relying on some assumptions) and Operation budget remains insufficient for covering the incentives, the additional amount is guaranteed to be covered by SAS Fund.

Institutional Sustainability:

Ministry of Family and Social Policy, SAS Foundations, Ministry of National Education and other institutions will be strengthened for providing more effective services for the target groups even after the end of the Operation implementation period.

For example, Training of Trainers and implementer trainings on “psychoeducation” and “group psychological guidance and counseling programmes” will be conducted for MoNE and Ministry of Family and Social Policies personnel (guidance teachers, psychologists, social workers) and training materials.

Ministry of Family and Social Policy will monitor, evaluate and support the disadvantaged people in the high school life through the SAS Foundations.

Both of the issues related to sustainability will be ensured by GDSA of MoFSP with SAS Foundations established at all provinces and sub-provinces in Turkey, as well as MoNE.

In order to see whether the expected impact of the operation is achieved or not, the monitoring of the beneficiaries will continue after the assistance is over. In this context, the university entrance levels and employment rates of the beneficiaries as high school graduates will be seen.




10. Horizontal Issues:

The Operation will take into consideration the following horizontal issues which HRD OP and MIPD for Turkey refer to: Equal opportunities for men and women will be ensured in the implementation of the Operation. During this period, equal access to services will be guaranteed and gender equality will be considered as regards the selection of beneficiary persons in the service component. In guidance activities under service component, it will be promoted that the female students/persons will be benefiting from these activities. In research activities, all the data and analysis will be made based on gender breakage, in other words, gender disaggregated data will be collected. All the impact/ evaluation mechanisms established in the Operation will be designed in a way to make the proper monitoring of all policies from the gender and equal opportunity perspectives for the target groups. Furthermore, gender mainstreaming will be inserted into the trainings and other activities for the staff of the Ministry. These issues will be elaborated in tender documents of this operation and TAT will be asked to take the necessary measures to ensure gender equality. Regarding the participation of civil society, it will be ensured that the NGOs in the field of education and children will participate to the Operation activities, particularly workshop and conferences and their contributions will be utilized for developing the systems and establishing the structures within the context of the Operation. They will be also a part of the Steering Committee. As regards good governance, that issue will be a permanent concern of the Operation at all stages and levels in terms of institutional, financial and political aspects. All of the activities will be held in coordination of different social parties and these parties will transfer the lessons learnt to each other and their everyday functioning. There will be activities aiming at involving NGOs as much as possible in policies directed at disadvantaged groups.

11. Links with other IPA component measures:

Even though there is no direct link with the other IPA components, 3 operations within the framework of the HRD OP should be taken into consideration due to the fact that they crosscuts the objectives of this operation regarding the social inclusion and education priorities.

Increasing Enrolment Rates Especially for Girls I Operation which was implemented by Ministry of National Education was aiming to enhance investment in human capital by increasing the quality of education, improving the linkage between education and the labour market, and raising enrolment rates at all levels of education, especially for girls. The operation with its all components was targeting the students in the age of secondary school suffering from various obstacles on enrolment and attending to education. As the poverty is defined as one of the most important reasons of school attendance and enrolment it contained distribution of incentive packages to students. Under the operation incentive packages including textiles and stationary was procured and distributed to the 18 provinces. Furthermore 14.000 families were visited with persuasion purposes and 11.000 of those families were convinced to send their children back to school. The activities combating early school leaving that exist in this operation will be complementary in this sense and the methodologies and activities undertaken under this operation will be made use of.

Increasing Enrolment Rates Especially for Girls II (IERFG II) Operation that will be implemented under measure 2.1 of the HRD OP aims at “to increase enrollment rates particularly for girls with a view to developing female human resources and access to labour market”. Having service, supply and grant components, the Operation addresses students, parents, members of the NGOs and staff working in the educational institutions. Discussing different dimensions of early school leaving, it covers capacity building activities for MoNE, activities addressing the children of seasonal workers specifically in terms of guidance and academic supports and activities to




eliminate the cultural obstacles. The other operation is Facilitating Access of Disadvantaged Higher Education Students to Labour Market Including Scholarship Support Operation. The mentioned operation was aiming to increase the employability of disadvantaged persons, facilitate their access to labour market by providing them scholarship and increase their access to public employment services especially in order to reduce the intergenerational transmission of poverty by supporting achievement of students coming from groups in poverty or at risk of poverty. 20.000 Higher Education Students received scholarship under this operation. Each student was paid 2080 Turkish Liras for 8 months.

Employment and Social Support Services Coordination and Implementation Model for the Integration of Disadvantaged Persons as a newly initiated operation is aiming to contribute to sustainable integration of the disadvantaged persons into the labour market by establishing and implementing a model for coordination and implementation of employment and social support services within the target Municipalities under supervision and guidance of UMT. Poverty status is determined as a major area of being disadvantaged. The project will introduce a new service model for social integration of disadvantaged people by the establishment of municipal units, which will provide integrated services to the disadvantaged groups as well as it will facilitate dialogue between service providers, decision makers and the disadvantaged people, through various informative and awareness raising activities. The project will also contribute to identification of disadvantaged people and providing them support by relevant mechanisms, programmes and services.

The other newly initiated operation is Improving Social Integration and Employability of Disadvantaged Persons Operation. The overall objective of this Operation is to promote an inclusive labour market with opportunities for disadvantaged persons, with a view to their sustainable integration into labour force and combat all forms of discrimination in the labour market. In this context, any activity to prevent early school leaving and promote education for Roma citizens (including pre-school education), to promote school attainment for those who are not in education, to provide literacy courses, to prevent discrimination against Roma children at school is foreseen.

This operation will crosscut the abovementioned interventions since the target group of this operation is the children of the families that occupy the lowest level in terms of income distribution. Through this operation these students will be supported to be/remain as high school students. Operation will provide financial support to high school students and this will complement the scholarship scheme addressing to university students and the incentives distributed to secondary school students suffering from poverty. The final beneficiaries of the aforementioned operations may also become beneficiaries of the current operation, hence the CCT programme so that their probability of remaining in the education system remains high.


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