International Youth Leadership Academy in Turkey

The Youth Leadership Academy, located in Sultanahmet, Istanbul, aims to share trainings, coordinated by Habitat with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP)and Istanbul Governor Office as partners, that include information on local participation processes, financial awareness, sexual health and reproductive health, information technology, personal development, and project management to strengthen the participation of youth and to support participation of youth in local, national, and international decision-making processes.

For example, the International Training Program on Youth Rights, Participation, Citizenship and Social Responsibility, for students 15 - 29 years of age, which took place in its first phase on September 7-14 2012 (second phase: February 2013), includes the following in its objectives:

• "To provide an opportunity for young people from Turkey the Balkans, the Middle East and North Africa, and the Caucasus to exchange information and experiences on participating in civil society and youth work and establish a network for further collaboration.
• To empower young people to take an active and effective role in advocating rights of children and youth within Human Rights perspective.
• To raise awareness and knowledge about social responsibility towards children and youth.
• To share good practices and tools in the area of Child Protection against abuse, neglect and violence, Intercultural Dialogue, Conflict Resolution, Mediation and Peace-building.
• To provide young people with negotiation and advocacy skills for their effective participation.
• To empower young people with inclusive leadership skills.
• To prepare them for the follow-up training in February 2013.
• To reach at least 20 young/children in their own communities after the second phase."

The first phase of the training, focused on theoretical learning combined with various case studies from Turkey and the participating countries, aims to develop the capacity, skills, and experience of the participants on human rights, youth and child rights, and participation - more specifically on topics of "Child Abuse and Neglect, Violence against Children, Child Protection, Intercultural Dialogue, Conflict Resolution and Mediation". The participants are then supported to make an action plan to follow through a monitoring and mentoring process, in order to prepare for the second phase.

Rights, Children, Youth, Democracy and Governance

According to its website, Habitat aims to strengthen the process of cooperation and integration of Youth Councils, youth non-governmental organisations, school and university student unions, youth representatives from neighbourhoods, youth representatives of political parties, and young people within its programme. The association encourages the Youth Councils to increase youth participation in their own cities to address their needs and problems by developing urban awareness. It also contributes to a restructuring of the youth movement with young people from all over Turkey. Habitat has pioneered the establishment of the National Youth Parliament, which is a communication network based on democratic and civil participation empowered by local youth platforms to prepare, implement, and determine national youth policies and programmes.

By the end of its mandate, the plan is to train 3,000 young people at the Academy of Young Leaders between 2010 and 2013. This group will include 2,750 young people in Turkey and 250 young people from neighbouring regions of Turkey. The outcome is planned to contribute to the development and implementation of youth policies of the United Nations, the European Union, and the Council of Europe.

The centre is initiating the International Entrepreneurship Initiative (IEI). IEI was created to support socio-economic development benefiting from and supporting entrepreneurship. IEI focuses on improving the perception of entrepreneurship and supporting awareness raising on entrepreneurship. IEI supports academic studies, needs assessments, and market research on inclusive, responsible, social businesses, and on a green economy. IEI intends to increase the capability of young and female entrepreneurs through online and face-to-face trainings, mentorship, internships, apprenticeship, and awards. IEI also supports structuring of entrepreneurship networks. IEI supports enhancement of entrepreneurship policies and programmes.

Partners in the IEI intiative are: Habitat Center for Development and Governance, UNDP Turkey; UNDP İstanbul International Centre for Private Sector in Development; TC Ministry of Development; Turkey Vodafone Foundation; and Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey. IEI is established in cooperation with a number of UN agencies, other international organisations, and public-private-civil sector institutions.