We provide person-oriented protection services that are tailored to meet basic human needs, particularly those of vulnerable groups to empower their coping mechanisms with challenges in their living environment, which strengthens their personal resilience.
Through our partners, we provide a range of activities such as the provision of language and life-skills courses, as well as vocational trainingto improve employability, educational counselling, support for school enrolment, advice for teachers on the issue of peer bullying and cooperating with or making referrals to relevant state institutions.
At the community level, we improve communication and collaboration between civil society and state institutions that provide social services, as well as provide support for the rights and conditions of vulnerable groups. At the institutional level, we protect social and economic participation and links to the local community of vulnerable individuals by fostering the capacity development of civil society and state institutions.
We implement measures at the individual and organisational levels to strengthen technical, management, and institutional skills and capacities of local initiatives in Türkiye’s underserved regions. Moreover, we work to reinforce cooperation and coordination mechanisms among our partners as well as with state institutions at all levels.
Türkiye hosts the largest refugee population in the world with more than 4 million people registered in 2022 (3,7 million Syrians under temporary protection, 330,000 individuals under international protection). These refugees, regardless of their legal status, need protection, including basic needs support, legal as well as psychosocial counselling and access to urgently needed health care.
Protection services are at the heart of ADA Türkiye and are provided by all partner organisations with the goal of increasing the beneficiaries’ personal resilience.
‘Protection’ covers all activities that aim to achieve full respect for the rights of the individual. It requires the creation of an environment conducive to preventing or alleviating the immediate effects of a specific pattern of abuse and restoring human dignity.
The specialised support services provided by ADA Türkiye partners are for refugees and vulnerable residents of the host community, especially for those with specific needs, in particular persons with disabilities and survivors of SGBV. This includes single-headed households, unaccompanied minors, LGBTIQA+ persons, seasonal migrants, and child labourers. The target group is empowered to cope with challenges in their living environment, which strengthens their personal resilience.
ADA Türkiye partners provide the following protection services:
Türkiye hosts the largest refugee population in the world with more than 4 million people registered in 2022 (3,7 million Syrians under temporary protection, 330,000 individuals under international protection).
Nearly every second Syrian under temporary protection is 18 years old or younger (1,7 million) and school dropout rates are high among students. The enrolment rate drops among Syrians from almost 79% for lower-secondary education to about 38% in upper secondary education.
Non-formal education (NFE) services provided by ADA Türkiye partners are voluntary, accessible to everyone, participatory, learner-centred, holistic, supportive, and quality-oriented based on the needs of the participants in line with the criteria defined by the Council of Europe.
NFE may serve as an addition and/or complement to formal education, as well as provide individuals with life-long learning. Since it is considered for people of all ages, NFE may be instrumental in ensuring the right of access to education for all.
Activities supported under ADA Türkiye’s NFE services include, but are not limited to:
Türkiye hosts the largest refugee population in the world with more than 4 million people registered in 2022 (3,7 million Syrians under temporary protection, 330,000 individuals under international protection).
Despite many successes in the social integration and participation of refugees, there still exist prejudices and conflicts between refugees and residents of host communities. The COVID-19 pandemic, as well as economic insecurity, contributed to rising social tensions. Due to the high demand for social support and services as well as needs-based social services, particularly vulnerable groups or individuals run the risk of being left behind.
ADA Türkiye partners support activities that promote intercultural exchange and social cohesion at the local level such as dialogue events, and social and cultural activities. Through such regular exchange, social tensions can be reduced and mutual understanding between refugees and the host community can be improved. The strengthening of social cohesion also contributes to the holistic approach of ADA Türkiye and the operationalisation of the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus.
ADA Türkiye implements the following activities in order for both refugees and members of the host community to have increased confidence in understanding different social and cultural norms, as well as feelings of being respected as a person of equal value and rights:
The Community-Based Local Initiatives Project (CLIP 2), which is co-financed by the German government and the EU, puts measures into action at the individual and organisational levels to strengthen technical, management, and institutional skills and capacities of local initiatives in Türkiye’s underserved regions.
Additionally, CLIP 2 aims to strengthen mechanisms for coordination and cooperation between NGOs and with state partners on all fronts. This makes it easier to deliver improved, integrated, and complementary social services. For the specific purpose of ensuring institutional sustainability, ADA Türkiye was founded.
As a foundation for building capacity, networking, and collaboration, ADA Türkiye promotes peer learning and peer exchange. In particular, it supports the sustainability of local initiatives and grassroots organisations in order to empower civil society actors. As ADA Türkiye, we aim to do this by expanding our primary audience, enhancing the quality of our services, and empowering one another through peer support.
Our mentoring approach
The mentoring approach taken by ADA Türkiye places a special emphasis on knowledge and experience transfer between partners at all levels. Large, well-established NGOs get specialised capacity-building support from GIZ so they can be ready to “mentor” and empower small NGOs in underserved areas. Together with the smaller NGOs, they form a “cluster” that consists of one mentor overseeing several local initiatives that it provides organisational and technical support for throughout the partnership period.
Smaller organisations’ capacities within the cluster are improved in the areas of project management (operations, finance, M&E, visibility, fundraising), organisational development (organisational structure, documents and policies, HR procedures, strategic planning), as well as within thematic areas depending on the mentor’s area of expertise and the needs of the local initiative.
Larger NGOs, on the other hand, are also given capacity-building tools in their mentoring roles for greater impact. Thus, the network ensures a sustainable capacity development structure for the empowerment of civil society actors and fosters an environment that is ideal to partner learning and exchange.
The network and its mentoring strategy offer a framework for effective cooperation among ADA Türkiye members of various sizes and capacities, and they also constitute a long-term mechanism by which NGOs can cooperate, become capacitated, establish referral pathways, boost their credibility, and be prepared to receive (national and international) funding in the future.
Future expansion of ADA Türkiye is intended to make it attractive for other actors to invest in or take over fully so that it can function independently.
