CASE STUDY
UNDP TURKEY
ESTABLISHMENT OF A VOCATIONAL TRAINING CENTRE
IN ADIYAMAN
Business Focal Points Workshop
25-27 October, Bratislava, Slovakia
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1. Basic information
Description of Establishment of a vocational training centre (clothing) in Adiyaman
initiative
Location Adiyaman, Turkey
Overall timing March 2003 – September 2004
2. Partners
Partners UNDP European World Association Municipality
Commission Bank of Clothing of Adiyaman
Industrialists
Role Formulation Financial Financial Main In kind
of the project; donor (amount donor beneficiary; contribution
≈ € 15.000) (amount ≈ $ (i.e. allocation
Identification 25.000) Provided of the
of key machinery premises and
stakeholders and building; ≈ $
and potential equipment to 25.000 )
donors the vocational
training The
Facilitation centre; municipality
of working will identify
relations The the
between key association is unemployed
stakeholders expected to people;
cover the
running costs,
as well
Benefits Concrete Coordination An Access to Decreased
output of and synergies efficient use qualified unemployment
UNDP’s long- between EC of the labor; in the
term existence funded Bank’s province;
in the projects funds
Province improved allocated to Name
the Social appears with
Realization Risk those of World
of UNDP Mitigation Bank, UNDP
mandate to Project in and EC
help countries Turkey
promote
sustainable
human
development
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3. Main contacts for further information
Name Organization Role Email/phone
Meral Sayın Entrepreneur Support Chief Technical msayin@gidem.org
Centers Advisor
Murat Gürsoy Entrepreneur Support Business Development mgursoy@gidem.org
Centers Advisor
4. Impact assessment
Objective Expected Indices/measurement Actual results
target/output methods to be used achieved
Overall objective of Reduction of Official records of local In line with
initiative unemployment by Social Security Office expectations
3%
Supporting output Training of 300 Records of the centre In line with
#1 currently expectations
unemployed
people
Supporting output Employment of Records of the centre and In line with
#2 300 trained people Official records of local expectations
ensured Social Security Office
Supporting output …
#3
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5. Main phases and activities
Name of phase Concept design Local Establishment Future plans
commitment
and fund
raising
Key activities Formulation of Workshops Procurement of Provision of
the Project; with local machinery for services to other
businessmen to the centre; Provinces;
Identification fine tune the
of the design of the Interviews with
stakeholders and Project; prospective
potential donors trainers;
Promotion of
Testing of the the Project to the Renovation of
concept by donors; the building and
holding premises;
interviews with Filing
local applications to Identification
businessmen and the donors; of 300
opinion leaders unemployed
of the local Advocacy people to be
business trained
community
End products A full-fledged Circa Euro Vocational Expanded
project 50.000 raised; training centre services
document and a up and running
business plan All the needs
covering 1 year of the vocational
of operations training centre
fulfilled
Timing 4 months 11 months 3 months 24 months
Responsibilities/ UNDP – all the UNDP – UNDP –
involvement activities Secured Interviews with
commitment of the prospective
the stakeholders trainers
Local NGO – WB & EC-
filing of Donation
applications and
dissemination at Municipality:
local level Renovation of
the building and
identification of
the unemployed
people
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6. Action reflection/lessons learnt
Key reflections and lessons learnt
Issue Details/implications
Ensuring Commitment at Local commitment is critical for ensuring success in developing
Local Level and implementing projects especially in underdeveloped regions.
There are two main reasons for our success: first of all the detailed
needs analyses that we conducted at local level provided us with
the opportunity to demonstrate the concrete outputs and value
added of the project to local business community. Secondly; when
and wherever possible we included the local opinion leader to the
decision shaping and making processes. While identifying the
local opinion leaders, we preferred to observe the signals of the
local business community instead of going after the people that we
thought we would work smoothly.
Finally, we did our homework before going to the field. Our
experts studied the textile and clothing industry. That way we
eliminated the risk of losing credit during the long discussions
with the local businessmen. In other words, from the very
beginning we persuaded the local businessmen that we not only
know the sector but also possess the potential to generate solutions
for their problems.
Analyzing the Always said, however almost always ignored is the importance of
stakeholders identifying and analyzing the stakeholders. The characteristics,
expectations, deficiencies and potentials of stakeholders are
extremely important parameters that should be diligently analyzed
during the formulation of a project. A small mistake that we made
during the stakeholder analysis jeopardized the realization of the
project.
Contingency plans Working closely with the private sector requires that we
understand their mindset. We had devoted significant time and
effort in identifying risks that we might encounter during the
project, and developed contingency plans for each risk we had
identified. Fortunately, none of the risks that we identified
realized. However, we were ready at all times.
• What was supposed to happen? What was the purpose of the action?
Clothing industry is the most important sector in Adiyaman -a small province located in one of
the most underdeveloped regions of Turkey. Clothing sector is a labor-intensive sector with
each plant employing on average 150 workers. Upon analyzing the needs of the sector we
identified that the biggest problem of the local clothing companies was the high employee turn
over rate (i.e. 50% per annum). Accordingly, it was impossible for the local companies to keep
the quality at a certain level. Furthermore; the productivity of the local companies were
considerably lower that of their counterparts in other regions of Turkey.
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Upon working closely with the local companies and analyzing their financial statements; we
concluded that the cost of employing an unqualified employee is circa Euro 1500 per annum.
Considering that the sector employs circa 3000 people at an annual employee turn over rate of
50%, the total loss of efficiency would be Euro 2.25 million per annum. All the calculations
were made with the reps of the local business community.
We concluded that a vocational training centre would be of great use for the sector. We
calculated the fixed costs of establishing a vocational training centre with the capacity of
training 300 unskilled and unemployed people per annum. The fixed costs were in the
neighborhood Euro 150000 (i.e. procurement of second hand machinery, renovation of a
suitable building, training of trainers etc.) which is less than 10% of the annual efficiency loss.
The running costs on the other hand were circa Euro 3000.
We initially tried to persuade the local businessmen to make a one-time donation of Euro 5000
to cover the set-up costs and to pay for a small fee for each people they hire. Almost all of the
businessmen were quite reluctant to abide by this scheme, as it was unacceptable for them to
tolerate the fact that the potential free-riders would also benefit from the centre.
After analyzing the needs, problems and potential risks; we decided to raise funds from
different sources to cover the establishment costs and the running costs for the first year. This
plan required advocacy and promotion at different levels and platforms.
•What actually happened?
The time and effort that we devoted to promotion and advocacy paid well. The European
Commission financed the training of trainers (through a larger vocational trainer project that
the EC financed at national level), the World Bank financed the renovation and salaries of
trainers for a year (through a Social Risk Mitigation Project – Small Grants Programme), and
the local municipality offered a warehouse free of charge to be utilized as the vocational
training centre. In each case, the vision and mission of UNDP’s initiative was clearly
communicated to the decision makers at the mentioned institutions. We also paid significant
importance to the expectations of the donors.
•How do you account for the difference (i.e. that the results exceeded or did not meet
expectations?)
Not applicable.
Summary of key success factors and key risks
Key success factors Key risks
Thorough needs analyses at local level Conflicts among local actors (i.e. business
associations, businessmen, governmental
agencies etc.)
Systematic promotion and advocacy activities Business culture is willing to accept and
utilise the assistance available in the manner
foreseen.
Ensuring the commitment of local actors Trained staff remains in their posts.
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7. Internal implications
Internal linkages with other UNDP/UN initiatives
Name of initiative Linkage
In what way is this product connected with other UNDP/UN
products – e.g. same client, same group of benefits, same method
of measuring impact
Support required within UNDP
Name of unit/person Detailed requirement
What requirement in terms of time, over what period, and with
what resources is needed from the specific unit/person; this should
include a description of their required task and the end product of
their involvement
Decision-making during initiative roll-out
Key decisions Detailed requirement
Should indicate major • How will these major decisions be undertaken (who is authorized
decisions which will have to make what decision etc)
to be made to ensure
impact
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8. Funding and cost structure
Category Amount
Sources of funds
European Commission Euro 15.000
World Bank Euro 20.2501
Local Municapality Euro 50.000 (in kind)
Local Business Associations Euro 100.000 (in kind)
UNDP Euro 5.000
Total Euro 190.250
Costs
Training of trainers (60 man days at Euro 15.000
market rates of trainers plus training
materials, travel and accommodation)
Building (real estate market value) Euro 50.000
Renovation (benchmark works Euro 8.000
contracts for the building at hand)
Annual cost of trainers to be Euro 12.000
employed at the Centre
Machinery and equipment (second Euro 100.000
hand prices of the machinery)
Running costs per annum (utilities, Euro 5.250
training material
Total costs Euro 190.250
1 Conversion rate; EUR 1 = USD 1.2346
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