Technical Assistance for Promoting Decent Future of Work
Approach with a Focus of Gender Equality

Welcome to the Future of Work project! We are a technical assistance project, co-funded by the European Union and the Republic of Türkiye, based in Ankara, and are here to assist Turkish policy-makers develop new strategies and policies aimed at preparing Türkiye for the challenges which the changing nature of work will, inevitably, bring. We began on 1 February 2021 and will complete our part of this huge task on 31 July 2023.

Our main beneficiary is the Ministry of Labour and Social Security’s (MoLSS) Department of Employment Policies (DoEP), and our work is overseen by MoLSS’s Directorate of European Union and Financial Assistance.

We are working with 5 provinces: Ankara, Istanbul, Bursa, Adana and Izmir. This enables us to study conditions in a cross-section of the country, and to synthesise their different experiences, priorities and readiness for the future into a series of recommendations for policy-makers to take into account when drafting new legislative documents and guidelines.

Over recent times, discussions on globalisation, digitalisation, automation, AI, online platforms, e-trade, information technologies, and robotics on government agendas have entered the lives of individuals in a fast and concrete way due to a global coronavirus pandemic.

Governments and institutions globally have been examining the impact of automation and digitalisation on the labour force and are taking measures for “decent future of work” for every individual. Meanwhile, the use of digital technologies has become a necessity for the continuity of life at community level and for sustaining various basic services such as education, health, etc.

Within the scope of the project, activities are carried out in cooperation with many institutions and organisations in order to evaluate the impact of current policies on the working life. At the same time, the Project will analyse the ways in which global and national trends are likely to shape the world of work in the future. Bringing these two strands together, the Project will support MoLSS to develop new policies aimed at preparing of the decent work of the future in working life. At the same time, the Project will focus on gender equality and ensure that it permeates all actions.

You can find out more about us and the way our project is structured in the attached Project Factsheet.

About Us

PROJECT OUTPUTS

In this section of the website, you may find a variety of different Reports which we have produced to support our work. We will be adding more Reports as the project advances. These Reports mainly focus on analyses of the current situation in Türkiye with regards to the world of work. The Reports are not – cannot be – all-embracing, as our project’s resources and time are limited. We have focused on 5 key sectors: health, education, energy, banking/finance and ICT. Equal opportunities are an overriding factor together with an emphasis on the decency of work – examining how current legislation protects the rights of all workers, and, where discrepancies occur, what should be done and put in place to improve conditions.

Events

During the course of the project we will be running many events, which will involve a great many stakeholders. Events fall into 3 main headings:

Capacity-Building

We will be training at least 120 people, drawn from MoLSS and related social partners, to understand the issues confronting them when preparing strategies and policies related to a decent future of work, and working with them on the process of drafting new legislative documents. The training will be conducted throughout 2022, and be delivered in-person and through online links to deliver the learning to as many stakeholders as possible.

Stakeholder Workshops

No one person or organisation has all of the answers, and we will bring together multiple stakeholders in workshops to generate debate and ideas for inclusion into the new policy documents. Stakeholders will be drawn from the public, private and third sectors to ensure that all vested interests are represented. Reports of each workshop will be posted on the website, and we will welcome any additional views which can be submitted to our contact address.

Future of Work Commission

An innovation for Türkiye, we have established a Future of Work Commission, comprising, again, stakeholders from the public, private and third sectors, together with academicians, to debate various themes related to the decent future of work, and to develop Recommendations which will be submitted to policy-makers. The Commission will meet at 6-monthly intervals and Reports of the Commission’s proceedings will be posted on the website.

Forum

We have posted numerous links to articles which relate to the many aspects of the future of work, and will continue to add to these throughout the project. At the moment, we have categorised these into 11 different sub-headings, although we may add to these as time goes by.
Each month, we will select one of the most interesting articles, our Topic of the Month, and present a summary together with some ideas which may be of interest to the readers. The links are mainly to articles in English, some are documents, some are videos, but all contain something which could be of value to anyone remotely interested in what the future of work will look like. If anyone comes across an interesting article which could be added to the contents of this page, please send it to our contact address, so we may consider it and post it.
We will be happy to receive links to articles in the Turkish language – or any other language.

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