Turkey's poverty reduction performance in the 2000s has been remarkably consistent. Extreme and moderate poverty have fallen considerably since 2003.
... See More + Between 2002 and 2011, extreme poverty fell from 13 percent to 5 percent, while moderate poverty halved from 44 percent to 22 percent (respectively, defined using the World Bank's Europe and Central Asia regional poverty lines of 2.5 and 5 USD/PPP). Most of this poverty reduction (89 percent) has been driven by growth, a performance consistent with most countries in Europe and Central Asia. This is substantially different form the recent performance of other regions, such as Latin America, where redistribution contributed to poverty reduction almost four times more than in Turkey. Turkey has also achieved sustained consumption growth of the bottom 40 percent of the population, even during the years of the world recession. Turkey's performance in poverty reduction and increased shared prosperity has been complemented by the systematic expansion of the middle class by 20 percentage points. This paper analyzes the main drivers of poverty reduction, shared prosperity, and changes in inequality in Turkey from 2002 to 2011. The analysis shows that labor markets, demographics, pensions, and social assistance have played a critical role in this process. It further explores some of the mechanisms that have facilitated these changes.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS6834 APR 01, 2014
The development objective of the Renewable Energy Integration Project for Turkey is to assist Turkey to meet its increased electricity demand while containing Green House Gas (GHG) emissions by strengthening the transmission system and facilitating large-scale renewable energy generation.
... See More + Negative impacts include: solid and hazardous waste management, noise pollution, electric and magnetic field intensities at ground level, health and safety, pesticide use for land clearance, cultural heritage, and natural habitats. The environmental assessment indicates that a project would significantly convert or degrade natural habitats, the project should include mitigation measures: minimizing habitat loss (e.g., strategic habitat retention and post-development restoration). Establishing and maintaining an ecologically similar protected area. Other forms of mitigation measures could be accept only when they are technically justified.
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The Renewable Energy Integration Project seeks to ensure economical and uninterrupted transmission of electricity generated at generation facilities in Turkey.
... See More + While efforts are taken to minimize land acquisition and resettlement in the implementation of the project, a resettlement policy framework is formulated to address this issue in the eventuality of its necessitation. Persons affected by the project are the owners, renters or users of immovable properties corresponding to the routes of electricity transmission lines, locations of the substations and locations where the submarine power cable will be connected to land. In order to ensure adequate and appropriate compensation to those affected, fair valuation of assets and suitable compensatory measures must be implemented. The World Bank's stance on involuntary resettlement and the steps to be taken in such an eventuality are detailed herein.
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A randomized experiment is used to evaluate a large-scale, active labor market policy: Turkey's vocational training programs for the unemployed.
... See More + A detailed follow-up survey of a large sample with low attrition enables precise estimation of treatment impacts and their heterogeneity. The average impact of training on employment is positive, but close to zero and statistically insignificant, which is much lower than either program officials or applicants expected. Over the first year after training, the paper finds that training had statistically significant effects on the quality of employment and that the positive impacts are stronger when training is offered by private providers. However, longer-term administrative data show that after three years these effects have also dissipated.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS6807 MAR 01, 2014
The Gas Sector Development Project objective is to increase the reliability and stability of gas supply in Turkey by implementing critically needed gas storage and network infrastructure, and support the Turkish Pipeline Company (BOTAS) in strengthening its operations as a financially stable, and commercially managed corporation.
... See More + According to the geological possibility of underground storage in Turkey, a geological screening leads the Tuz Gölü Basin, where large leached salt caverns could be accommodated. It is a favorable location for a peak shaving storage (not far from Ankara) and close to the Kayseri-Konya-Seydi?ehir Gas Pipeline, and also, the existence of pure rock salt is proved at a suitable depth. The Project primarily involves economic, rather than physical displacement; however, it involves the acquisition of permanent and temporary land for project uses, and thus has the potential to affect people's livelihoods. In order to avoid physical dislocation, and to minimize economic dislocation for affected populations, the Project has adopted several measures, including: minimizing Project land use, reclaiming land after construction, and reinstating the land, with minimum restrictions following construction, for use by the original land owners and users; designing the routing to avoid any physical resettlement and to minimize expropriation, both permanently and temporarily; no physical relocation or resettlement of households will result from project interventions; determining compensation values based on extensive data collection and net income evaluation methodology.
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The First Programmatic Electricity Sector Development Policy Loan Program and Second and Third Programmatic Environmental Sustainability and Energy Sector Development Policy Loans Programs for Turkey had overall satisfactory outcomes, with the performances of the Bank and the borrower being deemed satisfactory as well.
... See More + Of the thirty-two project development objective indicators, eleven targets were exceeded, nineteen were fully achieved, one was mostly achieved, and one was not achieved. All three intermediate outcome indicators were completely achieved. Significant lessons learned during implementation of the programs include: 1) the use of a Development Policy Loan (DPL) was a strategic choice of instrument after an extensive and substantial engagement of investment lending and Analytical and Advisory Activities (AAA) work in the energy sector; 2) proactive use of the flexibility in the country partnership strategy process and the DPL instrument were very important in order to adapt to both external and internal political economy factors; 3) the flexibility of the DPL instrument was utilized to maximum effect and longer term benefit when the scope of the original energy DPL program was extended to climate change and environmental management in response to the government's readiness to raise the dialogue on these important cross-cutting development themes to a significantly higher level with the international community including the Bank; 4) even with the strongest commitment, sometimes reforms cannot be implemented according to the original schedules; and 5) a DPL that cuts across several themes brings considerable additional complexity in the design but at the same time results in high pay-off as it pursues a more holistic approach.
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Implementation Completion and Results Report ICR2926 DEC 23, 2013
The Renewable Energy Integration Project seeks to ensure economical and uninterrupted transmission of electricity generated at generation facilities in Turkey.
... See More + While efforts are taken to minimize land acquisition and resettlement in the implementation of the project, a resettlement policy framework is formulated to address this issue in the eventuality of its necessitation. Persons affected by the project are the owners, renters or users of immovable properties corresponding to the routes of electricity transmission lines, locations of the substations and locations where the submarine power cable will be connected to land. In order to ensure adequate and appropriate compensation to those affected, fair valuation of assets and suitable compensatory measures must be implemented. The World Bank's stance on involuntary resettlement and the steps to be taken in such an eventuality are detailed herein.
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