H.01. OIS OPERATION IDENTIFICATION SHEET / 2/3
VERSION: / MANUAL: / 5.0 – December, 2013
CHAPTER: / 1.0 – December, 2013
INSTRUMENT FOR PRE-ACCESSION ASSISTANCE
HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT COMPONENT
OPERATION IDENTIFICATION SHEET
1. Title of the Operation:
Garment Training and Entrepreneurship Initiative (GATE for Women)
2. Operating Structure: Ministry of Labour and Social Security (MoLSS)-EU Coordination (IPA Management) Department
3. Organisation Responsible for the Implementation of the Operation:
Eastern Black Sea Development Agency (DOKA)
4. Compatibility and coherence with the Operational Programme
4.1 Title and number of the Programme:
Human Resources Development Operational Programme - CCI No. 2007TR05IPO001
4.2 Title of the priority axis:
Priority Axis 1: To attract and retain more people in employment, particularly by increasing labour force participation of women, and decrease unemployment rates, especially for young people
4.3 Title of the measure:
Measure 1.1: To promote women’s participation into the labour market, and increase female employment, including those formerly employed in agriculture
5. Description of the Operation
5.1 Contribution to the achievement of the Operational Programme:
“GATE for Women” Operation aims at establishing a regional garment training and entrepreneurship mechanism for women. The Operation puts forth a dual strategy focusing mainly on the enhancement of women’s qualifications and participation in the labour market. On the one hand, it proposes a sustainable skills development and entrepreneurship process which overlaps with the expectations of the growing garment industry in the region, and on the other hand, it puts forward direct linkages with the actors of the industry in terms of women’s job placement which will be one of the main results of the Operation. The Operation gets its name from this dynamic dual approach which aims at opening social and economic empowerment “GATEs” for women.
In compatible with the prominent regional priorities under the Eastern Black Sea Development Plan (2014-2017), the main focus of the Operation will be on the first priority axis of the HRD OP which targets “to attract and retain more people in employment, particularly by increasing labour force participation of women”. The Operation will mainly contribute to the implementation of Measure 1.1 of the HRD OP which aims to “promote women’s participation into the labour market, and increase female employment, including those formerly employed in agriculture”.
As emphasized under Measure 1.1, the actions for the development of women’s skills and vocational qualifications, sufficient and effective counselling and guidance services, and increasing the opportunities of women in the labour market are considered as the paths for the achievement of the objectives of this Measure. To that aim, the Operation will be composed of service and supply components with an integrated approach.
The Operation is expected to contribute to the following indicators defined under Measure 1.1 of the HRD OP:
- Number of women who participated in entrepreneurship courses for women
- Number of women who participated in employment oriented courses and guidance and counseling services
- Number of women established their own job
- Number of women participated to labour market as result of vocational training or awareness raising activity
Number of women participated to labour market as a result of employment oriented courses, guidance and counseling services
5.2 Overall Objective:
To promote the employability of women and support women entrepreneurship by improving vocational and entrepreneurial skills of women.
5.3 Operation Purpose:
To facilitate a sustainable vocational training, entrepreneurship and employment mechanism in the ready-made garment (RMG) sector for women including those who are unemployed, out of labour force, who are working home-based and/or as unpaid seasonal family workers.
5.4 Location(s):
The service and supply components will be implemented in Giresun and Ordu provinces.
While its headquarter is located in Trabzon, DOKA has two branches in Ordu and Giresun which are called DOKA Investment Support Offices.
The base of the Operation will be Giresun while all activities under 5.9 Activities section will be implemented in both cities (Giresun and Ordu) throughout the Operation.
5.5 Duration:
20 months
5.6 Target group(s):
· Unemployed women (including long term unemployed women),
· Women out of labour force,
· Women who are working home-based,
· Women who are working as seasonal unpaid family workers,
· Women willing to become entrepreneurs in the ready made garment (RMG) sector.
5.7 Description of the Operation and background:
In Turkey, around one-third of working women are employed as unpaid family workers. A similar assessment can be made for the women’s employment status in the Eastern Black Sea (TR90) region. While the latest data of TURKSTAT reveals that women’s labour force participation in the TR90 region (44 per cent) is higher than the Turkey average, the high ratio of women’s labour force participation can be attributed to high number of women who work as seasonal and unpaid family workers. Considering the main income-generation activity in the region, women’s labour force participation depends on agriculture, particularly in provinces of Giresun and Ordu which are home to approximately half of the hazelnut production areas. Both cities where hazelnuts are cultivated are generally on sloped terrain and not suitable for harvesting with machinery which means that the harvesting is a labour-intensive activity.
While women’s labour force participation represents a good proportion compared to the country average, women’s unpaid family worker status as seasonal workers points out a vicious circle in terms of women’s social and economic empowerment in both provinces. For centuries, hazelnut cultivation has been the main income generating activity in the Operation provinces. Almost all the people in the region have a hazelnut field which means that during the harvest time in August each family makes a division of labour to finish the harvest in time. Women undertake a full time role during the harvest time by working in the field and/or serving to the agricultural workers. While women’s involvement in the hazelnut production is a full time seasonal work, they, as family workers, do not gain any income and are lacking social security insurance.
In the rural areas of Ordu and Giresun, women’s involvement in agricultural activities perpetuates their secondary position lacking social security and means to social and economic resources. On the other hand, low level of education and skills of women creates big handicaps over their access and integration to better job conditions in the urban areas. According to the latest İŞKUR data, there are 7.443 unemployed women in Ordu, and 5.963 in Giresun who seek for a job with social security. Besides, according to TURKSTAT data, Giresun’s population increased only 57 persons compared to previous year. Such striking data is related to intense out-migration movement which is led particularly by the tendency of rural population to be involved in non-agricultural sectors and the lack of sufficient employment opportunities in the urban areas. Out-migration problem and the prevailing economic structure which depends mainly on hazelnut agriculture signify the need for immediate action for creating alternative employment opportunities in Giresun. Mainly due to the division of the hazelnut gardens by-inheritance, these small family businesses are not considered as feasible income generating activities so hazelnut production is no more an adequate source of income in the region. İŞKUR data affirms that the women who seek a job are mainly those who work as seasonal family labour only for 20 days of harvest time in August. Due to these transformations in the hazelnut production, RMG would be a means for employment alternative for the women living in Eastern Black Sea Region, more specifically, in Giresun and Ordu.
The Operation takes increasing women’s employment as its core point for action. As emphasized in the Human Resources Development Operational Programme (HRD OP), the prevailing employment status of rural women is intensely caused by the unpaid family worker status in agricultural sectors while in urban areas women’s lack of vocational qualifications sets barriers on the fulfillment of demands of labour market. As it is pointed out in the HRD OP, women’s employment status is closely linked with educational status. Moreover, improved vocational education does not provide employment opportunities unless the effective linkages are set out between the skilled labour force and the labour market actors. Therefore, as the OP points out, the improvement of women’s employment and their access to the labour market require taking active measures resting on vocational education and networking within the market.
The Operation aims at focusing directly on the above-mentioned disparities in Giresun and Ordu, by taking the advantage of the newly developing ready-made garment (RMG) sector in both cities. In recent years, ready-made garment industry (RMG) is gradually becoming the second largest provider of employment in the Giresun-Ordu region. The Operation’s concentration on the sector is basically related to its immense potential for employment generation for women in these provinces.
As a basis to the Operation, the development potential of the sector has been examined through a sectoral research conducted by the Giresun Investment Support Office which is one of the local branches of the Eastern Black Sea Development Agency. The research which combines the results of literature review and face-to-face interviews with the 15 RMG industry actors puts forth a deeper understanding of the sector while identifying the employment opportunities for women.
According to the research findings, RMG industry in Giresun provides direct employment to nearly 4000 people, 90 per cent of which is made up by young women in 20-35 age group. There are approximately 30 RMG enterprises in the province among which 20 of them are registered as RMG company. It is worth to state that among the RMG companies, 70 per cent is established in the last 5 years period. Similarly, in Ordu and intensively in Ünye and Fatsa sub-provinces, there are 25 RMG companies which accommodate 3500 employees in the sector. Company profiles in the region ranges from small RMG ateliers with 10-15 employees to big manufacturers which employ as high as 800 employees. Production of the companies in the region is based on men and women’s apparel including suit, shirt, short, jacket, dress, trouser and socks. The vast majority of the RMG companies in the region work as contract manufacturers to İstanbul and Europe-centered big trademarks while 10 per cent export products under their own trademarks.
The RMG companies in the region, especially those working as contract manufacturers to the big trademarks in İstanbul, utilize their full capacity as they have no demand problem. Utilisation of full capacity can be evaluated as an indicator of upcoming investments from these companies. There is also a tendency among the present companies to pursue production activities under their own trademark in addition to contract manufacturing. According to the company managers, underlying factors behind the attraction of Giresun-Ordu as an investment region is closely related to state incentives; and as an external factor for the unsustainable employment, very high worker costs which reach over the estimated total costs of the enterprises, sectoral satisfaction in İstanbul (A short analysis of RMG sector in Ordu and Giresun provinces is given in Annex-1.)
While the sector accommodates 90 per cent of women employees, it is expressed as a big question that the majority of the workers are composed of unskilled labour which creates serious production loss for the companies. In Giresun, Turkish Employment Agency (İŞKUR) has provided great support for the RMG industry by giving financial support for training of more than 2000 people since 2005. However, according to the RMG employers, the trainings are not considered sufficient to reach the expected quality standard of production.
It is estimated that by the end of the year 2015, the industry will grow to make room for the recruitment of nearly 1500 new RMG employees.[1] Following the adaptation of new State Incentive System which was put into force in mid-2012, Giresun and Ordu provinces has become an attraction point for the new RMG investors. As an instance, in 2012, Giresun Invesment Support Office has conducted meetings with 4 İstanbul-centered RMG companies among which one completed its investment with 100 employees. The other 3 companies will start their investments at the end of 2015.
While the development of the RMG sector is promising in terms of women’s employment opportunities in the region, labour demands of the sector need an immediate action. Above all, lack of qualified labour force is seen as the major problem by both the current RMG companies and by the newly emerging investors. At this point, the Operation takes the labour force needs of the sector as an opportunity for unemployed women in the Operation provinces. The research also shows that the current RMG investors in the region have considerable sectoral experience and are willing to recruit the vocational course graduates rather than graduates of engineering professions. The basic labour needs of the new investors have been identified as sewing and knitting machine operators, overlock operators, ironing and packing personnel, cutting masters and helpers, line supervisors, embroidery and accessory fixing personnel.
Apart from the labour demands of the RMG sector, it is important to mention that women’s involvement in the sector is an important tool for their social and economic empowerment in the region. Therefore, there is a considerable demand from women for working in this sector. Although there is no specific study in the region focusing on the existing state of women working in RMG sector, the information gathered during the preparation of this Operation creates a general view about the situation of women in the sector.
It can be said that the women working in the sector are recruited as sewing operators, and ironing and packaging staff. They work on full time basis with minimum wage including social security. The data taken from the Chambers of Trade and Commerce and İŞKUR reveal that there is intense demand by women to the vacancy announcements of RMG companies. In the last 3 years, with its limited resources, Fatsa Chamber of Trade and Commerce (CTC) organized local RMG courses, set linkages between the RMG producers and graduates of local RMG courses, and supported the recruitment of 150 women in the sector. However, the Chamber could not build a capacity to train a higher number of women in RMG construction[2]. The situation is similar in Giresun. Today, 99 per cent of the RMG workers in both provinces are women. In general, women’s concern in the sector is related with the demand for a registered job with social security and higher levels of income.