HURIDOCS, in partnership with the Association for Monitoring Equal Rights (AMER) and supported by the European Commission, is leading a three-year initiative to empower disadvantaged groups in Türkiye. The project ‘Economic, Social, and Cultural Disadvantaged Groups in Türkiye through Monitoring and Advocacy Partnerships’ aims to enhance the rights of these groups by fostering local partnerships with civil society organisations, improving data collection methods, and promoting targeted advocacy efforts.
The first cluster selected for this project comprises three organisations across Türkiye dedicated to advancing economic, social, and cultural (ESC) rights, including critical areas like education and child rights. Through this initiative, the Roma Memory Studies Association (Romani Godi), Sulukule Volunteers Association (Sulukule Gönüllüleri Derneği) and Flying Broom Association (Uçan Süpürge) receive financial and technical support to strengthen their documentation capacity to advocate for the protection of the rights of vulnerable communities.
Last December, HURIDOCS and AMER organised a workshop in Ankara where subgrantees, project staff and local municipalities engaged in conversations on the reality of ESC rights and delved into the world of documentation and monitoring of human rights violations.
We spoke with HURIDOCS’ Programme Manager, Lucia Gómez Vicente, and Programme Officer, Oleksandra Kovalenko, to gain insights and updates on the project. They provided an overview of the progress made since the workshop in Ankara, the current activities, the next stages of the project, and key insights gathered along the way.
Can you provide an overview of the project’s progress since the workshop was held in Ankara in 2023?
Oleksandra: Since the workshop in Ankara, our participants, who are members of the clusters, have been working on collecting information and narrowing down their projects. Some of them went to the field to gather data, while others had already done this before our project started. After the workshop, we conducted three key activities: discovery sessions, Uwazi training, and ad-hoc support for the groups, all led by HURIDOCS’ Project Officers. We have set up one Uwazi instance per cluster, with three instances currently in use, allowing the clusters to work collaboratively.
Can you explain what a discovery session entails and how they were organised in this project?
Oleksandra: The discovery sessions aim to explore and align the clusters’ objectives. We ask questions regarding data analysis, audiences, users, and how the data will be organised, focusing on the data model. A data model is like a guideline/ blueprint that shows how data is organised and related in the database. The idea is that, as a result of the discovery sessions, a data model plan or iteration can be used to organise the data in Uwazi.
We held five sessions per cluster, that is 15 sessions in total, each lasting about two hours. Roughly, three of these were discovery sessions and two were dedicated to Uwazi training. However, the sessions were tailored according to the specific needs and characteristics of each project, and how participants responded to our approach. These were conducted online with an interpreter from English to Turkish and vice versa. Two Programme Officers and a representative from AMER were involved, and the sessions took place over three weeks.
What did the Uwazi user training entail?
Oleksandra: The Uwazi training sessions covered topics such as creating and managing entities, templates, relationships, and data uploading. We have seen participants configuring Uwazi and performing exercises, which shows progress in their understanding and use of the platform.
The Uwazi training sessions were particularly successful, as participants engaged by configuring and performing exercises, asking questions about functionalities, creating entities, templates, and relationships, as well as uploading CSV files. However, there were different levels of progress, it takes time to align everyone and this is an ongoing work in progress.
What are you working on right now?
Oleksandra: Right now, we are in the post-session support stage, providing technical and training-related support to help the groups organise or finish organising the data they collected. This data needs to be ready for the advocacy campaign, which will be organised and led by our partner, AMER. They organised a workshop which took place over three days in August, with external training and a facilitator, building on what we have worked on and using the collected data to address issues such as child marriage, Roma rights, child education, and nutrition.
In parallel, we have started the call for the second round of applications, with the deadline until mid-September. Three new clusters will be selected soon, and participants from both the first and second cycles will have an opportunity to exchange experiences during the Policy Forum in November 2024.
What are the most significant achievements and challenges since December last year?
Lucía: Despite the project’s volume, the hardships in Türkiye, socio-economic problems, the 2022 earthquake, and the elections, the groups were able to get into the field. We learned that CSOs face a lack of information and access to data on particular matters. We have seen how human rights issues are entangled in this context; for example, child marriage often involves a lack of access to education, these are overlapping issues.
The groups managed to collect information on complex issues like child marriage in Türkiye, which is grounded in local, traditional religious mindsets. It’s great to see our members gathering and presenting data, sharing ideas, and gaining digital tools and skills to hopefully continue this work.
The clusters have also built more connections, increasing networking and collaboration among CSOs for the future, involving diverse regions and issues. They are actively participating in the training and collaborating with us, which strengthens these relationships.
Building capacity is a process that goes back and forth. While this is common with all our partners, we have seen it very clearly in this project. In the beginning, during the workshop and training, the groups were unsure of where this was going and didn’t fully understand documentation-related concepts like data modelling. Since then, they have gone through the learning curve and are now on the other side, benefiting from the ad-hoc support we provided alongside the training.
Oleksandra: There are some challenges regarding distance and understanding the cultural context. Since this is our first long-term collaboration with Turkish partners who came together to uphold ESC rights in the country, there is a lot we are still learning. Sometimes we don’t have as much access to the groups as we would ideally like, which makes working collaboratively across the board difficult to coordinate. But this is why our partnership with AMER is key to the success of this project.
Also, the pace of implementation has been slow due to the earthquake, political landscape, and overall situation in Türkiye. Groups have requested extensions, and while we can’t control everything, it has impacted the project’s progress.
What is planned for the project in the coming months?
Lucía: In the next months, we will prioritise ensuring the sustainability of the databases. We recognise that maintaining momentum can be challenging once funding concludes. To address this, we will work closely with the clusters to explore plans for sustaining their databases. If the clusters request to continue working with HURIDOCS, we could look for funds together or co-apply for grants, ensuring the initiatives are sustained.
What are the expectations for the upcoming Policy Forum and its impact on advocating for ESC rights in Türkiye?
Lucía: The upcoming Policy Forum to be held in November 2024 is expected to have several layers of outcomes. The clusters will present their advocacy campaigns and policy reports, based on the data they have collected. This is a very specific, tangible outcome we expect.
There will also be a session for policy dialogue with EU diplomats, members of the Turkish parliament, and other stakeholders, as the overarching goal of this project is to influence public policy. While it is very ambitious, the Forum aims to create a space where civil society and decision-makers can listen to each other and engage in constructive dialogue.
In addition, there will be a day for the different clusters from the first cycle to meet and provide feedback and retrospective insight on their participation in the process. Recently selected clusters from the second cycle will also be invited to participate in this exchange of experiences to hear directly from colleagues about the impact this project has had on their organisations and initiatives. One aspect is continuing to build on these networks. The idea is that the clusters will develop relationships among themselves and build connections with key decision-makers.
How has your perspective on the challenges and opportunities for CSOs in Türkiye evolved since the project’s inception?
Lucía: One of the hypotheses of this project is how difficult it is for civil society in Türkiye to access data on specific violations of ESC rights. This has come across very clearly. Just going to the field, and digging through interviews or surveys, the number of records they have is not large, since official sources don’t produce this information, or if they do, it’s not available to the public. There is a white canvas for them to work from, from a place of disadvantage and inequality.
Also, finding a balance between what they know and where they want to be, in a context that doesn’t reward solid data, has been a significant learning experience.
This project is possible thanks to the support of the European Commission in Türkiye.
