Promoting Decent Work for Syrian Refugees and Host Communities in Turkey through Investment in Skills, Improved Service Delivery and Transition to Formality

Turkey hosts the highest number of refugees in the world. As such, it faces the challenge of integrating more than 3.6 million Syrians under temporary protection (SuTP), including 2.1 million of working age. Around one million Syrian refugees are estimated to be working in Turkey, mainly informally and in low-skilled sectors. The prevalence of the informal economy was already a major concern for the government and social partners before the inflow of Syrian refugees. Based on its close relationship with Turkey in strengthening the enabling environment for decent work and social justice, the ILO has developed a five-year (2017-2021) comprehensive, holistic and integrated programme of support (PoS). The programme builds on ILO interventions supporting Syrian refugees in Turkey since 2015 and is implemented within the framework of Turkey’s overall response and the 3RP. The project seeks to upscale ILO´s ongoing efforts to support the formal labour market integration of Syrian refugees as well as host community members in the ten largest refugee hosting provinces. Decent work will be promoted through investment in skills, improved service delivery and transition to formality. The goal of the project is to scale up the scope of pilot activities and propose new interventions by mainstreaming the lessons learned to the overall rationale. The main indicator to measure the specific project objective is to create additional formal employment for 8,500 beneficiaries (6,750 SuTPs and 1,750 Turkish citizens-TC) over the course of 54 months and at least 30% of final beneficiaries are foreseen to be women. The project consists of the following three outputs and related indicators: Output A: SuTPs are qualified to participate in the formal labour market. 3,000 SuTP have successfully participated in the targeted on-the-job training. 1,500 SuTP are placed into formal employment through the incentive scheme after having successfully completed on-the-job training. Output B: Turkish public employment services are strengthened to support SuTP and disadvantaged TC to access the formal labour market. At least ten (10) additional One-Stop-Shops are equipped and well-functioning. At least 50,000 SuTP and Turkish citizens are reached and consulted through newly established One-Stop-Shops. Output C: Transition to formality is facilitated for SuTP and TC. Cost for Social Security Premiums for 7,000 beneficiaries (5,250 SuTP and 1,750 Turkish citizens) is paid to employers. Cost for Work Permits for 5,250 SuTP is paid. The project started in December, 2018 and lasts for an initial duration of 24 months (phase 1) and can potentially be extended for 30 additional months (phase 2) until March 2023.

Project symbol

TUR/18/01/DEU

Admin unit

ILO-Ankara

Start date

06/12/2018

End date

31/12/2024

Total allocation

10678636

Total expenditure

Status

Active

10673504

Development Partners

Germany, KfW Development Bank

Country/Countries

Türkiye

Outcomes

Outcome 6: Protection at work for all