UNDP to award US$4.5 million in grants to help earthquake-hit small businesses [EN/TR]

Visiting Hatay, top UNDP official targets jobs and livelihoods for regional recovery

Hatay, 12 July 2023 – Citing a shift “from survival to revival” in the earthquake response, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) announced today that it would award US$4.5 million in grants to small businesses in the 11 provinces that were worst-hit by the February 2023 earthquakes. The earthquake recovery grants are part of a larger program that UNDP is implementing with a contribution of US$15.5 million from Sweden, with social care services and waste management the other two components.

“Small businesses are the lifeblood of any economy,” said Ivana Živković, UN Assistant Secretary-General and UNDP Regional Director. “Getting them back to work is a first step towards recovery.” Živković announced the new program in Antakya, the capital city of Hatay province, which suffered the most damage of any locality in Türkiye, at an event organized by the Antakya Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Živković was visiting UNDP project sites in Hatay as part of a four-day official mission to Türkiye.

The grants program has its origins in a smaller US$500,000 grants scheme for women-led businesses launched by UNDP in Kahramanmaraş on 13 June 2023. The response to the earlier program was so overwhelming – 820 applications have been received – that UNDP opted for a speedy expansion to all affected provinces. Details on eligibility are still being hammered out, but the regional scheme will provide grants ranging in value from TRY30,000 (US$1,150) to TRY300,000 (US$11,500). Applications will be accepted from 30 July 2023 to 30 August 2023, with updates to be posted at www.undp.org/turkiye.

“After five months, people want to move from survival to revival,” said UNDP Resident Representative Louisa Vinton. “But most can’t do this without outside help, which we aim to deliver as swiftly as possible.”

Interest in the new scheme is huge; the Antakya Organized Industrial Zone where the announcement was made was packed. Participants observed that US$4.5 million was a small number compared to the scale of destruction the region had faced. An estimated 220,000 businesses were destroyed in the earthquakes.

“The need is indeed almost infinite,” said Vinton, “But our hope is that the program will serve as a catalyst triggering a chain reaction that will help revive other businesses and prompt other donors to contribute.”

UNDP will partner with chambers of commerce and industry across the region to implement the program. A full 80 percent of the program budget will be awarded as direct grants, with 10 percent dedicated to business advisory services and another 10 percent to vocational training to improve entrepreneurial skills.

The grants scheme will prioritize assistance to women-led businesses, since women face greater obstacles to successful recovery, including more unpaid home care work that they were not performing before the earthquakes.

During her visit to Hatay and the earthquake-affected region, Živković also met with local partners including Governor of Hatay Mustafa Masatlı, Governor of Gaziantep Kemal Çeber, Mayor of Hatay Metropolitan Municipality Lütfü Savaş and Mayor of Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality Fatma Şahin.

For more information:

Esra Özçeşmeci, Communications Associate for UNDP in Türkiye, esra.ozcesmeci@undp.org

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