MEDIA INVITATION – Partnership Announcement
Republic of Turkey and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
April 10th, 2019 at 10:00 AM
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ankara
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey has the pleasure of inviting you to attend the high-level opening session of the workshop on innovation in the humanitarian and emergency response sector.
The speakers at the session will provide an overview of the joint work conducted by Turkey and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to identify potential areas for collaboration and to develop partnership opportunities. These include:
– support for the feasibility study and pilot projects of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Impact Accelerator, which is implemented jointly by the Government of Turkey and United Nations Development Program (UNDP);
– convening experts from Turkey and the Gates Foundation at a knowledge and experience sharing workshop focusing on humanitarian aid and emergency response;
– cooperation between the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Gates Foundation in agricultural development.
The close interconnections among these areas constitute the basis for joint work to be carried out with high impact on sustainable development, which takes into account Turkey’s priorities.
The workshop, which aims for knowledge and experience sharing as an important pillar of joint work, will be co-organized by Turkey and the Gates Foundation on 10-11 April 2019 at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ankara.
During the high-level opening session of the workshop, which will be open to the media, Ambassador Faruk Kaymakci, Deputy Foreign Minister and the Director for EU Affairs and Mr. Hassan Damluji, Deputy Director for Global Policy & Advocacy and Head of Middle East Relations of the Gates Foundation will provide information on the partnership and collaboration process initiated between Turkey and the Foundation.
In addition, during the opening ceremony, Feasibility Report of the SDG Impact Accelerator will be shared with public and the Project Document will be signed for the pilot implementation phase that will start in April. Mr. Claudio Tomasi, UNDP Turkey Resident Representative and Ms. Ebru Ozdemir, CEO of Limak Foundation, who both contribute to the project, will be participating at the session together with the representatives of the Turkish public and private sector institutions as well as the diplomatic missions in Turkey.
The program for the high-level opening session is here below.
10 April, Wednesday
10:00-11:00 High-Level Opening Session to launch the cooperation between the Republic of Turkey and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF)
(Introducing the collaboration between the Republic of Turkey and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation)
(Venue: Fatin Rüştü Zorlu Hall, open to media representatives)
(open to the attendance of media representatives)
- Ambassador Faruk Kaymakcı, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Director for EU Affairs
- Hassan Damluji, Deputy Director for Global Policy and Advocacy and Head of the Middle East Relations of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
- Claudio Tomasi, Resident Representative of UNDP in Turkey
- Ebru Özdemir, CEO, LİMAK Foundation
- Emre Eczacıbaşı, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Coordinator, Eczacıbaşı Group
- Rahman Nurdun, Vice President, Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA)
- Aylin Çağlayan Özcan, Director General for the European Union and Foreign Relations, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
- Katharina Lumpp, UNHCR Representative in Turkey
Signing of Project Document for Support to the Piloting Phase of the SDG Impact Accelerator by UNDP and Ministry of Foreign Affairs
For further information, please contact Deputy Directorate General for Multilateral Economic Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs through mturan@mfa.gov.tr or the following line 0312-2921606.
