Having a special consultancy status on the United Nations Economic and Social Council, KAGİDER has been attending to the meetings held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York since 2011. It presents one of the successful projects that is being implemented as a “Good Practice from Turkey” relevant to the primary theme.

The 62nd Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women meetings was held with the main theme of “Challenges and opportunities in achieving gender equality and the empowerment of rural women and girls” on March 12 and 23, 2018. In the context of the main theme, the successes and challenges that are faced on the way to achieve the sustainable development goals regarding women and girls were discussed thoroughly in the sessions.

As a KAGİDER delegation, we were at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City to attend the valuable series of conferences between March 12 and March 16, 2018. Our dedicated delegation has included 2 Presidents of KAGİDER, Gülseren Onanç and Gülden Türkan, who gave even more strength to our 21-member delegation. With our past and present, we have represented KAGİDER in terms of both national and international organizations in New York.

The detailed program that we followed and the events that we attended were as follows:

March 12 ,2018 As a KAGİDER delegation, we visited the Consul General of New York, Mr. Ertan Yalçın at his office as we do it every year. We shared the details and results of our “Working Mums” project in corporation with Danone. We also talked about what KAGİDER members have been doing and achieving in their companies over the past year.

March 12, 2018 In the context of the 62nd session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, we have organized our press meeting with representatives from Danone, hosted by the Turkish Consulate General in New York to inform the press about our project and the results of the “Working Mums” campaign. We have also invited the participants to our panel that was going to be held on March 13, 2018.

March 13, 2018 World Women Summit was co-hosted by the Turkish American Businessman Association (MÜSİAD USA) and the Women and Democracy Association (KADEM). KAGİDER was also invited to the summit. We attended as audience member as a delegation. The Minister of Family and Social Policies Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya was also present.

March 13, 2018 We have attended to the side event, “Women, Migration and Refugee Crisis”, at the United Nations General Assembly in the context of the 62nd Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, which was organized jointly with the coordination of the Ministry of Family and Social Policies of the Republic of Turkey and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

March 13, 2018 With the joint cooperation of Danone and KAGİDER, we have presented the research results of our project “Working Mums” in a side event within the context of the 62nd Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women meetings at the Church Center to other countries as an example. The goal was to raise awareness about the value that working mums will add to both themselves and to their families by continuing their work lives to the public. The “Working Mums” project has been highly appreciated by the representatives of other countries. In the panel organization, the President of UNWomen New York, Mary Luke, was also present as the keynote speaker.

In the event, President of KAGİDER, Sanem Oktar and General Manager of Danone Su, Gamze Çuhadaroğlu, revealed the results of the study on working mums and their return to work after taking a break to their professional careers. Accordingly, Sanem Oktar reported that the “Working Mums” project aims to encourage women to work in order to increase their self-confidence and economic power as well as the purchasing power and the social status of the family. It is presented that 40% of women stop working after giving birth to their children. In order to change this situation, it is emphasized that the public and private sector should work together towards establishing lactation rooms and available kinder garden facilities while keeping in mind that women’s participation in workforce is a common responsibility for all of us.

In line with this, Gamze Çuhadaroğlu suggested that Danone is first to initiate a global policy towards working mums and dads, and rewarded by HeForShe as Thematic Champion. She underlined that the carried study results show that working mums who return back to their professional career have a significant positive impact over their children in the sense that the children will acquire the understanding of gender equality at a very early age.

Mary Luke pointed out that if more women are actively involved in politics, the government will accelerate the initiatives on this issue to support women's inclusion to workforce.

March 13, 2018 As a delegation of KAGİDER, we have attended to the reception organized for KAGİDER by the Permanent Representative of the United Nations Mr. Feridun Sinirlioğlu.

March 14, 2018 President of KAGİDER, Sanem Oktar delivered a speech at the side event titled “Empowering Women in the Rural Areas, Perspective of Turkey” in the context of the 62nd Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women meetings. The session started with the keynote speech of the Minister of Family and Social Policies Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya. After sharing related statistics on the topic, Sanem Oktar introduced the inspiring success stories of Ayten Çöl, Tülin Akın, Nuran Özyılmaz and Nesrin Karaoğlu Otuzoğlu, who are all members of KAGİDER. The stories were highly appreciated in the international arena.

March 14, 2018 As a KAGİDER Delegation, we visited the Permanent Representative of the United Nations Mr. Feridun Sinirlioğlu at his office. KAGİDER members have shared their business experiences and had valuable discussions with Mr. Feridun Sinirlioğlu.

March 14, 2018 We have joined the event organized by the New York Business Women Association especially for KAGİDER, where we had the change to meet with the members of the National Association of Women Business Owners. The Vice President of KAGİDER, Zehra Güngör, introduced KAGİDER and the projects that are being carried out. NAWBO also introduced themselves and possible business partnerships are discussed between the members and the associations.

March 15, 2018 President of KAGİDER, Sanem Oktar, Vice President Emine Erdem, Honorary Board Member Gülden Türktan, Board Member Meryem Salman and Secretary General Yeşim Seviğ participated in a side event organized by Argentina. The term president of W20, and UNDP, where the agenda of W20 was discussed. Sanem Oktar shared her comments and suggestions on behalf of KAGİDER, the founder of W20.

March 15, 2018 We have attended to the luncheon organized by SAP in honor of KAGİDER and UN WOMEN. In the meeting where we met with women entrepreneurs and representatives of the private sector, we had fruitful conversations about new business ideas and potential business partnerships.

March 15, 2018 We participated in the WEPs Annual Forum organized in the UN ECOSOC room. In the women empowerment panel, President of UPS Foundation , which is “dream partner” of KAGİDER, Eduardo Martinez has delivered a speech, in which he shared the successful projects of UPS both at local and global level and concluded his speech by thanking KAGİDER for the cooperation on the way to woman empowerment. Within the context of WEPs Annual Forum, KAGİDER member, Ahu Serter gave a speech in the session of “Investing in the Societal Gender Equality”.

March 15, 2018 President of KAGİDER, Sanem Oktar, Vice President Emine Erdem and Secretary General Yeşim Seviğ met with the President of UPS Foundation, Eduardo Martinez and talked about possible areas of cooperation in the context of Shetrades.

March 15, 2018 We participated in the reception organized by Turkish Philanthropy Funds in honor of KAGİDER. We have met with donors and board members of Turkish Philanthropy Funds and had fruitful conversations about new business ideas and potential business partnerships.

March 16, 2018 We have visited Vakıf Bank New York Office. We met with Vakıf Bank's General Manager Hakkı Şenel, Assistant General Manager Güldal Şişman, and Paterson Deputy Mayor of New Jersey Derya Taşkın.

March 16, 2018 We organized a business meeting at Turkish Trade Center, which was opened together with KAGİDER and TİM. In the meeting, we have been informed about the operation of Turkish Trade Center, how a company can rent a place in the center and the possible cooperation activities.

In the meeting, it is emphasized that for the exporters who want to enter the US market, they should know the market and it will make it easier for the companies to operate in the market if they cooperate with representatives who know the market well. It is underlined that the standards in the ready wear market are set but still, support should be received from the Ministry of Economy for market research. We realized that getting involved in the customer network is very valuable to be able to sell the products in large retail companies such as Walmart. However, the initial step to be taken in order to be able to operate in the US market is emphasized as having a meeting with the Commercial Attache’s Office at the US Consulate.