Skills and Employment
We specialize in research focusing on employment issues across different population groups including women, youth, and refugees. We collaborate with international organizations and NGOs to improve skills and job prospects.
Our research portfolio covers skills, education, and labour markets, with research ranging from single-country to multi-country studies. Our clients include UN agencies, the World Bank, ILO, and NGOs focused on education and employment.
We are committed to evidence-based policymaking, providing both pre-policy advice and post-implementation evaluations of labour market programs. Our goal is to inform and improve labour market policies and interventions.
Development Analytics carries out studies examining skills, employment prospects, and empowerment of young people.
We conduct studies looking at the determinants of female labour force participation and evaluate policies that aim to enhance women's empowerment.
We carry out policy evaluations looking at the labour market integration of refugees in host countries.
Projects
Early Childhood Education (ECE) Costing Analysis in Türkiye
Early Childhood Care and Education, Costing, Capacity Expansion
September 2022 - March 2024
Over the past decade, Türkiye has experienced substantial growth in its ECE capacity, fueled by investments from both the public and private sectors. While the increase in the number of institutions offering ECE services in Türkiye resulted in higher enrolment rates of 5-year-olds, enrolment rates for 3 and 4-year-olds remained low. Government planning documents also continuously emphasize the target of enhancing access to ECE services.
As part of this project for the Ministry of National Education of Türkiye and UNICEF Türkiye, two comprehensive reports have been prepared. “The Systematic Analysis of the Early Childhood Education Sub-Sector in Türkiye” delves into an analysis of Türkiye's ECE system, examining the broader enabling environment, and key action areas, employing the UNICEF’s Pre-primary Conceptual Framework. The study utilizes a combination of qualitative and quantitative data sources to analyze the ECE sub-sector in Türkiye to identify its strengths and weaknesses.
As the second main deliverable under the project, a report titled "ECE Costing Analysis in Türkiye" has been prepared with an accompanying interactive simulation tool. This second report focuses on conducting a comprehensive costing analysis of ECE capacity expansion in Türkiye making use of a simulation model. The analysis aims to provide valuable insights into the financial implications and distributional consequences of different scenarios for expanding ECE capacity. The simulation model was integrated into an interactive and adaptable Excel-based tool, leveraging data on current ECE access, pricing from both public and private providers, and unit costs of setting up and operating ECE services. The tool is built upon UNICEF's ECE Accelerator Simulation Model adding various features and expanding the existing model in order to reflect the situation in Türkiye as well as adding a distributional analysis component.
Documentation of Education Response in Turkey during the Covid-19 Pandemic and its Effect on Children's Access to and Retention in Education
Education, Covid-19
October 2021 - December 2022
This study aims (i) to understand and document the policies implemented so far, the challenges faced by children, teachers and schools during the extended period of school closures in Turkey and (ii) to estimate the impact of the COVID pandemic on children’s education outcomes and identify risk groups.
The study uses a mixed-methods approach to review and analyse the existing data and documents while also collecting primary qualitative data from stakeholders and experts. The methodological tools that have been used for the study are (i) Desk review, (ii) Quantitative Data Analysis (Analysis of DHS 2018 and PISA 2018 datasets) and (iii) Qualitative Data Collection and Analysis through KIIs with Stakeholders. In the absence of primary data collected regarding the current situation on children’s learning outcomes, dropout rates or engagement in child labour, simulations and estimations on these indicators using existing household level datasets and identifying the characteristics of children who are most at risk are presented to highlight the degree of the problem and the child groups that are likely to be most affected.
📖 Download the Executive Summary
Strategic Mid-term Evaluation of The Facility for Refugees in Turkey
Refugees, Evaluation
March 2019 - June 2021
The Facility for Refugees in Turkey (the Facility) is a EUR 6 billion mechanism designed to share Turkey’s burden of hosting close to four million refugees. Organised in two tranches, it coordinates the EU refugee response, focusing on humanitarian assistance and protection, education, health, socio-economic support, and migration management. The evaluation’s scope includes all actions funded and instruments mobilised under Facility Tranche I (EUR 3 billion) between 2015/16 and 2020. The purpose of the evaluation is: (i) To provide an overall assessment of the performance of the Facility to date, focusing on intermediate results measured against its objectives, (ii) To provide lessons learned and actionable recommendations to improve current and future actions and strategy. The Facility includes portfolios of humanitarian and non-humanitarian interventions across four sectors – education; health; socio-economic support; and protection, which the evaluation covers in a series of standalone sector reports. This evaluation was implemented by Landell Mills Ltd. with support from Development Analytics responsible for organizing and executing the fieldwork (accompanied by international experts) in Turkey and providing local expertise through its national experts for this study. Development Analytics also provided quantitative and qualitative data analysis for the sector reports and provided writing support in the preparation of the sector reports, co-leading the sector report for socioeconomic support.
📖 Download the Executive Summary
📖 Download Sector Report (Education)
📖 Download Sector Report (Health)
📖 Download Sector Report (Socio-Economic Support)
Enhancing Advocacy Capacities of Youth CSOs in Turkey: Guiding CSOs through Research
Youth, Civic Participation, Advocacy, Trainings
April 2019 - October 2020
This project aims to provide background research on the situation of young people who are “neither in education nor in employment or training” (NEET), highlight CSO models in Turkey that address this problem, and strengthen the capacity of CSOs working in the field of youth empowerment. By analysing the situation, building capacity at youth CSOs, and introducing their models to experts at relevant ministries the project aims to enrich the ongoing policy discussions on the issue of NEET. The project has three main activity packages: (i) Building knowledge and research with a baseline research study, (ii) Training and capacity building workshops in youth CSOs and preparation of a handbook, (iii) Dissemination, advocacy, and networking workshops.
The project is led by Development Analytics with Hayal Ortakları Derneği (YGA) as a co-applicant. The project is funded by the European Union under the Grant Scheme for Civil Society Support Programme.
📖 Download the Report / the Summary (English)
Case Study on KEDV Women’s Empowerment and Community-Driven Development Model
Women's Empowerment
October 2018 - March 2019
Women's cooperatives, have come to the forefront both in academic literature and policy reports as an innovative model that responds to global and regional needs shaped around gender equality, development and poverty. The Foundation for the Support of Women’s Work (KEDV) is a non-governmental organization founded in 1986 in Turkey and has been working with women for more than 30 years to “change women's lives and the society they live in and to build strong societies free from poverty and inequality”. The overall objective of this project is to analyse women cooperatives as a development model and reveal the role of KEDV in women’s cooperative movement in Turkey and its implementation model as a case. This project provides a review of i) the literature to understand recent developments in understanding the role of cooperatives in developing countries, ii) KEDV’s model, including value statements, processes, internal reports, assessments, and policy documents, iii) and cooperative case studies to understand the role of KEDV and women in the social cooperative movement in Turkey.
A mixture of a desk review of policy documents, articles, reports, and strategic plans and qualitative fieldwork (i.e. key in-depth-interviews and focus group discussions done with selected women cooperatives) are used to gather data and present findings for this project.
Education of Disadvantaged Children in the OIC: the Key to Escape from Poverty
Education, Poverty
April 2018 - June 2018
This report focuses on access to education among disadvantaged groups in the member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). The report provides an overview of the current status and recent trends in education focusing on access to quality education by poverty status, location, gender, spoken language /ethnicity, and disability status of children as well as policies and programmes to improve access among disadvantaged groups. The main focus is on primary and lower secondary education. The report consists of four parts. i) An outline of the conceptual framework used in analysing the state of education in OIC countries. ii) A summary of the state of education across OIC member states. This includes an analysis of trends across and between countries as well as an assessment of which groups are most disadvantaged with respect to access to education. iii) Case studies for the member states Jordan, Pakistan, Senegal, and Turkey provide a more detailed assessment of factors affecting education provision in these countries. iv) Policy recommendations to increase access to education among disadvantaged groups.
📖 Download the Report and the Infographic
Life in Transition Survey- Gender Analysis and Gender Modules
Gender, Care Work
November 2016 - August 2017
Gender Analysis using the Life in Transition Survey (LITS III) deals with a number of gender-related issues for 34 countries where the survey was collected. The study focuses on gender differences in four key areas: i) employment and entrepreneurial activity ii) asset ownership iii) the burden of care in the household and attitudes towards its need and provision and iv) norms on gender roles and attitudes towards the gender balance in household decision making. The Life in Transition Survey (LITS III) was conducted jointly by the World Bank and EBRD and is a combined household and attitude survey. The third round of LITS was implemented in 2015-2016 in 34 countries, with an average of 1,500 households per country. The survey consists of a number of modules covering a broad range of individual and household attributes. Crucially for the present study, and in contrast to previous implementations of the survey, two key changes were made to LITS III permitting the gender analysis outlined above. Firstly, new questions were added relating to asset ownership, care demand in the household, and gender norms. Secondly, the responses to the asset and employment modules were expanded to include those from a secondary respondent of the opposite sex.
Final Evaluation of the Pilot Implementation of SCORE Methodology in Turkey
Sustainability, Employment
December 2015 - April 2016
Sustaining Competitive and Responsible Enterprises (SCORE) is a practical training and in-factory counselling programme to increase the productivity of small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) while promoting respect for workers’ rights. The programme demonstrates the best international practice in the manufacturing and service sectors and helps SMEs to participate in global supply chains. The intervention in Turkey targeted SMEs in Turkey in the selected province; Kocaeli to improve the competitiveness and productivity levels of the selected SMEs through strengthening the workplace cooperation and working conditions to ensure scaling up SCORE programme by the relevant government agencies and industry organizations to enable a larger number of SMEs to benefit from the SCORE in Turkey. The final evaluation of the project aimed to assess the results of the work done in order to properly report on the results as well as define the steps for possible further project development in the improvement of working conditions in SMEs and SME efficiency and productivity. The evaluation applied the key criteria of relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, and impact potential. To this end, a fieldwork composing of in-depth interviews had been conducted, and original data collected through (i) these qualitative interviews, and (ii) quantitative surveys from the programme participants.
School to Work Transition in Moldova: Informing Schooling and Jobs Decisions
Youth and Employment, School to Work Transition
August 2015 - October 2015
The main objective of the task “Informing Schooling and Jobs Decisions in Moldova” was to inform on‐going and planned reforms in Moldova that aim to improve labour market outcomes, in particular through better aligning the education system with labour market needs, with a focus on better understanding how males and females from different socio‐economic groups form their expectations regarding labour market outcomes and how they make their schooling and employment decisions in relation to these expectations. For this purpose, both quantitative and qualitative data were collected by the World Bank, combining mixed-methods individual interviews and focus group discussions. This Project entailed the qualitative coding and analysis of data from 22 focus groups of young people in vocational schools, junior and secondary schools universities, recent graduates, as well as parents and teachers.
(i) Reasons to choose specific education paths
(ii) Student aspirations
(iii) Perception of the education system and the different career orientation activities.
Final Global Evaluation of the Decent Work in the Green Economy Project
Sustainability, Employment
March 2015 - July 2015
The ILO project “Decent Work in the Green Economy” has focused on the employment aspects of national efforts to transition to a green economy. The project was implemented in 3 countries Mexico, China, and Turkey. The global evaluation report was undertaken in this project after carrying out the local interviews in Turkey and receiving local country reports for Mexico and China. The report followed the guidelines indicated in the TOR and evaluate: (i) the project’s relevance and effectiveness; project achievements against immediate objective and expected outputs; (ii) emerging outcomes and impacts of the interventions; (iii) lessons learned and recommendations for future projects of similar focus.
Improvement of Basic Services Delivery for the Poor in the OIC Member Countries
Access to Basic Services, Poverty, Aid Effectiveness
January 2015 - September 2015
This study focuses on basic service delivery in OIC member countries, covering education, health care, water, sanitation and electricity sectors. The study presents the situation in the 57 member countries drawing on data collected from various sources and a literature review with regards to the access to the services, service delivery models employed and financing of the services along with common challenges that are observed in member countries in the delivery of basic services. Apart from the overview of the countries, the report includes in-depth case country studies of Indonesia, Bangladesh, Turkey, and Lebanon on the delivery of basic services, based on a literature review, as well as elite interviews. The report concludes with recommendations for the member countries to improve their basic service delivery models.
Good Jobs in Turkey: Post-Crisis Adjustment and Employment Generation for Men, Women, and Youth in Turkey
Youth, Gender, Employment
July 2013 - September 2013
The paper looked at the composition and nature of employment generation among youth and women in the post-crisis period in Turkey between 2009-2011. The paper discussed changes in trends in employment generation, particularly for youth and women between the pre-crisis and post-crisis periods. While the rapid growth of GDP and employment in the post-crisis period, coupled with formalization of employment in the labour market and the increased employment elasticity of growth, presented a favourable picture of the employment situation in Turkey, a closer look at labour force surveys suggested that there was not yet reason to assume that these changes in the labour market will have lasting effects. From evidence, the majority of the changes observed could be linked to (i) the agricultural sector re-absorbing a significant portion of the unskilled female labour force into informal employment; (ii) temporary growth in the residential construction sector; and (iii) older people remaining in the formal labour market for longer periods. Younger cohorts have seen a shift from informal to formal work, if with little overall job growth. However, for youth, a significant change could not be found in the employment trend in the post-crisis period compared to the pre-crisis period. The improvement in female labour force participation, particularly when we disregard returns to the agricultural sector - is not yet significantly above its pre-crisis trend either.
Survey on School-based Violence among Young Adolescents
Youth
March 2013 - May 2013
"School-based Violence (and Bullying) among Young Adolescents" is a study conducted by the Young Life Foundation (Genç Hayat Vakfı) to understand the situation of high school students being exposed to or witnessing violence and bullying, and their views on violence. The presence of violence among young people, its frequency, types, and how it reproduces itself with different types were examined with the research. The study is carried out among 9th grade students, teachers and school principals in 50 high schools in Istanbul.
Development Analytics took part in preparation of the methodology, sampling and design of the survey instrument for the study. The sample was selected among public high schools in Istanbul and the survey instrument was designed using similar surveys from international studies. The survey included questions on socioeconomic status, educational background, exposure to and witnessing bullying, attitudes about bullying, dating violence and cyber violence. The survey was fielded in May - June 2013 by the Young Life Foundation.
Projects
Publications
Harnessing the Power of Youth: An Analysis of Youth Not-in-Employment, Education or Training (NEET) in Turkey and Policies and Civil Society Models that Promote Active Youth Engagement
Nazli Aktakke, Hazal Colak, Zeynep Baser, Sena Buyukavci, Cagla Tabak
October 2020
This research study was conducted within the scope of the “Enhancing Advocacy Capacities of Youth CSOs in Turkey: Guiding CSOs through Research” project jointly executed by Development Analytics and the Young Guru Academy (YGA). This project is financed within the scope of second phase of "Civil Society Support Programme" which is supported by EU and coordinated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Directorate for EU Affairs. The report aims to contribute to the analytical and academic evidence base on the issue of youth, not in employment, education or training in Turkey, as well as to provide a stocktake of available models of youth empowerment from existing CSOs and to highlight these models to a policy audience.
📖 Download the Report / the Summary (English)
Good Jobs in Turkey
Rebekka Grun, Cristobal Ridao-Cano, Herwig Immervoll, Sinem Çapar, Victoria Levin, Meltem Aran, Carola Gruen, Levent Yener and Tolga Cebeci
November 2013
Turkey has low and declining levels of female labor force participation with only about one-in four women in the working age population being active in the labor market as of 2006. The levels of participation in Turkey are also lower than many countries in the Middle East (such as Iran, Pakistan, Syria, Libya and Kuwait) that historically have had low female participation rates. This rate has been declining in the last 30 years from a level of 48% in 1980. This paper looks at the most recent trends and profiles of labour force participation of women in Turkey using three different household-level data sources available in Turkey (HBS, LFS, and TDHS) for the period 2003-2006. Understanding the falling trend in female labor force participation requires looking at the recent trends and changes in the labor profiles of women in Turkey. The contributions of this paper are the comprehensive look at trends over several consecutive years; and the multivariate structural analysis over several years. The data available from household level surveys is analyzed for levels and trends in female labor force participation in this time period taking a closer look at the profiles of women’s activity in the labor market over time. The current profiles and changes for the given period are identified for various groups by education level, work status, type and sector of employment.
Recent Trends in Female labour Force Participation in Turkey
Arzu Uraz, Meltem A. Aran, Müşerref Hüsamoğlu, Dilek Okkalı Şanalmış, Sinem Capa
March 2010
Turkey has low and declining levels of female labour force participation with only about one-in-four women in the working age population being active in the labour market as of 2006. The levels of participation in Turkey are also lower than many countries in the Middle East (such as Iran, Pakistan, Syria, Libya and Kuwait) that historically have had low female participation rates. This rate has been declining in the last 30 years from a level of 48% in 1980. This paper looks at the most recent trends and profiles of labour force participation of women in Turkey using three different household-level data sources available in Turkey (HBS, LFS, and TDHS) for the period 2003-2006. Understanding the falling trend in female labour force participation requires looking at the recent trends and changes in the labour profiles of women in Turkey. The contributions of this paper are the comprehensive look at trends over several consecutive years; and the multivariate structural analysis over several years. The data available from household-level surveys is analyzed for levels and trends in female labour force participation in this time period taking a closer look at the profiles of women’s activity in the labour market over time. The current profiles and changes for the given period are identified for various groups by education level, work status, type and sector of employment.
Experts
Meltem Aran, Ph.D.
Human Development Economist, Director
Dr. Meltem Aran is a human development economist with over two decades of experience in social policy design and evaluation. She specializes in poverty, inequality, and the distributional impact of social policies, and her work has significantly contributed to the field of social policy research, particularly in the application of ex-ante microsimulation methods for social policy design.
Gökçe Uysal Kolasın, Ph.D.
Labour Economist, Associate
Dr. Gökçe Uysal is a labour economist with a focus on the economics of gender, the economics of education, and household savings. Her recent research centres on the labour market integration of Syrians in Turkey, leading a comprehensive assessment for the International Youth Foundation on identifying sectors with strong labour demand to facilitate the integration of young Syrians.
Güneş Aşık, Ph.D.
Economist, Research Associate
Güneş Aşık is a Development Economist specialising in growth, regional development, and trends in female labour force participation. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor at TOBB Economics and Technology University in Ankara and a Teaching Fellow at the London School of Economics. She actively engaged in various research projects with esteemed organisations such as the IMF, World Bank, ILO, Oxfam, and the Chatham House.
Hazal Oz
Quantitative Research and Strategy Lead
Hazal Oz is a quantitative research and strategy lead at Development Analytics. With her near-decade experience as a social policy researcher, she has worked on various policy topics ranging from poverty and cash transfer programs to education outcomes of children. Hazal has been an integral part of various project teams, undertaking responsibilities in managing technical workstreams, contributing to ex-ante and ex-post large-scale evaluations, and providing her quantitative expertise in micro-level and administrative data analysis for social policy research.
Irem Güçeri, Ph.D.
Economist, Senior Research Associate
Dr. İrem Güçeri is an economist specialising in public policy and taxation, focusing on R&D, innovation, and firm-level productivity. She is an Associate Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation at Saïd Business School. Her prior experience includes a role as a private sector development economist at the World Bank within the Europe and Central Asia region, Financial and Private Sector Development unit.
Mehveş Demirer
Project Officer and Qualitative Research Analyst
Mehveş Demirer is a Project Officer and Qualitative Research Analyst at Development Analytics. She has experience in grant counselling, funding, tender searching, and project management. She is responsible for business development and the maintenance of qualitative research for the assigned projects. She supports research associates and project teams in research development and implementation.
Nazlı Aktakke
Economist, Director of Research
Nazli Aktakke is a social policy researcher with 12 years of research experience working on various policy topics ranging from poverty and cash transfer programs to health and education outcomes of children. In the last 10 years, she worked as part of several project teams in Development Analytics in responsibilities related to designing methodologies and instruments for measuring project or policy outcomes, conducting policy and program evaluations as well as a trainer in capacity building trainings on research methods and impact evaluations for local CSOs and state agencies.
Yali Hajhassan
Qualitative Research Analyst
Yali Hajhassan is a multilingual qualitative researcher with a track record in the field of cash transfer programs and evaluation projects related to refugees in Turkey and the surrounding region. Drawing from her four-year career as a qualitative researcher, her areas of specialization mainly encompass the collection, coding, and analysis of qualitative data.