YAKIN ERTURK APPOINTED DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH AND TRAINING INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCEMENT OF WOMEN (INSTRAW)

1 October 1997

Press Release
SG/A/653
WOM/999

YAKIN ERTURK APPOINTED DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH AND TRAINING INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCEMENT OF WOMEN (INSTRAW)

19971001 Biographical Note

Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appointed Yakin Erturk, a national of Turkey, as Director of the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women. She takes up her duties in mid-October. Since 1986, Ms. Erturk has been on the faculty of the Department of Sociology at the Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey. From 1979 to 1981, she was Chairperson of the Department of Sociology at the Centre for Girls, at King Saud University in Riyadh. In that capacity, she administered organizational, educational and research activities of students, graduate assistants and staff. Since 1976, she has designed and supervised several research and training projects while also raising funds for these projects. Ms. Erturk conducted training activities for Turkey's Ministry of Agriculture in principles of diagnostic survey, a World Bank-financed extension project (1992), as well as in gender awareness, on the "Beijing Express", to the Fourth World Conference on Women (1995). She also conducted problem identification workshops for rural women in selected regions of Turkey, under a grant from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) (1996). Since 1986, Ms. Erturk has undertaken consultancies as a rural sociologist, and as an expert on women and development, in various projects and socio-economic surveys. These have been funded by such bodies as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Bank, as well as by the State Ministry Responsible for Women's Affairs and Social Services in Turkey, Yemen and India. Ms. Erturk is also a member of advisory committees to the Ministry of Work and the State Ministry Responsible for Women's Affairs and Social Services, on such issues as elimination of child labour and improving women's employment. She is a member of the National Commission of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). In addition to publishing numerous articles, conference proceedings, books and reports for various United Nations bodies, she has also received a number of grants and awards. Ms. Erturk holds a Ph.D in Development and Rural Sociology from Cornell University, Ithaca, and has Masters and Bachelor Degrees in Sociology from Hacettepe University, Ankara.

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