UNFPA opens regional office in Istanbul

The United Nations Population Fund has opened a new regional office in Istanbul on Tuesday, with the Turkish minister of foreign affairs, Ahmet Davutoğlu also participating in the opening ceremony.

The fund is for the first time opening a regional office in Turkey, and Istanbul will for the first time be hosting a U.N. office as well. The Eastern Europe and Central Asia regional office, or EECARO, is the first such office opened in Istanbul and in Turkey.

"We are very happy that we are opening the doors to the U.N. in Istanbul," Babatunde Osotimehin, UNFPA’s executive director, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review Tuesday, adding that he hoped a hub of U.N. agencies would be created in the future in Istanbul.

Istanbul was chosen to host EECARO on June 2010, eliminating three other bidders – Geneva, Copenhagen and Vienna – as the offer presented by Turkey bared the best terms. The agreement for the office was signed in New York on July 1 by Turkey's Permanent Representative at the United Nations Ambassador Ertugrul Apakan and UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Obaid.

The UNFPA will carry out its activities in the Caucasus, Central Asia and Eastern European countries from its Istanbul office, which will serve the fund to work more efficiently, as well as focus more and establish more partnerships in the region. UNFPA Turkey’s authorities confirmed for the Daily News that some 17 people would be working in the EECARO office located in Istanbul’s Şişli district. 


/Hurriyet Daily News/