The analysis of development agencies in Turkey in terms of providing employment

Regional development agencies, the first of which was established in Tennessee in the USA in 1930, were first established in the Western European countries after World War II with the changing development theories and policies in Europe and later, expanded to the Eastern European countries with the EU accession process and many other developing countries around the World. The development agencies entered to the agenda of Turkey with the 2003 accession partnership document that was prepared within the scope of the EU membership process. With the law of establishment that was introduced in 2006, two pilot development agencies were established in Turkey. Later, with two different decree of the council of ministers issued in 2008 and 2009, development agencies were established in 26 level 2 regions in Turkey. By the end of 2010, all the agencies that completed their physical equipment and staff recruitment procedures prepared their first regional plans and actively started their activities in the regions they operate. Whether the activities of the development agencies, which have been on Turkey's agenda since they wereestablished, reached the objectives set in the law of establishment is still not clear. While fulfilling their responsibility of reducing the developmental gaps among the regions and ensuring regional development, it is also important that development agencies provide new employment areas and thus, prevent unemployment. Within the scope of preventing unemployment, a major problem in Turkey, the purpose of this study was to measure whether the financial support programmes implemented by the development agencies are effective in terms of providing new employment.In the study, the data that emerged as a result of the programmes that agencies implemented during 2011-2014 were analysed using Data Envelopment Analysis Method and potential improvement rates and reference agencies of the agencies that are not active were determined and suggestions were made for these agencies to be active.