According to the previous studies on consumer profile carried out in Turkey, the level of conciousness among consumers on issues such as consumer rights, legal framework and recourse mechanisms needed to be improved to establish a properly and efficiently working consumer protection system. Under the previous Twinning Project conducted by the Ministry, the Consumer Information System (TUBIS) was formed. The system accessed via www.tuketici.gov.tr address was established in order to simplify the reach of consumers to basic information and news; however a more extensive platform was needed for consumers’ education issue.On the other hand, the new act on consumer protection no. 6502 entered into force in May 2014 was designed according to the needs of the consumers and the secondary legislation were revised in concordance with the related EU directives. The 28th Chapter of the negotiations between Turkey and EU is Consumer and Health Protection. Scanning of the legal framework and implementations within EU and the rest of the world is on the Ministry's agenda for the past decade especially.Combining those necessities, building an online education platform ensuring the participation of individual consumers, NGOs, public institutions, private sector representatives, members of the academic institutions and judicial organs, as well as partners from EU became a must and formed the basis for Consumer Academy.Consumer Academy, is an online education platform in which;- various audio-visual materials were produced and classified according to the user profiles,- the users of different profiles get in contact and interaction in line with their own roles and purposes in terms of consumer protection,- besides sharing the current information and experience, an environment available for producing new information was formed through the interaction among the actors in the field of consumer protection,- the information produced is transmitted to the masses and specifically targeted groups in Turkey and abroad through various communication channels.Reaching these also ended up in;- an increase in the level of consciousness among the consumers, in terms of the legal framework in Turkey and the EU especially.- a decrease in the unnecessary workload of the Ministry, Consumer Problems Arbitration Committees and Consumer Courts.- a new channel for the NGOs and academic institutions to gather information, produce knowledge from the gathered information and tranfer the knowledge to the target groups using a reliable source of communication administered by a public institution.- a new and quick mechanism to learn settlement resorts on consumer disputes regarding general, product safety and advertisements complaints - a medium where online education tools were made available to the e-learners and users of all kind.To enhance the quality of the products of the project and incorporate the legal attitudes and implementations from the EU, Hungarian Authority for Consumer Protection (Public), Docklands Academy London (Education Institution) and Aviva Ltd. Poland (Private) participated in the project as partners. As well as their role in the formation of the platform, these partners contributed to the dissemination activities abroad. Those three institutions functioned as a hub to establish a network within Hungary, England, Poland and eventually to form links with other stakeholders from the rest of Europe. At the local level, TÜPADEM (Hacettepe University - The Center of Consumer and Market Research, Consulting, Test and Education), TÜKÇEV (Foundation for Consumer and Environment Education) and Ankara Provincial Directorate of Trade - one of the most active provincial organization units of the Ministry of Customs and Trade – were included in the project due to their high potential to contribute in theformation of the content within Consumer Academy and their capacity to disseminate the project results throughout the country.In order to reach the desired results and disseminate project results during the project term and onwards, 4 transnational meetings;including the Kick-off meeting and Closing Conference to be held in Turkey and one meeting in Hungary and England each, 1 local and 4 project evaluation meetings was organized. Formation of the Consumer Academy on-line education platform, production of videos, organization of the transnational meetings, printing of project and academic study results and translation activities were all subcontracted.In the long term, Consumer Academy also contributed to the interactive information production and sharing culture among the actors in the scope of consumer protection.

Today, we still face many social and economic problems in many parts of the world. Unless interventions are done, the economic and social problems will be escalated like unemployment, income inequality, poverty, social exclusion. In this respect, to create a sustainable development policy, promotion and strengthening of cooperatives has seen as a viable and productive tool. Cooperatives are associations of people to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise as defined by The International Co-operative Alliance. As businesses driven by values not just profit, co-operatives share internationally agreed principles and act together to build a better world through co-operation. However, it is obvious that most of the cooperatives cannot be successful in the market because of shortcomings of entrepreneurship, marketing, branding, brand promotion and lack of effective governance structures. And there is need for developing the capacities of cooperatives. To do this, the most important mean is education and training. With this aim, the partners of the Educated Trainers, Stronger Cooperatives Project; Ankara Development Agency, Co-operative College the Italian Cooperative Federation Legacoop Puglia, and the Deutscher Genossenschafts- und Raiffeisen Verband (reg. assoc.) (DGRV) as well as Directorate of Trade, Directorate of Agriculture, Food and Livestock, Governorships of Nallıhan and Beypazarı have come together worked towards developing the six intellectual outputs of the project:•A website that brings together all stakeholders and disseminate knowledge•Training needs analysis report of cooperatives •New education plan and curricula which is tailor-made to meet the needs of the disadvantageous groups•An education toolkit and manual to guide the trainers •A best practice book and good practices video to disseminate the successful cases In 24 months period the project team and steering committee have made periodical meetings among themselves and with representatives of stakeholders and cooperatives on the field to analyze the current situation and ways of improvement. First, the website of the project has been established to present the project outputs and allow partners to announce news periodically to stakeholders. Then, the training need analysis of cooperatives report was prepared. This study has constituted the ground for developing a new education programme for cooperatives. Together with all partners new curricula and methods of education have been explored through the three learning, teaching and training activities. In Bari, Bonn and Manchester the trainers and experts have transferred knowledge on basics of cooperative training and each partner had the opportunity to learn new ways of trainings and made important contributions through the discussions. After a year of learning and training, the partners developed the new education programme. The draft toolkit then was tested with a pilot programme in Ankara. The toolkit provides information and training exercises for adult learners in the topics of basic of a cooperative, starting a cooperative, business plan, strategic planning and financial management, monitoring performance and business audits, skills for success and marketing and communication. The book successfully presents innovative tools of cooperative trainings and make easier for trainers to carry out tailor made programmes selecting appropriate topics and methods from the toolkit for their target audience. In parallel to these, partners worked on developing the best practice book and good practices videos. Through the interviews general information about selected cooperatives, their main activities, information on how they have succeeded which methods they use and how they maintained sustainability in their work and their expectations from future have been explored. The book contains 18 successful cases of cooperatives which are presented to cooperatives to inspire them in their journey. Moreover, 11 videos have been shot to disseminate the exciting stories of cooperatives and to be used as visual materials in delivering trainings for cooperatives. All the outputs have been disseminated to trainers, cooperative members, administrators and policy makers at local, national and international levels through 4 multiplier events with the participation of around 300 people as well as through other dissemination channels. The innovative tools produced and all the other activities contributed to the increase of institutional capacity of cooperatives, improved knowledge and increased awareness about the importance of the cooperatives in the public, increased capacity of cooperative trainers as well as initiation of new local development programmes in collaboration with cooperatives.