Development Foundation of Turkey (DFT) collection, 1966-2005

Development Foundation of Turkey-DFT (Türkiye Kalkınma Vakfı-TKV in Turkish) was formally incorporated on January 13, 1969, as a private, non-governmental, non-profit organization upon tireless efforts of Mr. Altan Unver, DFT's principal founder, who devoted his time and energy for rural development since his early youth years.

Altan Ú́̈nver graduated from Tarsus American College in 1957 and then studied Chemical Engineering at Robert College, Turkey. Upon completion, Altan Ünver went to University of Texas Austin and graduated from Chemical Engineering and Economics departments. Ünver's interest in community service dated back to his college years when he gained experience in developmental work in various parts of Turkey.

DFT's introduction of an integrated approach has marked a milestone in rural development efforts, aiming at involvement of considerable numbers of rural households in projects, addressing all factors to be dealt with (such as essential inputs, credit facilities, know-how, marketing and others), underlining the interrelation of economic and social conditions and improvements, and finally, calling for a common understanding of the purposes, goals, and methodologies to be employed by all sectors (public, private, governmental, non-governmental) at all levels to ensure effective use of resources.

The early works of the Foundation was focused in Adana Tarsus and then expanded to 10 other settlements in Southeastern Turkey following the earthquakes of 1976 Diyarbakır Lice and 1977 Van Muradiye. In 1970s, DFT has pioneered developmental breakthroughs on several fronts in selected regions and in selected fields throughout Turkey, such as starting quality queen-bee breeding, initiating nationwide medication and vaccination campaigns against destructive parasite Varroa in beekeeping and for Theileriosis (tick fever) that has been the most destructive cattle disease then, developing indigenous rural credit programs, income generating activities through contract farming implementations with rural households, developing an integrated model for poultry (broiler) production among small holders, which later was expanded nationwide by DFT (as Köy-Tür) under the delegation of Ministry of Agriculture in Turkey and supported by the World Bank.

The DFT archival collection encapsulates the activities of the foundation between 1969 and 2006. The collection contains original reports, mission statements, correspondence between the Foundation and other organizations, activity reports and detailed analysis of development programs in rural Turkey and documents organizational structure, general profile of the Foundation and numerous examples of different case studies.