Turkey continues breaking records in humanitarian aid and development assistance

Turkey continues breaking records in humanitarian aid and development assistance
05 October 2022

The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA) has reported that Turkey has become a world leader in humanitarian aid. As their article states, the country’s emergency and humanitarian aid fund amounted to $3.2 billion in 2015 and has already managed to surpass $8 billion in 2017, corresponding to 0.85 percent of the country’s national dividend. Moreover, in terms of official development assistance, Turkey has surpassed the United Nation’s target of allocating 0.7 percent of the national dividend to aid funds this year, by dedicating 0.95 percent. Turkey has become the sixth highest ranking country in official development assistance, overtaking many developed countries like the United States, United Kingdom, France and Germany.

The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) President, Dr.Serdar Cam announced that Turkey has adopted the Turkish Development Model that prioritizes sincerity, transparency, human-centered approach and responsiveness along with fairness, resolution, sustainable pernership and reciprocity.

He also highlighted that the targets and priorities of TİKA overlap with Turkish foreign policy determined by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and linked the success of the agency as a reflection of the support provided by President Erdogan.

As an example, Dr. Serdar Çam expressed that Turkey spent $33 billion for Syrian refugees and that this amount was calculated according to Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) standards. 

TIKA has provided significant development assistance to countries in South America, Africa, the Middle East. For instance, TİKA's total development assistance to South American countries between the years 2008 and 2018 amounted to $7.5 billion. TİKA has also realized approximately 4,250 projects in the field of education. The agency has built schools in many countries over five continents including but not limited to Afghanistan, Macedonia, Albania, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Palestine, Iraq and Colombia, while restoring hundreds of them.

A short overview of their contributions include: humanitarian aid to Yemen, providing education to decrease maternal and infant mortality rates, the completion of the Gaza Hospital Project, indirectly fighting terrorism through assisting countries such as Somali, providing emergency need packages to victims of earthquakes (Mexico), hot meals for the Rohingya leaving Myanmar, supporting Palestinians in Chile and Muslim natives in Mexico, supporting young girls in remote villages (providing bicycles in Kenya), constructing a cultural center for Tatars in Kiev, supporting shelters for Kangal puppies in Namibia.

As the agency emphasized, TIKA is an advocate for equality among all people, regardless of religion, native language or ethnicity; and TIKA believes that this principle has been the secret to all their successes.

The original version of the article is availabe below: 

https://www.tika.gov.tr/en/news/turkey_keeps_breaking_records_in_humanitarian_aid_and_development_assistance-49351