Turkey

Turkey has been responding to international humanitarian crises for a number of years. In 2009 it gave US$875.4 million in official development assistance (ODA), of which US$134.3 million was humanitarian aid, and in 2005 it was the largest government donor to channel humanitarian aid to Pakistan (US$147.3 million).

Due to its geographical location and susceptibility to natural disasters such as earthquakes, external assistance is often matched by significant domestic response capacity within the country itself. In 1999 the Marmara region of Turkey was hit by an earthquake which killed around 18,000 people and affected over 1.6 million (Centre for the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED)). This disaster marked a peak in humanitarian aid to Turkey, of US$110 million in 1999. In October 2011, a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck the country, killing hundreds and injuring thousands. In 2009 Turkey received US$1.4 billion in aid, making it the tenth largest aid recipient that year.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs oversees Turkey’s development institutions and policy priorities and the Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA) is the principal body for administering aid, operating in the area of technical development and implementing projects in health, education, agriculture, capacity building and vocational training in developing countries. Humanitarian aid is administered through the Turkish Red Crescent (Kizilay) and Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Office.

While Turkey is not a member of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC), it is a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and has been reporting its aid to this body since 1990.