Vestnik Kavkaza – Once dwarfed by Western countries in humanitarian outreach, Turkey has emerged as a leader in international humanitarian aid in the past decade. In parallel with its ambitions to have a say in international politics, the country also continues to boost its “soft power.” The latest figures by an independent international development organization show it accounted for just under 26% of all global humanitarian aid last year, Daily Sabah reports.
It became the country with the most spent on humanitarian assistance for three years dating to 2017, according to the Development Initiative’s (DI) Global Humanitarian Assistance Report. It spent $7.6 billion (TL 52 billion) in humanitarian assistance last year, while global humanitarian aid totaled $29.6 billion in 2019, down from $31.2 billion in 2018. Following Turkey was the U.S. with $7 billion, Germany at $3.3 billion, the U.K. with $3.1 billion and Saudi Arabia at $1.4 billion. Turkey’s humanitarian aid expenditures were nearly 0.84% of gross domestic product (GDP), while the U.S. provided 0.03%, Germany 0.08%, the U.K. 0.11% and Saudi Arabia 0.18%.
Turkey ranked third on the DI report in 2013, 2014 and 2015 and second in 2016. It also hosts the highest number of refugees in the world at nearly 4 million, according to official figures. The number of Syrian refugees living in Turkey was 3.6 million as of May. Last year, the number of displaced people increased to 79.5 million, increasing 8% or 6.1 million on a yearly basis, the report showed. Some $23.1 billion in humanitarian assistance was provided by governments and European Union institutions while the remainder was given by private donors. Private donors included individuals, trusts, foundations, companies and national societies.
The report noted that most aid went to Yemen ($5 billion), Syria ($2.3 billion), Iraq ($1.3 billion), South Sudan and Palestine ($0.8 billion each). While humanitarian aid to Yemen increased by 145% year-on-year in 2019, it decreased in the other four countries. Multilateral organizations transported $15.6 billion in aid, while $4.1 billion went through nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and $3.1 billion through the International Red Cross and Red Crescent movements.
DI is an independent international development organization that focuses on the role of data in driving poverty eradication and sustainable development.
