Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) reached out to at least 11 countries and spent $55 million (TL 430.33 million) on international humanitarian assistance in 2019.
Turkey was listed as the “highest spending country on humanitarian assistance” both in 2018 and 2019 in the Global Humanitarian Assistance Report by Development Initiatives.
Last week, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu announced that the country will continue to implement an entrepreneurial and humanitarian foreign policy in 2021. Çavuşoğlu said that Turkey helped 156 countries amid the pandemic.
Meanwhile, AFAD reported an increase in demand for international assistance due to natural disasters and further deterioration of conflicts in Syria and Yemen.
“AFAD has been committed to healing the wounds of people across the world affected by war, famine and other disasters. In 2019 alone, AFAD reached out to 11 countries, responding to calls made by national governments calling for humanitarian assistance,” an AFAD report said.
The amount spent on aid excludes operational and logistic costs.
