Turkish aid agencies in Somalia: Risks and opportunities for building peace

Report (Saferworld & Istanbul Policy Center) March 2015

Kathryn Achilles, Onur Sazak, Thomas Wheeler, Auveen Elizabeth Woods

Turkey has become a more visible global actor over the
 past decade. Its growing aid budget, which made it the world’s third largest humanitarian donor in 2013, has increasingly been focused on conflict-affected states. Since 2011, through the deployment of high numbers of aid workers to Mogadishu, the Turkish government and Turkish non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have markedly expanded aid operations in Somalia.

Through a joint research project with Istanbul Policy Center (IPC) conducted in 2014, Saferworld has sought to explore Turkish aid to Somalia and understand what the implications might be for peace and stability in Somalia. Described by Somali stakeholders as tangible, visible and of high impact, aid from Turkey has been broadly welcomed. Nonetheless, as the experience of other international donors over the past two decades has shown, aid can have unintended effects for peace and conflict in Somalia. Alongside providing an overview of Turkey-Somalia relations, the research has identified the ways in which aid from Turkish agencies has been at risk of unintentionally fuelling conflict dynamics.

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