Turkey and Somalia: Making aid work for peace

Briefing (Saferworld & Istanbul Policy Center) March 2015                                 Türkçe

Thomas Wheeler, Auveen Elizabeth Woods, Onur Sazak

Turkey’s 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, the Turkish government and Turkish non-governmental organisations have markedly expanded aid operations in Somalia. As the experience of other international actors has shown, aid can have unintended effects for peace and conflict 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. Key findings from the research are presented in this briefing, which identifies ways in which aid from Turkish agencies has been at risk of unintentionally fuelling conflict dynamics. The briefing also discusses a number of opportunities for making aid work for peace, which can be looked at under three broad areas:

• Make aid conflict sensitive
• Encourage statebuilding that works for peace
• Construct stronger partnerships around peace

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