Transformation of a Development Aid Agency: TİKA in a Changing Domestic and International Setting

Abstract

The Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TİKA) was established in 1992 just after the disintegration of the Soviet Union in order to help the socio-economic development of the newly independent Turkic states. Since its constitution, it has witnessed an uneven course of development due to several domestic and international factors. Political and economic instability in Turkey during the 1990s directly influenced the effectiveness of TİKA. Decreasing the attractiveness of the “Turkish model” and Russia's resurrection in the former Soviet territories helped weaken both Turkey's hands in the region and the prospect of TİKA's success. However, in the 2000s, it evolved to become a functional modern development aid agency in line with favorable changes in Turkey's domestic and international settings. TİKA has now restructured and transformed itself by enlarging its mission as well as its geographical scope. This article deals with how and under what conditions TİKA has experienced such a transformation in a turbulent domestic and international atmosphere.

Notes

^†The article is an updated and extended version of a paper presented at the 4th International Specialised Conference of the International Institute of Administrative Sciences (IIAS) in Ankara, Turkey on June 23, 2008.‡Current address: Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Department of International Relations, Necmettin Erbakan University, Konya, Turkey.

For a detailed account of the “Turkish model,” see, İdris Bal, Turkey's Relations with the West and the Turkic Republics: The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Model (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000), pp. 5–41.

Turkey's development aid statistics were prepared first by the DPT (Devlet Planlama Teşkilatı—State Planning Organization) between 1992 and 1996 and then the DİE (Devlet İstatistik Enstitüsü—State Statistical Institute) from 1997 to 2003.

Türkiye İşbirliği ve Kalkınma İdaresi Başkanlığı (TİKA), Türkiye Kalkınma Yardımları Raporu (Ankara: TİKA, 2004), p. 11.

Nükrettin Parlak, Orta Asya-Kafkasya-Balkan Ülkeleriyle İlişkiler ve Türk Dış Yardımları (1992–2003) (Ankara: TİKA, 2007), p. 74.

T.C. Başbakanlık Devlet Planlama Teşkilatı, Türkiye'nin İkili Dış Yardımları (1992–1996) (Ankara: DPT, 1998), pp. 11–12.

Ibid., pp. 9–18.

Ibid., p. 11. The reason why the Ministry of Education spent much more than other official bodies together was that Turkey initiated a project of admitting 10,000 students from the Turkic states to the Turkish educational institutions in 1992. As a result of this project 6729 students came from the Turkic states to Turkey in the same year. See İdris Bal, Turkey's Relations with the West and the Turkic Republics: The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Model, p. 186 and 203.

T.C. Başbakanlık Devlet Planlama Teşkilatı, Türkiye'nin İkili Dış Yardımları (1992−1996), pp. 16–17.

YDK-TİKA Denetim Raporları (1992−2003), in Nükrettin Parlak, Orta Asya-Kafkasya-Balkan Ülkeleriyle İlişkiler ve Türk Dış Yardımları (1992−2003), p. 135.

See, Nükrettin Parlak, Orta Asya-Kafkasya-Balkan Ülkeleriyle İlişkiler ve Türk Dış Yardımları (1992−2003), p. 133 and T.C. Başbakanlık Devlet İstatistik Enstitüsü, Türkiye Tarafından Diğer Ülkelere Yapılan Dış Yardımlar 1997–2000 (Ankara: DİE, 2002), pp. 8–9.

Tayfun Devecioğlu, “Gergin İlişki,” Sabah (Daily Newspaper), 22 June 1999. http://arsiv.sabah.com.tr/1999/06/22/y31.html

Nükrettin Parlak, Orta Asya-Kafkasya-Balkan Ülkeleriyle İlişkiler ve Türk Dış Yardımları (1992–2003), p. 135.

T.C. Başbakanlık Devlet İstatistik Enstitüsü, Türkiye Tarafından Diğer Ülkelere Yapılan Dış Yardımlar 1997–2000, p. 2.

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T.C. Başbakanlık Devlet Planlama Teşkilatı, Türkiye'nin İkili Dış Yardımları (1992–1996), p. 21.

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Nükrettin Parlak, Orta Asya-Kafkasya-Balkan Ülkeleriyle İlişkiler ve Türk Dış Yardımları (1992–2003), p. 165.

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Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TİKA), 2004–2006 Combined Annual Report (Ankara, TİKA, 2008), pp. 29–84.

Türk İşbirliği ve Kalkınma İdaresi Başkanlığı (TİKA), TİKA Faaliyet Raporu, 2006 (Ankara: TİKA, 2007) p. 77, 99, 109, 124, 143.

Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TİKA), 2004–2006 Combined Annual Report, p. 31.

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Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TİKA), The Reconstruction of Afghanistan: Projects and Activities (Ankara: TİKA, 2007), pp. 49–69 and Türkiye İşbirliği ve Kalkınma İdaresi Başkanlığı (TİKA), Türkiye Kalkınma Yardımları Raporu (Ankara: TİKA, 2008), p. 58.

Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TİKA), 2004–2006 Combined Annual Report, p. 127 and 134.

Musa Kulaklikaya and Rahman Nurdun, “Turkey as New Player in Development Cooperation,” Insight Turkey, Vol. 12, No. 4 (2010), p. 138.

Ibid., p. 139.

Türkiye İşbirliği ve Kalkınma İdaresi Başkanlığı (TİKA), Türkiye Kalkınma Yardımları Raporu (Ankara: TİKA, 2006), p. 26 and 31; Türkiye İşbirliği ve Kalkınma İdaresi Başkanlığı (TİKA), Türkiye Kalkınma Yardımları Raporu (Ankara: TİKA, 2008), pp. 26–27; Türk İşbirliği ve Kalkınma İdaresi Başkanlığı (TİKA), TİKA Faaliyet Raporu, 2007 (Ankara: TİKA, 2008), p. 12; Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TİKA), Turkish Development Assistance Report 2008 (Ankara: TİKA, 2009), p. 3 and Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TİKA), Turkish Development Assistance Report 2009 (Ankara: TİKA, 2010), p. 20.

Hakan Fidan and Rahman Nurdun, “Turkey's Role in the Global Development Assistance Community: the Case of TİKA (Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency),” Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans, Vol. 10, No. 1 (April 2008), p. 101.

“Non-DAC Donors’ Net ODA Disbursements, Current Prices.” http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/52/16/44376748.xls

Ibid.

Inreach Group of 8 countries is consisted of Czech Republic, Hungary, Iceland, South Korea, Mexico, Poland, Slovak Republic and Turkey.

Türk İşbirliği ve Kalkınma İdaresi Başkanlığı (TİKA), TİKA Faaliyet Raporu, 2006, p. 269.

Ibid., p. 274; Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TİKA), 2004–2006 Combined Annual Report, p. 151.

Hakan Fidan and Rahman Nurdun, “Turkey's Role in the Global Development Assistance Community: The Case of TİKA (Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency),” p. 104.

Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TİKA), 2004–2006 Combined Annual Report, p. 150 and Türk İşbirliği ve Kalkınma İdaresi Başkanlığı (TİKA), TİKA Faaliyet Raporu, 2006, p. 273.

Hakan Fidan and Rahman Nurdun, “Turkey's Role in the Global Development Assistance Community: the Case of TİKA (Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency),” p. 105.

DAC Guidelines and Reference Series: Harmonising Donor Practices for Effective Aid Delivery, Budget Support, Sector Wide Approaches and Capacity Development in Public Financial Management, Vol. 2, OECD, 2006, p. 21 and 28–29. http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/53/7/34583142.pdf) and “Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness,” Paris, February 28 to March 2, 2005, p. 1. http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/11/41/34428351.pdf

Türk İşbirliği ve Kalkınma İdaresi Başkanlığı (TİKA), TİKA Faaliyet Raporu, 2006, pp. 268–278.