Source: BBC

Turkey was the fourth-largest donor of humanitarian assistance last year, according to an annual report by Global Humanitarian Assistance.

The report says that Turkey contributed more than $1bn (£665m) – 0.13% of its national income.

“It is likely” that much of this went to the surrounding region, especially due to the escalating Syrian crisis, the report says.

The United States remained the largest donor by volume, providing $3.8bn.

This amounts to 29% of all the humanitarian assistance provided by governments.

Sweden and Luxembourg were the most generous donor countries, giving the most aid in proportion to their gross national income.

The Global Humanitarian Assistance (GHA) report shows that 76 million people were identified by the UN as needing humanitarian assistance – compared with 93 million people in 2011.

The amount of international humanitarian assistance in 2012 totalled $17.9bn, more than 70% of which was provided by governments.

That was a fall of 8% on the year before.

GHA says the decrease might in part be driven by the absence of any “mega-disasters”, in terms of fatalities, on the scale of previous years – such as the Japanese tsunami in 2011 or the Haiti earthquake in 2010.

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