The Facility for Refugees in Turkey: swift response in challenging circumstances, but improvements needed to deliver better value for money - Main contents

The Facility for Refugees in Turkey, which supports refugees and their Turkish hosting communities, has provided a swift response to the crisis in challenging circumstances, according to a new report from the European Court of Auditors i. The humanitarian projects have helped refugees to address their basic needs but have not always delivered the expected value for money, say the auditors.

Because of increased migratory flows, mainly due to the Syrian conflict, Turkey hosts the largest refugee population in the world: nearly 4 million people. This includes about 3.5 million Syrians, of whom about 94% are living outside refugee camps. The Facility supports humanitarian and non-humanitarian assistance, with total financing of €6 billion from the EU i and the Member States i.

The auditors focused on the management of the first tranche of financing from the Facility (€3 billion) and on the results so far under its humanitarian strand. They found that, in a challenging context, the Facility had rapidly mobilised funds to provide a swift response. Nevertheless, it did not fully achieve its objective of coordinating this response effectively.

All the humanitarian projects audited provided helpful support to the refugees, mainly through cash-based assistance, and most of them achieved their intended outputs. However, half of them have not yet achieved the outcomes expected, and nine out of ten had to be extended. The challenging operating environment hindered timely implementation by NGOs.

“The Facility achieved its objective of mobilising three billion euros in two years,” said Bettina Jakobsen, the Member of the European Court of Auditors responsible for the report. “But there is room to increase the efficiency of humanitarian projects and in particular cash-assistance projects. The Facility could still achieve greater value for money.”