Founded in January 1992 under the Foreign Ministry, the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) grew to be at the forefront of Turkey's development aid efforts. In the three decades since its inception, TIKA has carried out more than 30,000 projects in 170 countries.
The state-run aid agency's operations have covered a wide range of areas, from education to agriculture, to access to clean water and restorations. It has boosted its presence worldwide, from 12 offices in 2002 to 62 today, according to the agency.
It develops projects are based on the priorities and needs of countries, referred to as the Turkish-type Development Assistance Model.
The development aid agency implements this model in a broad area, from Central Asia to South America, and its most important projects are carried out in the field of health. With the initiatives of TIKA, which supports not only health services but also projects such as the training of health personnel and the development of health infrastructure, over 7,600 surgeries have been performed and some 111,200 medical examinations have been conducted in Africa. It launched a new diagnosis and treatment center in Gagauzia, an autonomous territorial unit of Moldova. The aid agency also built the 180-bed Palestine-Turkey Friendship Hospital in Gaza. It opened hospitals in Kyrgyzstan and Georgia as well. In 2020, TIKA added the fight against COVID-19 to its operations and provided thousands of pieces of medical equipment to over 100 countries.
As part of agriculture-related work, the agency founded an olive processing plant in Gaza’s southern Khan Yunis city which benefits 3,500 farmers producing 5,000 tons of olives annually. In Mongolia, the agency founded a winter greenhouse on an area of 400 square meters (4,305 square feet).
Among TIKA's primary areas of operation is education. The aid agency, which carries out work in various areas including vocational training, building orphanages and establishing and developing educational infrastructures, has implemented 5,000 projects in the field of education over the past 30 years. One of these projects is the renovation of the all-girls high school at the al-Wehdat camp in Jordan, where 15,000 Palestinian refugees receive an education. TIKA also built the Niger-Turkey Friendship School and dormitory with a capacity for 648 students in 2018.
The agency also continues its efforts to promote Turkey's cultural and historical heritage. In North Macedonia, TIKA reconstructed the house of Ali Riza Bey, the father of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the Republic of Turkey's founder. In Mongolia, the agency carried out the landscaping and conservation of the Tonyukuk monument. It also restored the Ahmet Yesevi tomb in Kazakhstan and the Drina Bridge in Bosnia-Herzegovina.