Turkey

84.9

Population 2022 (Millions)

0.84

HDI Score
2021 (Max. 1)

70.8

SDG Score
2023
(Max. 100)

0.27

Gender Inequality
Index Score
(Max. 1)

43

Internet Inclusivity
Index 2022
(100 countries)

Sources: 1. World Bank (2022), 2, UNDP (2021), 3. Sustainable Development Report (2023), 4. UNDP (2021), 5. Economist Impact (2022)

Overview

Uniquely situated at the intersection of Europe and Asia, Turkey has always been a place where cultures meet. With a history stretching back to early human civilization, it now possesses a strong, diversified economy, giving it an upper-middle income designation and membership in the G-20. Despite these advantages, Turkey faces many development challenges. The most well-known may be the high number of refugees from various parts of the world, which the country has sometimes struggled to integrate. Additionally, tensions between Islamism and secular factions, as well as the Kurdish independence movement, have also proven to be vexing issues.

Projects

For this challenge, DPA collaborated with various Turkish institutions such as Türk Telkom (the country’s leading telecommunication operator) in collaboration with Boğaziçi University, TÜBİTAK (Turkey’s Scientific and Technological Research Council), the MIT Media Lab, FBK, IOM, UNHCR, UNICEF, to make several anonymized datasets of mobile phone users available to international research teams. The goal was to develop projects to analyze and improve the living conditions of Syrian refugees in Turkey, with a specific focus on safety, health, education, unemployment, and integration.

Two publications resulted from this project, the article “Data for Refugees: The D4R Challenge on Mobility of Syrian Refugees in Turkey”, and a chapter of the book “Guide to Mobile Data Analytics in Refugee Scenarios”.