As globalization and interdependence have been intensively promoted, an individual country's development has become closely intermingled with global peace and prosperity. Official development assistance(ODA) has played a significant role in reducing p...
As globalization and interdependence have been intensively promoted, an individual country's development has become closely intermingled with global peace and prosperity. Official development assistance(ODA) has played a significant role in reducing poverty and boosting sustainable development of many developing countries.
The United Nations set in 2000 the Millennium Development Goals to strengthen a global partnership for raising development fund and enhancing aid effectiveness. The Development Assistance Committee(DAC) of the Organization of Economic Cooperation Development(OECD) has also emphasized the effective operation of ODA from the first High Level Forum in Rome(2003) to the fourth in Busan(2011). To raise aid effectiveness, new aid modalities and financial resources have been exploited, and, especially, the concept of development effectiveness, a broader and more comprehensive one than aid effectiveness, has been proposed at the HLF-4. However, its conceptual context has not been clearly defined yet, and its conceptual demarcation blurs with that of aid effectiveness.
Aid effectiveness is defined in this study to be a concept that comprises both the effective operation of donor countries' aid programs and the resultant effects on recipient countries' development. This study aims to present policy guidelines in order to raise Korean ODA's aid effectiveness. For this, the present Korean ODA is reviewed and compared with major donor countries' ODA policies. Representative countries are selected on the criterion of their particular aid motivation. US case is classified to be a politico-security strategy type, UK one, a colony management type, Japan one, an economic utilitarian type, and Sweden one, a humanitarianism type. In term of aid organizational architecture, the US case is classified to be the coordination type under the Department of States, UK one, the independent organization type, Japan one, the integrated execution organization type, and Sweden one, the type of responsibility of a foreign affairs ministry.
In particular, this study examines international regimes and norms related to aid effectiveness, centering on UN and OECD activities, from the 1960s to the present. The Paris Declaration, the outcome of the HLF-3, has exerted the most significant effects on enhancing aid effectiveness in that it provides a practical, action-oriented roadmap with specific targets to be met by 2010. The targets were, however, far from satisfactory. The 2011 survey to measure the promised targets in the Paris Declaration draws the following results: At the global level, only one of the 13 targets - coordinated technical cooperaton - has been met with a narrow margin. Nonetheless, it should be noted that considerable progress has been made in the remaining 12 targets, too. In the US, UK, Japan and Sweden, two targets - coordinated technical cooperaton and untied aid - had been enhanced although other targets failed. One thing that needs attention, among others, is the fact that the policy harmonization of donor countries had recorded the worst satisfactory score in meeting the proposed target at the Paris Declaration.
South Korea, once a foreign aid recipient, has not only achieved impressive economic growth but also become one of the DAC members in 2009 and hosted the HLF-4 in 2011. The Framework Act on International Development Cooperation enacted in 2009 sets out South Korea's overall philosophy and principles of development cooperation. However, Korean ODA has some flaws yet. It is still indulged in traditional ODA paradigm pursuing national economic interests. Its ODA volume is still considered to be insufficient, considering its per capita GNI. The Korean ODA architecture is still fragmented and the public awareness of ODA is still at a lower level than that of other donor countries. Most of all, the 2010 survey on the progress of the Paris Declaration targets showed that all were failed to meet the goals in South Korea as of 2010. When compared with the survey in 2007, however, partial progresses were made in such sectors as indicator 3(aid which is aligned on recipient countries' priorities), 5b(use of country procurement systems), 6(strengthen capacity by avoiding Parallel Project Implementation Unit), 7(aid predictability), 8(untied aid), 9(use of common arrangements or procedures), and 10b(joint country analytic work).
Considering all these factors, this study proposes the following strategies and policies in order to raise the aid effectiveness of South Korea. First, South Korea needs to take a strategic approach for facilitating the connectivity of policies. The Country Assistance Strategy(CAS), an ODA mechanism to relevantly implement concerned programs, can contribute to improving aid effectiveness. Secondly, aids should be expanded in exemplary recipient countries such as Vietnam, Tanzania and so on. Thirdly, an independent organization like the DFID of the UK or a unified implementing agency like the JICA of Japan needs be institutionalized. Or, at least, the coordinative function of the Committee for International Development Cooperation should be strengthened. Fourthly, the integrated evaluation system arranged in 2009 should be settled and fully implemented to promote aids' accountability and transparency. In addition to these, an independent organization in full charge of evaluation, as in the US or Sweden, should be established to level up Korean ODA programs. Lastly, cooperation and partnership with private sectors and the civil society needs be strengthened to enhance aid effectiveness.
South Korea should sincerely look for ways to share the lessons learned from its own successful socioeconomic transformation with other developing countries. Although individual countries have their own particularities which make them difficult to utilize Korean lessons, there are still valuable lessons they can adopt from Korean experiences. If South Korea wants to be a decent, respectable donor country in the global community, the following principles need to be noted. First, the ultimate goals of ODA are the sustainable development of recipient countries and poverty reduction in the global community, and these should be respected from start to finish in ODA process. When South Korea comes to contribute to those purposes, its national prestige will be consolidated and South Korea's influence on international relations will be augmented. Secondly, ODA volume should be more rapidly expanded, and its quality needs be more exquisitely improved than now. Aid programs should be substantive, effective and realistic to help recipient countries' development. Thirdly, South Korea as a new medium-sized player in the global ODA community should concentrate its aids in those sectors that are in urgent demand, with clear comparative advantages, and of complementary effects with other donors' efforts. Those sectors can be, say, "Vocational & Technical Training", "Human Resources Development in ICT Field", "Capacity Building for Forest Preservation" and "Integrated Rural Development Project", etc. Fourthly, South Korea should act as a mediator between advanced countries and developing countries. Fifthly, South Korea should make an aid approach in the viewpoint of public diplomacy that creates long-term and cooperative common interests. Soft power and public diplomacy are of significant importance in contemporary international relations.
Key-words: official development aid(ODA), aid effectiveness, Paris Declaration, Development Assistance Committee(DAC), Organization of Economic Cooperation Development(OECD), High Level Forum(HLF), Millennium Development Goals