Yul Kwon

Korea’s ODA Policy for Fragile States in Asia

Since the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted in New York in September 2015, increased attention has been placed on fragile states, where most people live under the poverty line. Because the SDGs focus more on marginalized people, it will become necessary to address issues concerning fragile and conflict-affected countries. Eight out of fifty fragile states are located in Asia and 30% of the overall fragile state population is expected to reside in Asia. Thus, there is an urgent need for policy efforts to address problems regarding fragile states such as severe poverty and underdevelopment. Furthermore, five out of eight Asian fragile states are categorized as priority partner countries of Korea for 2016-2020. However, Koreas support to the fragile states has concentrated on emergency relief and humanitarian aid for recovery and reconstruction after conflicts or disasters. This is not enough to resolve fragilities and thus it is necessary to establish cooperation strategies to support fragile states. This paper provides policy implications on why and how Korea should prepare a cooperation strategy for supporting fragile states in Asia by analyzing and reviewing the definition and scope and current development situation, as well as Koreas policy and support for fragile states.

Key Development Needs in Southeast Asia and Priority Sectors of the Korean Oda

This study is largely based on the quantitative analysis of the countries and areas of assistance and focuses on Korean assistance toward Southeast Asia in four areas, including agricultural/rural development, infrastructure, education, climate change, and environment. This study is significant because it was able to identify the main areas for development cooperation by quantitatively analyzing the economic circumstances and development gaps in Southeast Asia. It also revealed the inability of quantitative analysis to reflect the characteristics of each country and provide a detailed description of the developmental capacity of recipient countries in Southeast Asia. The challenge for the future will include building a more systematic analytical model by factoring in analyses of Korea’s comparative advantages, which can contribute to the reduction in development gaps with respect to recipient countries in Southeast Asia.

The Least Developed Countries: Key Challenges and the Way Forward for Korea's Development Cooperation

The least developed countries (LDCs) are the poorest and the most disadvantaged members of the international community that face a broad range of socioeconomic, geographical, political, and environmental challenges. The United Nations defines LDCs based on three criteria: low gross national income, weak human development indices, and high level of economic vulnerability. Currently, 48 countries — 33 in Africa, 14 in Asia and the Pacific, and 1 in Latin America — are designated as LDCs by the United Nations. With only three countries having graduated from LDC status, the number of LDC countries has leaped from 24 in 1971 when the category was first officially established by the UN General Assembly to 49 in 2012. Amid the growing interdependency in the global economic system, international efforts to reverse the trend of socioeconomic marginalization of LDCs officially began at the first UN Conference on Least Developed Countries held in Paris in 1981. In the realm of development, the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals in 2000 has led to major donors targeting LDCs as their key aid recipient groups. The Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least De-veloped Countries (LDC-IV) pledged to reduce the number of LDCs by half in nine years. In order to achieve the agenda, it requires a sustainable long-term broad-based economic growth at the rate of 7% a year. Nevertheless, despite global efforts to support LDCs, there has been growing concern over the deepening vulnerability of LDCs as they were stricken by the impact of global economic recession, food crisis, and climate change in the last several years. The IMF predicts that only 10 countries will be able to graduate from LDC status by 2020. Entangled in a series of conflicts with LDCs’ geographical obstacles, socioeconomic factors, supply shock, and accumulated debt, the LDCs’ vicious cycle of poverty led further impoverishment. Although the continuing marked increases in the volume of the Korean ODA, due to relatively greater portion of concessional loan, Korea faces with the task of improving the lending conditions.