Since the 1960s, South Korea has transformed from a recipient country of official development assistance to a significant donor. In 2010, South Korea became a Development Assistance Committee (DAC) member. This paper aims to analyze Korean development cooperation policies and place them in comparison with other donors. The analysis begins with an examination of the wider context of evolving development cooperation that frames the Korean policies.
The paper also analyzes Korean development cooperation and its primary objectives. This is followed by a discussion of various different approaches toward development cooperation, specifically focusing on aid conditionality (or lack thereof), the use of grants versus loans and the use of multilateral channels in comparison with bilateral channels. The paper goes on to highlight the destinations of Korean aid in terms of both geography and economic sectors.
In light of the increasing exchanges between the OECD-DAC and Korea, this paper will analyze Korean development cooperation policy in order to gain a better understanding of how it relates to, and potentially differs from, other traditional development cooperation. The last chapter reflects on the paper’s overall findings, with specific reference to the place of Korea in the wider donor landscape, with comparative analysis of Korean ODA to understand if Korea is making efforts not to be like other traditional DAC donors.