[EAI Roundtable] Promoting Official Development Assistance Strategies for International Democracy Support

YouTube Link: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Qarle1s6huI

Overseas Democracy Support through K-ODA

Professor Kim Tae-gyun of Seoul National University points out the polarization of Official Development Assistance (ODA) due to the increasing utilization of ODA based on national interests. He emphasizes that to solidify South Korea's position as a global pivotal state, development cooperation diplomacy incorporating democracy must be strengthened. Considering that multilateral democracy aid has shown the greatest effectiveness in promoting democracy, he argues that ODA strategies should be formulated accordingly. Furthermore, he suggests the establishment of relevant consortia and research ecosystems for responsible democracy assistance based on South Korea's democratization experience.

Video Transcript

First, we will move on to the presentation on global trends. There are various analyses suggesting that ODA is being utilized based on national interests. In particular, various platforms led by China's Belt and Road Initiative and the US and G7 are being strengthened. For example, B3W, PGIA, and CODEL are core pillars of the Indo-Pacific, and they encompass not only infrastructure but also discussions on humanitarian aid and development cooperation. Therefore, the strengthening of development cooperation among South Korea, the US, and Japan seems to be continuously emphasized. Second, the importance of localization is being emphasized globally in international development cooperation. Third, development cooperation for contributing to liberal democratic values faces external variables such as the war in Ukraine. Following the war, South Korea is expected to actively participate in post-war reconstruction projects in Ukraine, so how this will be integrated within the broader framework of democracy assistance is another key point.

Therefore, the concept of a global pivotal state is one of our most important drivers, referred to as GPS. How can we materialize value diplomacy and development cooperation diplomacy befitting our national stature? Democracy is bound to be included as a core value in this context. In what way will it be integrated? Then, what will be the future strategy and vision for Korean ODA? It can be assessed that we are at a turning point. Therefore, strengthening South Korea's image as a promoter of democracy and liberal democracy is connected to our national stature and will be a major background for today's discussion on how to contribute to the global community.

This is a report produced by the UN in 2021. The UN commissioned scholars to conduct this study. The scope of the study was to analyze all development cooperation projects conducted to date. It was a review of various articles. The paper indicated that 26 projects showed a positive effect (positive AID effect) when targeting democracy, while for developmental aid, out of 64 projects, 39 were positive and 30 were negative.

Therefore, the conclusion is that although this is not an analysis of the entire dataset, there were many cases where greater effectiveness was achieved when aid was targeted towards democracy. While multi-faceted aid is important, scholars concluded, by integrating various analyses, that targeted aid was significantly more effective. There are two main approaches: one is supporting democratization when a country is democratizing, which is called democracy support, and the other is preventing democratic decline when democracy is deteriorating, which is called democracy protection. Could these two modalities form another type of modality? This refers to South Korea's experience.

We have achieved a great deal in a short period, including overcoming war, colonial rule, economic growth, and democratization. These four major experiences are points that developing countries are already experiencing, sharing, and contemplating. Therefore, if South Korea can make efforts to transform its democratization experience into a global narrative, not just its own, it is likely that developing countries will find South Korea's democracy assistance more relatable.

To achieve this, a system is needed to systematically manage democracy assistance projects planned in South Korea. The KSP (Knowledge Sharing Program) is an example. One approach within KSP is to package or modularize South Korea's democratization experience. However, KSP, jointly conducted by KDI and the Ministry of Economy and Finance, has been limited to economic development and growth, thus excluding political development and democratization. Therefore, there is a need for a new approach. While many scholars are researching political development and democracy assistance, there have been few opportunities for them to gather and discuss a common direction. Thus, such consortia are necessary. Furthermore, there is a need to foster a research ecosystem and establish consortia for democracy assistance, perhaps with a major theme such as democratic resilience, and to build a larger framework for an ecosystem that can collaborate with overseas research institutions.

Regardless of political changes between the ruling and opposition parties, a fund or foundation that can mutually cooperate and provide sustainable support for developing partner countries' contributions to democracy.