Policy and Practice in Oda Disbursements: An Analysis of Changes in South Korea's Official Development Assistance

Abstract

South Korea is the only nation to become an important donor nation after being a recipient of Official Development Assistance (ODA) for several decades. In 2010, it became a member of the OECD's Development Assistance Committee, and while it has continued to use its experience as a former ODA recipient to inform its distribution practices, it also has evolved its ODA policies in response to changes in international norms and the imperatives associated with being a DAC-member nation. We know that, while policies may change, actual ODA disbursements—which nations are selected as recipients and receive ODA in what amounts—may lag or even remain unchanged. In this paper, we use the case of South Korea to determine how actual ODA disbursements change in response to policy changes. To accomplish this, we use a selection model to conduct a statistical analysis of South Korea's ODA disbursements using dyadic data from 1987 to 2016. Our results indicate that, while there has been continuity in terms of which nations receive South Korean ODA, there were also notable changes in its disbursements. Specifically, the ODA policy changes the South Korean government enacted did result in an altered profile of nations that were targeted by South Korea as ODA recipients.

Constructing ‘others’ and a wider ‘we’ as emotional processes: A case of South Korea in times of crisis

“…However, the Korean government also emphasised global solidarity by pledging support for lower-income countries through aid. In accordance with previous studies highlighting the motives of aid as a mix of national interests and global responsibility (Gulrajani and Swiss, 2019; Ware, 2015; Younas 2008), Korean aid has pursued both, but with an increasing focus on global norms and accountability since Korea joined the OECD DAC (Patterson and Choi, 2019). The COVID-19 crisis led Korea to redirect its aid to serve national interests, as has also been observed in other conventional donors (Brown, 2021; Korean Ministries, 2021).…”

“…The growing need for Korea to reconsider its ethnic nationalism reflects an increasing immigrant population during the early 21st century. In terms of aid, Korea has strengthened its global responsibility as an emerging donor by joining the OECD DAC (Development Assistance Committee) in 2009 (Patterson and Choi, 2019). Such a strong drive for global responsibility led Korea to be an example of ‘cosmopolitan nationalism’, which means strengthening nationalism in the name of cosmopolitanism and internationalisation (Maxwell et al, 2020).…”