A critical analysis on Korean Agricultural Official Development Assistance (ODA)

Despite vast research on Korea’s Official Development Assistance (ODA), little is known about Korean agricultural ODA. However, considering the more influential global status of Korean ODA after its entrance to Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 1996 and rising importance of agricultural issues, the research on Korean agricultural ODA based on the theoretical framework and factual data set is important and research worthy. Therefore, throughout this research paper, I study Korean agricultural ODA by applying the theoretical framework of donor interest and recipient need model, using secondary data analysis. Through these theoretical reviews and data analysis, this research paper aims to see if Korean agricultural ODA gears towards a certain type of theoretical model. To this end, this research paper sets a time frame from 2005 when Korean agricultural ODA started getting significant attention domestically and internationally up to the current date with a target of sixteen main partner countries for Korean agricultural ODA. As a result, I came to a conclusion that Korean agricultural ODA features the characters for both models but it leans more towards donor interest model than recipient need model, demonstrating agricultural ODA trend changes with relation to its national interests such as their need for solving domestic food security issues and expanding overseas agricultural markets. Moreover, the research paper recovers that most of Korea’s commitment on agricultural ODA has been focused on specific countries and cooperative areas mostly coupled with its economic interest. Therefore, the result implies the need for Korean agricultural ODA to incorporate recipient needs more considering the ultimate goals of ODA that are economic development and social welfare of developing countries.