Development Co‑operation Profiles: Korea
Table of contents
Korea’s development co-operation focuses on least developed countries (LDCs) and lower middle-income countries (LMICs) in Asia and Africa. Korea primarily provides official development assistance (ODA) through bilateral co-operation, which includes both grants and concessional loans. Korea has one of the highest gross bilateral ODA shares of country programmable aid and ODA to LDCs among Development Assistance Committee (DAC) members. Korea’s total ODA (USD 3.9 billion, preliminary data) decreased in 2025, representing 0.2% of gross national income (GNI).
This profile presents verified data on Korea’s development assistance allocations. See the Development Co-operation Profiles.
The new 4th Mid-term Comprehensive Strategy for International Development Co-operation’s (2026-2030) main objective for Korean ODA is the realisation of mutual prosperity based on innovation and effectiveness. The plan prioritises strengthening responses to climate, health and food crises; supporting the establishment of economic and social infrastructure in partner countries; and expanding projects in new priority areas, such as the application of artificial intelligence technologies.
The 2022 Framework Act on Sustainable Development and its enforcement decree includes cross-government commitments to achieve sustainable development through a whole-of-government approach. The Korean government has strengthened its partnerships with civil society through a new policy and implementation plan. In addition, as a founding member of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation (GPEDC), Korea also actively supports its initiatives, having hosted the fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan in 2011 and regularly convening the Busan Global Partnership Forum to strengthen momentum on the development effectiveness agenda.
The 2024 Peer Review praised Korea’s commitment to greater global responsibility, highlighting its significant increase in ODA. It also commended Korea for implementing previous recommendations, such as improving co-ordination within its development co-operation system through policy framework updates and enhanced partnerships with civil society. The review encouraged Korea to strengthen strategic partnerships, engage in dialogue with multilateral partners and collaborate with bilateral providers beyond specific project support. The Peer Review found that Korea had fully or partially implemented all 12 recommendations from the 2018 Peer Review.
Discover insights from Korea’s 2024 Peer Review and 2021 mid-term review, and learn from Korea’s practices in Development Co-operation Tools Insights Practices.
Korea provided USD 3.9 billion (preliminary data) of ODA in 2025 (USD 3.9 billion in constant terms), representing 0.2% of GNI.1 This was a decrease of 2.3% in real terms in volume and a decrease in the share of GNI from 2024. This decrease was notably due to a decline in multilateral ODA. Despite the commitment to increase ODA volumes, the government has announced considerable reductions for 2026. Korea is mindful of the need to achieve the 0.7% ODA/GNI target but has not set a domestic target. Both Korea’s ODA volume and ODA/GNI ratio have been gradually increasing in recent years, reflecting its efforts to scale up development co-operation. Within Korea’s ODA portfolio in 2024, 69.5% was provided in the form of grants and 30.5% was extended as loans.
In 2025, Korea ranked 14th among Development Assistance Committee (DAC) members in terms of ODA volume and 22nd when ODA is taken as a share of GNI. In 2024, among the DAC, Korea ranked first in terms of share of bilateral allocable ODA commitments focusing both on climate and on environment as a principal or significant objective. Korea also ranks first for share of Private Sector Instruments (PSI) to the energy sector and has committed 42.4% of its bilateral ODA to economic infrastructure services.
Korea is committed to several international targets and DAC standards and recommendations. Learn more about DAC Recommendations.
Notes: This table only includes information about ODA data-related DAC recommendations. ODA: official development assistance; GNI: gross national income; DAC: Development Assistance Committee.
Korea provided most of its ODA bilaterally in 2024. Gross bilateral ODA was 80.9% of total ODA disbursements. Of this, 26.1% was channelled through multilateral organisations (earmarked contributions).
In 2024, Korea provided USD 1.8 billion of gross ODA to the multilateral system, an increase of 29.6% in real terms from 2023. Of this, USD 842.3 million was core multilateral ODA (19.1% of total ODA), while USD 933.4 million was non-core contributions earmarked for a specific country, region, theme or purpose. Project-type funding earmarked for a specific theme and/or country accounted for 89.1% of Korea’s non-core contributions, and 10.9% was programmatic funding (to pooled funds and specific-purpose programmes and funds).
The United Nations (UN) system received 58.1% of Korea’s contributions to multilateral organisations, of which USD 757.2 million (73.4%) represented earmarked contributions. Out of a total volume of USD 1 billion to the UN system, the top three UN recipients of Korea’s support (core and earmarked contributions) were World Food Programme (USD 214 million), United Nations Children’s Fund (USD 136.5 million) and United Nations Development Programme (USD 104.2 million).
See the section on Geographic, sectoral and thematic focus of ODA for the breakdown of bilateral allocations, including ODA earmarked through the multilateral development system.
Learn more by exploring the DAC members’ use of the multilateral system dashboard.
In 2024, Korea’s bilateral spending increased compared to the previous year. It provided USD 3.6 billion of gross bilateral ODA (which includes earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations). This represented an increase of 34.8% in real terms from 2023.
In 2024, country programmable aid amounted to USD 2.5 billion, or 69.5% of Korea’s gross bilateral ODA, compared to the DAC country average of 46.5%.
Korea’s in-donor refugee costs amounted to USD 1.2 million in 2024, while humanitarian aid was USD 663 million, or 11% of gross bilateral ODA.
Korea disbursed USD 1 million for triangular co-operation in 2024. Its regional priority is Latin America and Caribbean, with a focus on agriculture, forestry, fishing. Learn more about triangular co-operation.
In 2024, Korea channelled its bilateral ODA mainly through public sector and multilateral organisations. Technical co-operation made up 9.2% of gross ODA in 2024.
In 2024, civil society organisations (CSOs) received USD 90.2 million of gross bilateral ODA, of which 9% was directed to developing country-based CSOs. Overall, 0.1% of gross bilateral ODA was allocated to CSOs as core contributions and 2.4% was channelled through CSOs to implement projects initiated by the provider (earmarked funding). From 2023 to 2024, the combined core and earmarked contributions for CSOs decreased as a share of bilateral ODA, from 2.6% to 2.5%.
Learn more by reading the DAC Recommendation on Enabling Civil Society in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Aid and by exploring the ODA to civil society organisations dashboard.
In 2024, Korea’s bilateral ODA primarily focused on Asia (excluding the Middle East). USD 1.5 billion was allocated to Asia (excluding the Middle East) and USD 776 million to countries in Africa, accounting respectively for 40.6% and 21.7% of gross bilateral ODA. USD 345.1 million was allocated to Latin America and the Caribbean. Countries in Africa were the main regional recipient of Korea’s earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations. This is in line with Korea’s regional policy priorities.
In 2024, 45.7% of gross bilateral ODA went to Korea’s top 10 recipients. With the exception of Ukraine and Ecuador, its top 10 recipients are in the Asia and Africa regions, in line with its focus and its policy priorities. The share of gross bilateral ODA not allocated by country was 17.8%, of which 0.2% consisted of expenditures for processing and hosting refugees in provider countries.
In 2024, Korea allocated 0.06% of its GNI to the least developed countries (LDCs). Korea allocated the highest share of gross bilateral ODA (39.5%) to lower middle-income countries in 2024, noting that 17.8% was unallocated by income group. LDCs received 28.1% of Korea’s gross bilateral ODA (USD 1 billion). Additionally, Korea allocated 21.7% of gross bilateral ODA to land-locked developing countries in 2024, equal to USD 775.6 million.
The distribution of Korea’s ODA in net terms in relation to “ODA per person in extreme poverty”2 was USD 1.2 in LDCs, USD 2.8 in the LMICs and USD 4.9 in upper middle-income countries.
In 2025, Korea provided USD 22.6 million of net bilateral ODA to Ukraine to respond to the impacts of the Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion, a 91.9% decrease from 2024 in real terms. USD 16 million of the amount was humanitarian assistance in 2025, a 90.7% decrease in real terms from 2024.
Support to contexts with high and extreme fragility was USD 1.2 billion in 2024, representing 34.6% of Korea’s gross bilateral ODA. Of this ODA, 14.5% was provided in the form of humanitarian assistance, an increase from 4.8% in 2023, while 19.3% was allocated to peace, an increase from 8.5% in 2023. Conflict prevention, a subset of contributions to peace, represented 2.8% of gross bilateral ODA, increasing from 2.2% in 2023.
Learn more about the States of Fragility platform.
In 2024, the largest focus of Korea’s bilateral ODA was economic infrastructure and services. Investments in this area accounted for 42.4% of bilateral ODA commitments (USD 2.5 billion), with a strong focus on support to transport and storage (USD 2.1 billion), energy (USD 361.5 million) and communications (USD 49.7 million). ODA for social infrastructure and services totalled USD 1.6 billion, with a focus on education (USD 510.7 million). Humanitarian assistance amounted to USD 663 million (11% of bilateral ODA). Earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations also focused on other macro sectors and social sectors in 2024.
In the period 2023-2024, Korea committed 25.1% of screened bilateral allocable ODA to gender equality and women’s empowerment compared to 26.4% in 2021-2022 and a DAC average of 48.2% in 2023-2024. This is equal to USD 1.3 billion of screened bilateral allocable ODA in support of gender equality on average per year. In addition:
The share of screened bilateral allocable ODA committed to gender equality and women’s empowerment as a principal objective was 3.3% in 2023-2024, compared with the DAC average of 4.2%.
Korea includes gender equality objectives in 5.7% of ODA for humanitarian aid, below the 2023‑2024 DAC average of 21.5%.
Korea screens the majority of bilateral allocable ODA against the DAC gender equality policy marker (98.9% in 2023-2024).
Korea committed USD 12.9 million of ODA to end violence against women and girls, and USD 10.9 million to support women’s rights organisations and movements, and government institutions on average per year in 2023-2024.
Learn more by reading the DAC Recommendation on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of All Women and Girls in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Assistance and the DAC Recommendation on Ending Sexual Exploitation in Development Co-operation, and by exploring the development finance for gender equality dashboard.
In 2023-2024, Korea committed 66% of its total bilateral allocable ODA (USD 3.5 billion) in support of the environment and the Rio Conventions, up from 48.6% in 2021-2022. The DAC average was 39%. In addition:
Twenty-two per cent of screened bilateral allocable ODA focused on environmental issues as a principal objective, compared with the DAC average of 11.2%.
Sixty-three per cent of total bilateral allocable ODA (USD 3.3 billion) focused on climate change overall (the DAC average was 35.4%), up from 42.1% in 2021-2022. Korea had a greater focus on adaptation (49.2%) than on mitigation (35.5%) in 2023-2024.
Five per cent of screened bilateral allocable ODA (USD 281.9 million) focused on biodiversity overall (the DAC average was 8.6%), down from 6.2% in 2021-2022.
Two per cent of screened bilateral allocable ODA (USD 86.8 million) focused on desertification overall (the DAC average was 4.2%), down from 3% in 2021-2022.
Learn more about the DAC Declaration on Aligning Development Co-operation with the Goals of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
The OECDs tracking of ODA for the sustainable ocean economy shows that Korea committed USD 84.7 million in support of the conservation and sustainable use of the ocean in 2024, USD 219.8 million less than in 2023. The 2024 value is equivalent to 1.4% of Korea’s bilateral allocable ODA.
In 2024, Korea:
Allocated 5.2% of its bilateral ODA (USD 186.4 million) to core poverty-reducing sectors as defined by Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 1.a.1. This indicator captures grants to basic social services (such as basic health and education, water supply and sanitation, multisector aid for basic social services) and development food aid. In addition, 0.2% of Korea’s bilateral ODA (USD 7.5 million) went to social protection support. Learn more by exploring the Reducing poverty and inequalities through ODA data explainer.
Committed USD 35.2 million (0.6% of its bilateral allocable ODA) to address the immediate or underlying determinants of malnutrition in developing countries across a variety of sectors, such as health, agriculture, forestry, fishing and energy.
Committed USD 729.8 million (12.4% of its bilateral allocable ODA) to development co-operation projects and programmes that promote the inclusion and empowerment of persons with disabilities.
Committed USD 1 million to the mobilisation of domestic resources in developing countries. Regarding the payment of local tax and customs duties for ODA-funded goods and services, KOICA and KEXIM generally request exemptions on their ODA-funded goods and services in partner countries and territories. Korea does not make information available on the OECD Digital Transparency Hub on the Tax Treatment of ODA.
Committed USD 3.1 billion (53% of its bilateral allocable ODA) to promote aid for trade and improve developing countries’ trade performance and integration into the world economy in 2024. Korea is among the top 10 official providers of aid for trade globally. Learn more by exploring the Aid for Trade dashboard.
In 2024, total official and private flows from Korea to developing countries amounted to USD 11.1 billion in net terms. Official sources accounted for USD 3.7 billion, while USD 7.5 billion originated from private sources.
To help build markets in developing countries and incentivise greater mobilisation of private resources for development, many providers, including Korea, have established development finance institutions and similar vehicles that extend private sector instruments (PSI). The Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) and the Economic Development Promotion Facility (EDPF) were assessed as ODA-eligible PSI vehicles. PSI represented 0.3% of Korea’s ODA in 2024 while the DAC average stood at 1.9%.
In 2024, EDCF and EDPF extended USD 24.9 million in the form of PSI to developing countries.3 Of this, loans accounted for 100%.
In 2024, USD 24.9 million (100%) of Korea’s private sector instruments were allocated to the LDCs and other low-income countries (LICs). Korea’s PSI primarily supported projects in the energy (100%) sector.
Korea uses leveraging mechanisms to mobilise private finance for sustainable development. In 2024, Korea’s International Cooperation Agency mobilised USD 28.7 million from the private sector through simple co-financing. This constituted a 30% increase compared to 2023.
Private finance mobilised by Korea in 2023-2024 mainly targeted middle-income countries, representing 54.7% of its total mobilised. Only 32% of total mobilised private finance during this period benefited the LDCs and other low-income countries (LICs), noting that 13.2% was unallocated by income.
Mobilised private finance by Korea in 2023-2024 related mainly to activities in population policies/programmes and reproductive health (16.2%), as its top sector. Furthermore, over this period, 42.3% of Korea’s total mobilised private finance was for climate action.
Learn more by exploring the Mobilisation of private finance for development dashboard.
Total official support for sustainable development (TOSSD) is an international statistical standard that monitors and increases the transparency of all official and officially supported resources for financing the SDGs received by developing countries (Pillar 1) and for addressing global challenges (Pillar 2). In 2024, activities reported by Korea as TOSSD totalled USD 5.6 billion, marking a 15% increase compared with the previous year.4 Korea’s TOSSD activities mostly targeted SDG 13 (climate action), SDG 17 (partnerships for the Goals) and SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities).
Activity-level data on TOSSD by recipient are available at: https://tossd.online.
The CIDC is Korea’s top decision-making body for development co-operation, operating under the Framework Act on International Development Cooperation. Chaired by the Prime Minister, the CIDC is comprised of government ministers, heads of key agencies and civilian experts, with secretariat support provided by the Office for International Development Cooperation under the Prime Minister’s Office.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) oversees grants, mainly managed by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). The Ministry of Economy and Finance (MoEF) supervises the Export-Import Bank of Korea (KEXIM), managing concessional loans via the EDCF. Most of Korea’s ODA budget is handled by MoFA, the MoEF and their agencies, with some allocated across other institutions.
Around 120 staff members work on development co-operation in the Office for Government Policy Coordination (OPC), the MoEF and MoFA. In addition, around 100 staff members work in diplomatic missions. KOICA has more than 1 300 staff, with 38% employed at headquarters and 62% deployed in partner countries, of which 41% are locally hired staff. The EDCF (KEXIM) employs more than 238 staff, with 82% based at headquarters and 18% in partner countries.
Korea maintains regular policy consultation channels, such as the Government-Civil Society Policy Consultation facilitated by the OPC and the Civil Society Policy Dialogue and the Humanitarian Assistance Public-Private Consultation Council overseen by MoFA, as well as EDCF Advisory Committee organised by MoEF. To ensure meaningful engagement in shaping, implementing and evaluating ODA policies and projects, civilian experts participate as members of the CIDC, the highest decision-making body for ODA policy.
The Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development placed a renewed emphasis on strengthening the effectiveness of all forms of development co-operation by upholding and elevating the Effectiveness Principles. Adherence to these principles is measured through the partner country-led monitoring exercise of the GPEDC.
Notes: The global aggregate results of the 4th GPEDC monitoring round (2023-2026) will be published in the forthcoming 2026 GPEDC Global Monitoring Report. Learn more about partner countries’ participation, progress and country-specific results by exploring the GPEDC Global Dashboard. CRS: Creditor Reporting System; IATI: International Aid Transparency Initiative.
Internal systems and processes help ensure the delivery of Korea’s development co-operation. The table below highlights select features.
Access the full list of development co-operation providers at: Development Co-operation Profiles.
2024 OECD-DAC Peer Review of Korea: https://doi.org/10.1787/889c6564-en.
2022 Framework Act on Sustainable Development: https://me.go.kr/home/web/policy_data/read.do;jsessionid=UQdXS3aZ4G0nTSq5Kdf1Qy8K.mehome1?pagerOffset=0&maxPageItems=10&maxIndexPages=10&searchKey=&searchValue=&menuId=10261&orgCd=&condition.toInpYmd=null&condition.fromInpYmd=null&condition.orderSeqId=7923&condition.rnSeq=28&condition.deleteYn=N&condition.deptNm=null&seq=7924.
2021 OECD-DAC mid-term review of Korea: https://one.oecd.org/document/DCD/DAC/AR(2024)3/26/en/pdf.
CSO umbrella organisation Korea Civil Society Forum on International Development Cooperation (KoFID): http://kofid.org/en.
CSO umbrella organisation Korea NGO Council for Overseas Development Cooperation (KCOC): www.ngokcoc.or.kr.
Green New Deal ODA Strategy: https://www.odakorea.go.kr/kor/bbs/PlanAndResulList?bbs_id=kor_001.
Korea Export-Import Bank Economic Development Cooperation Fund: https://www.edcfkorea.go.kr/he/index.
Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA): www.koica.go.kr/sites/koica_en/index.do.
ODA Korea portal: https://www.odakorea.go.kr/eng/main.
Strategic plan for ODA under the Yoon administration: https://www.odakorea.go.kr/eng/bbs/GalleryList?bbs_id=eng_105.
Korea has been a member of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) since 2010.
The methodological notes provide further details on the definitions and statistical methodologies applied, including the grant-equivalent methodology, core and earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations, country programmable aid, channels of delivery, bilateral ODA unspecified/unallocated, bilateral allocable ODA, the gender equality policy marker, and the environment markers.
This work is published under the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of the Member countries of the OECD.
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The statistical data for Israel are supplied by and under the responsibility of the relevant Israeli authorities. The use of such data by the OECD is without prejudice to the status of the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in the West Bank under the terms of international law.
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← 1. DAC members adopted the grant-equivalent methodology starting from their reporting of 2018 data as a more accurate way to count the donor effort in development loans. See the methodological notes for further details.
← 2. Aid per person in extreme poverty is calculated by dividing net ODA (bilateral and imputed multilateral) by the population in extreme poverty in each country. It estimates how much ODA each person in extreme poverty would receive if total ODA was divided evenly among the extreme poor. This metric does not measure the amount of ODA actually received by each person in extreme poverty, nor does it measure how much ODA goes to poverty reduction. It instead highlights patterns in total ODA allocations relative to the number of people living in extreme poverty in each country. Group averages are calculated based on a weighted average of aid per person in extreme poverty and the number of people in extreme poverty for each country in the group. See the methodological notes for further details.
← 3. In 2023, the DAC agreed on revised reporting methods for measuring PSI in ODA based on ODA grant equivalents. Members may, however, take up to two years to transition to the new methods, with their PSI continuing to be accounted for on a net ODA basis during the transition period.
← 4. This amount does not include mobilised private finance by Korea.