Development Co-operation Profiles

Korea

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Introduction

Korea’s official development assistance (ODA) has been increasing over the past decade. Its development co-operation focuses on least developed and lower middle-income countries in Asia and Africa. The bulk of Korea’s ODA is provided as bilateral co-operation, with a significant share of sovereign loans. Korea has one of the highest gross bilateral ODA shares of country programmable aid and ODA to least developed countries (LDCs) among DAC members. Korea’s total ODA (USD 3.1 billion, preliminary data) increased in 2023, representing 0.18% of gross national income (GNI).

Find the methodological notes behind the profile here.

Policy

The 2020 revision of the Framework Act on International Development Cooperation strengthens the integration and co-ordination function of the Committee for International Development Cooperation (CIDC). Under the vision of a “global pivotal state”, the Yoon Suk Yeol administration aims to double ODA volume from 2019 to 2030 to realise global values and mutual development. This is achieved through strategies of inclusive, co-prosperous, innovative and co-operative ODA, as outlined in the 3rd Mid-term Strategy for International Development Cooperation for 2021-25. Focusing on 27 priority partner countries, Korea prioritises partner countries’ needs and contexts, which are incorporated into the country’s partnership strategies.

The 2022 Framework Act on Sustainable Development and its enforcement decree includes cross-government commitments to achieve sustainable development. Korea’s 2021 Green New Deal ODA Strategy outlines its approach to greening ODA and supporting partner countries’ green transitions. The Korean government has clarified its partnerships with civil society through a new policy and implementation plan. Korea also actively supports the Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation, of which it is a founding member, by hosting the fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan in 2011.

Poverty and inequality reduction focus

Korea’s 2020 Framework Act on International Development Cooperation states that its goals include reducing poverty and improving the quality of life in developing countries, with a strong emphasis on reducing gender-based inequalities. Targeted horizontal inequalities in Korea’s development co-operation includes improving the human rights of women, children, people with disabilities and youth. Korea is taking steps towards gender mainstreaming, including through the publication of a gender strategy, links with Korea’s domestic gender-sensitive budgeting system and the presence of specialist staff.

Findings from OECD-DAC reviews

The 2024 peer review praised Korea’s commitment to greater global responsibility by significantly increasing its 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. It 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 12 of the 12 recommendations of the 2018 peer review. Learn more about Korea’s 2024 DAC peer review and 2021 mid-term review [DCD/DAC/AR(2024)3/26].

ODA allocation overview

Korea provided USD 3.1 billion (preliminary data) of ODA in 2023 (USD 3.1 billion in constant terms), representing 0.18% of GNI.1 This was an increase of 10.6% in real terms in volume and an increase in the share of GNI from 2022. The overall ODA volume has consistently increased since Korea joined the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) in 2010. The 2024 ODA budget saw a 40% increase compared to 2023, which will likely put it at 0.25% of GNI as ODA in 2024, ahead of its (previous) 2030 target. Korea is mindful of the need to achieve the 0.7% ODA/GNI target but has not set a domestic target. Within Korea's ODA portfolio in 2022, 69.2% was provided in the form of grants and 30.8% in the form of non-grants.2

In 2023, Korea ranks 28th among Development Assistance Committee (DAC) member countries in terms of ODA to GNI ratio. Among DAC members in 2022, Korea had one of the highest gross bilateral ODA shares of country programmable aid (77.8%), ODA to least developed countries (34.1%), and ODA to fragile contexts (40%) amongst DAC members. The increase of in-donor refugee costs in 2022 means that shares of bilateral ODA allocated to other areas may have decreased from 2021 to 2022 even when absolute volumes have not.

 

Notes: Data on official development assistance (ODA) volumes (figure above) are in constant 2022 prices. Data for 2023 are preliminary. See the methodological notes for further details.

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Korea is committed to several international targets and Development Assistance Committee standards and recommendations. Learn more about DAC recommendations.

Performance against commitments and DAC recommendations

Description	Target	2021	2022	2023, preliminary
ODA as a share of GNI (%)	0.7	0.16	0.17	0.18
Total ODA to least developed countries as a share of GNI (%)	0.15-0.20	0.06	0.06
Share of untied ODA covered by the DAC Recommendation	100	70.5	61.2
Share of untied ODA (All sectors and countries beyond the scope of the Untying Recommendation) (%)		62.9	59.1
Grant element of total ODA (%)	>86	85.2	88.1

Note: ODA: official development assistance; GNI: gross national income; DAC: Development Assistance Committee. This table only includes information about ODA data-related DAC recommendations.

Korea provided a higher share of its ODA bilaterally in 2022. Gross bilateral ODA was 80.8% of total ODA disbursements. Twenty-four percent of gross bilateral ODA was channelled through multilateral organisations (earmarked contributions). Korea allocated 19.2% of total ODA as core contributions to multilateral organisations.

 

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ODA for Ukraine

In 2023, Korea provided USD 53 million (preliminary data) of net bilateral ODA to Ukraine to respond to the impacts of Russia's war of aggression, a 33% decrease from 2022 in real terms. USD 52 million of the amount was allocated to humanitarian assistance in 2023, a 33.7% decrease from 2022.

 

Note: The amount reported in 2023 is an estimate, based on preliminary figures reported to the OECD and published in April 2024.

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ODA to and through the multilateral system

In 2022, Korea provided USD 1.2 billion of gross ODA to the multilateral system, an increase of 8.9% in real terms from 2021. Of this, USD 588.5 million was core multilateral ODA, while USD 614.6 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 56.2% of Korea's non-core contributions and 43.8% was programmatic funding (to pooled funds and specific-purpose programmes and funds).

 

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Sixty-four per cent of Korea's total contributions to multilateral organisations in 2022 were allocated to the UN system and the World Bank.

 

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The United Nations (UN) system received 43.6% of Korea's multilateral contributions, of which USD 371 million (70.7%) represented earmarked contributions. Out of a total volume of USD 524.9 million to the UN system, the top three UN recipients of Korea's support (core and earmarked contributions) were the WFP (USD 90.9 million), UNDP (USD 55.2 million) and UNICEF (USD 53.8 million).

 

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See the section Geographic, sectoral and thematic focus of ODA for the breakdown of bilateral allocations, including ODA earmarked through the multilateral development system. Learn more about multilateral development finance.

Bilateral ODA

In 2022, Korea's bilateral spending increased compared to the previous year. It provided USD 2.5billion of gross bilateral ODA (which includes earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations). This represented an increase of 12.3% in real terms from 2021.

In 2022, country programmable aid was 77.8% of Korea's gross bilateral ODA, compared to the DAC country average of 42%. In 2022, Korea increased ODA for in-donor refugee costs significantly, but still reported less than 5% of gross bilateral ODA as refugee costs.

Korea disbursed USD 1.3 million for triangular co-operation in 2022. Its regional priority is Asia, with a focus on energy. Learn more about triangular co-operation.

 

Note: NGO: non-governmental organisation.

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In 2022, Korea channelled its bilateral ODA mainly through the public sector. Technical co-operation made up 10.3% of gross ODA in 2022.

 

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Civil society organisations

In 2022, civil society organisations (CSOs) received USD 56.2 million of gross bilateral ODA, of which 1.9% was directed to developing country-based CSOs. Overall, 0.2% of gross bilateral ODA was allocated to CSOs as core contributions and 2.1% was channelled through CSOs to implement projects initiated by the donor (earmarked funding). From 2021 to 2022, the combined core and earmarked contributions for CSOs increased as a share of bilateral ODA, from 1.8% to 2.3%. Learn more about the DAC Recommendation on Enabling Civil Society in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Aid.

 

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Geographic, sectoral and thematic focus of ODA

In 2022, Korea's bilateral ODA was primarily focused on Asia and Africa. USD 1 billion was allocated to Asia and USD 615.6 million to Africa, respectively, accounting for 41.9% and 24.9% of gross bilateral ODA. USD 290.2 million was allocated to America. Asia and Africa were also the main regional recipient of Korea's earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations in line with its overall policy regional focus.

Bilateral ODA by recipient country

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In 2022, 40.8% of gross bilateral ODA went to Korea's top 10 recipients. Its top 10 recipients are mainly in Asia and Africa in line with its policy priorities. The share of gross bilateral ODA not allocated by country was 17.4%, of which 2.5% consisted of expenditures for processing and hosting refugees in provider countries.

 

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In 2022, Korea allocated 0.06% of its GNI to the least developed countries. Korea allocated the highest share of gross bilateral ODA (36.3%) to lower middle-income countries in 2022, noting that 17.4% was unallocated by income group. LDCs received 34.1% of Korea's gross bilateral ODA (USD 843.4 million). Additionally, Korea allocated 21.8% of gross bilateral ODA to land-locked developing countries in 2022, equal to USD 537.6 million. Korea allocated 4.1% of gross bilateral ODA to small island developing states (SIDS) in 2022, equal to USD 101.1 million.

 

Note: LDC: least developed country; LIC: low-income country; LMIC: lower middle-income country; UMIC: upper middle-income country; MADCTs: more advanced developing countries and territories.

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Fragile contexts

Support to fragile contexts was USD 987.5 million in 2022, representing 40% of Korea's gross bilateral ODA. Six per cent of this ODA was provided in the form of humanitarian assistance, decreasing from 11.7% in 2021, while 5.9% was allocated to peace, increasing from 4.9% in 2021. One per cent went to conflict prevention, a subset of contributions to peace, representing an increase from 0.9% in 2021. Learn more about support to fragile contexts on the States of Fragility platform.

 

Note: HDP: humanitarian-development-peace. The chart represents only gross bilateral official development assistance that is allocated by country.

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Sectors

In 2022, the largest focus of Korea's bilateral ODA was social infrastructure and services. Investments in this area accounted for 41.7% of bilateral ODA commitments (USD 1.9 billion) with a strong focus on support to health and population (USD 831.4 million), which accounted for 17.9% of gross bilateral ODA, and an increase of 64.6% from 2019 in real terms. ODA for economic infrastructure and services totalled USD 1.7 billion (37.2% of bilateral ODA commitments), focusing on transport and storage (USD 1.5 billion). Bilateral humanitarian assistance amounted to USD 146.6 million (3% of bilateral ODA commitments). Earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations also focused on social infrastructure and services in 2022.

 

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ODA for COVID-19

In 2022, Korea disbursed USD 220.8 million in ODA for the COVID-19 response, down from USD 522.2 million in 2021. Regarding COVID-19 vaccines, Korea provided USD 42.6 million in ODA for donations of doses to developing countries in 2022, up 107.9% from USD 20.5 million in 2021. Of this amount, USD 42.3 million accounted for the donation of doses from domestic supply in 2022, a 106% increase from USD 20.5 million in 2021.

Gender equality

In the period 2021-22, Korea committed 26.4% of its screened bilateral allocable aid to gender equality and women's empowerment, as either a principal or significant objective (up from 25% in 2019-20), compared with the 2021-22 DAC average of 43.3%. This is equal to USD 1.1 billion of bilateral ODA in support of gender equality. Unpacking the gender equality data further:

• The share of screened bilateral allocable aid committed to gender equality and women's empowerment as a principal objective was 2.3% in 2021-22, compared with the DAC average of 3.9%.

• Korea includes gender equality objectives in 10.7% of its ODA for humanitarian aid, below the 2021-22 DAC average of 17%.

• Korea screens the majority of bilateral allocable aid activities against the DAC gender equality policy marker (94.3% in 2021-22).

• Korea committed USD 14.1 million of ODA to end violence against women and girls and USD 19.7 million to support women's rights organisations and movements and government institutions in 2021-22.

Learn more about Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women and Girls: DAC Guidance for Development Partners and the DAC Recommendation on Ending Sexual Exploitation in Development Co-operation.

 

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Environment

In 2021-22, Korea committed 48.6% of its total bilateral allocable aid (USD 2 billion) in support of the environment and the Rio Conventions (the DAC average was 35.1%), up from 28.1% in 2019-20. Unpacking the environmental data further:

• Fifteen per cent of screened bilateral allocable aid focused on environmental issues as a principal objective, compared with the DAC average of 11%.

• Forty-two per cent of total bilateral allocable aid (USD 1.7 billion) focused on climate change overall, up from 21.6% in 2019-20 (the DAC average was 30.5%). Korea had a greater focus on adaptation (36.6%) than on mitigation (16.1%) in 2021-22.

• Six per cent of screened bilateral allocable aid (USD 240.3 million) focused on biodiversity overall, up from 1% in 2019-20 (the DAC average was 7.2%).

Learn more about the DAC Declaration on Aligning Development Co-operation with the Goals of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change [DAC/CHAIR(2021)1/FINAL].

 

Note: In this figure, the category climate includes climate change mitigation and climate change adaptation efforts.

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Performance against environment and Rio Markers, 2021-2022

Marker	Constant 2022 USD million	% of bilateral allocable
Environment	1 975.1	50.4
Rio markers:
Biodiversity	240.3	6.2
Desertification	113.8	2.9
Climate change mitigation only	296.3	7.2
Climate change adaptation only	1 095	26.7
Both climate change mitigation and adaptation	332.5	8.1

Note: Individual Rio Markers should not be added up as this can result in double counting.

The OECD initiative Sustainable Oceans for All shows that Korea committed USD 41.6 million in support of the conservation and sustainable use of the ocean in 2022, USD 30.3 million more than in 2021. The 2022 value is equivalent to 0.9% of Korea's bilateral allocable aid.

Other cross-cutting sectors and themes

In 2022, Korea also:

• Committed USD 35.4 million of bilateral ODA to the mobilisation of domestic resources in developing countries, amounting to 0.8% of its bilateral allocable aid. Regarding the payment of local tax and custom duties for ODA-funded goods and services, Korea does not have a general policy seeking exemptions on its ODA-funded goods and services in partner countries and territories, and it does not make information available on the OECD Digital Transparency Hub on the Tax Treatment of ODA.

• Committed USD 2.1 billion (45.8% of its bilateral allocable aid) to promote aid for trade and improve developing countries' trade performance and integration into the world economy. Korea is among the top 10 official providers of aid for trade globally.

• Committed USD 266.9 million (5.9% of its bilateral allocable aid) to address the immediate or underlying determinants of malnutrition in developing countries across a variety of sectors, such as water supply & sanitation, emergency response and agriculture, forestry, fishing.

• Committed USD 62.7 million (1.4% of its bilateral allocable aid) to development co-operation projects and programmes that promote the inclusion and empowerment of persons with disabilities.

Mobilised private finance

Korea uses leveraging mechanisms to mobilise private finance for sustainable development. In 2022, the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) mobilised USD 26.8 million from the private sector through simple co-financing. This constituted a 23.6% increase compared to 2021.

 

Note: CIV: collective investment vehicle; SPV: special purpose vehicle.

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A share of 48.9% targeted middle-income countries, while 51.1% went to LDCs and other low-income countries (LICs) in 2021-22.

 

Note: LDC: least developed country; LIC: low-income country; LMIC: lower middle-income country; UMIC: upper middle-income country; MADCTs: more advanced developing countries and territories.

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Mobilised private finance by Korea in 2021-22 related mainly to activities in agriculture, forestry, fishing (27.8%), as its top sector. Furthermore, over this period, 16.8% of Korea's total mobilised private finance was for climate action. Korea also promotes inclusive education through private sector partnerships.

Effectiveness of development co-operation

The Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation monitoring exercise tracks the implementation of the effectiveness commitments. Following the reform of the exercise over 2020-22, the 4th global monitoring round (2023-26) is underway. Information on partner countries' participation in the exercise as well as their progress is available at the Global Dashboard. Korea's results from the 2016 and 2018 monitoring rounds can be found here.

To help improve the transparency of development co-operation, the OECD provides regular feedback to members on the overall quality of their statistical reporting and works with each member to ensure the data meet high quality standards before they are published. Regarding DAC/CRS reporting to the OECD, Korea's reporting in 2022 was on time, with room to improve in terms of the completeness and the accuracy of the data.

Total official support for sustainable development

Total official support for sustainable development (TOSSD) is an international statistical standard that monitors all official and officially supported resources for financing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in developing countries, as well as for addressing global challenges. It provides a broad measure of development finance with the objective of increasing transparency and accountability of all external support that developing countries receive. In 2022, activities reported by Korea as TOSSD totalled USD 4.3 billion, down from USD 6 billion in 2021. Korea's TOSSD activities mostly targeted SDG 4 Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all, SDG 3 Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages and SDG 16 Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels. Activity-level data on TOSSD by recipient are available at https://tossd.online.

Institutional set-up

The Committee for International Development Cooperation is the highest development co-operation decision-making body in Korea and leads Korea’s development co-operation under the Framework Act on International Development Cooperation, which strengthens the CIDC’s integration and co-ordination function and expands its secretariat, the Office for International Development Cooperation under the Office of Government Policy Coordination (OPC). The CIDC has 29 members, among them the prime minister, who serves as the chair, and ministers from 14 ministries, heads of KOICA and the Export-Import Bank of Korea (KEXIM), and 12 civilian experts. The CIDC, as the co-ordinating organisation, works to enhance development effectiveness and policy coherence through better co-ordination across ministries.

As supervising ministries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) and the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MoEF) are in charge, respectively, of the provision of grants and concessional loans. MoFA supervises grant projects delivered by implementing agencies, mainly KOICA. KOICA also manages the World Friends Korea Overseas Volunteer Program. The MoEF supervises KEXIM, which delivers loan programmes through the Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF). Most of Korea’s ODA budget is managed by MoFA and the MoEF and their respective implementing agencies, with the rest of this budget spread among 41 other government departments and institutions.

As of October 2023, staff working on development co-operation included 37 staff in the OPC based in Korea; 43 staff in the MoEF based in Korea; 194 EDCF (KEXIM) staff based in Korea; 28 EDCF (KEXIM) staff based in 16 partner countries; 18 EDCF (KEXIM) staff hired locally in partner countries; 42 MoFA staff based in Korea; 89 MOFA staff based in 85 partner countries; 296 KOICA staff based in Korea; 165 KOICA staff based in 47 partner countries; and 444 KOICA staff hired locally in partner countries.

 

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Korea maintains regular policy consultation channels, such as the Government-Civil Society Policy Consultation facilitated by the OPC, the Civil Society Policy Dialogue and the Humanitarian Assistance Public-Private Consultation Council overseen by MoFA. 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.

Quality and oversight

Internal systems and processes help ensure the effective delivery of Korea’s development co-operation. Select features are shown in the table below.

Features of Korea’s systems for quality and oversight

Quality assurance	Korea is streamlining approval procedures and bolstered the involvement of personnel from partner countries in project identification, oversight, and monitoring. The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and the Export-Import Bank of Korea (KEXIM) require a sustainability plan upon project completion to increase the likelihood that results will be sustained.
Risk management	Korea has systems for identifying and addressing social and environmental risks. KEXIM’s safeguard assessments are mandatory, and its Economic Development Cooperation Fund’s Environmental and Social Advisory Council involves external expert advice. In line with its humanitarian-development-peace nexus implementation strategy, Korea aims to conduct context and risk analysis in conflict and fragile contexts.
Innovation and adaptation	Korea links innovation to science and technology and supports capacity-building efforts for research and innovation in partner countries. It incentivises innovative solutions to development issues through the Creative Technology Solution, Inclusive Business Solution and Innovative Partnership Solution programmes.
Results management	Korea is strengthening management for sustainable development results, aligning with the Sustainable Development Goals, and promoting results management at the portfolio and programme level. KOICA fosters the development of results frameworks at country and corporate levels to measure results better and improve the use of results.
Evaluation	The strengthened Expert Committee for Evaluation under the CIDC is responsible for introducing a performance-based approach across Korea’s official development assistance (ODA). The committee has a mandate to receive and review self-evaluations for programmes across the 45 ministries and agencies. Read more about Korea’s evaluation system. Visit the DAC Evaluation Resource Centre website for evaluations of Korea’s development co-operation.
Knowledge management and learning	The Framework Act places a strong emphasis on performance management and using evaluations to inform future programming. Korea adjusts its approaches in response to regular performance feedback, such as from KOICA’s large-scale stakeholder satisfaction surveys.
Communication and transparency	Korea publishes strategies and policies, statistics, evaluation results, and general information on the ODA portal to strengthen accessibility and accountability. The new Comprehensive Basic Plan for International Development Cooperation commits to enhancing transparency and step-up efforts.

Additional resources

2021 OECD-DAC mid-term review of Korea: https://one.oecd.org/document/DCD/DAC/AR(2024)3/26/en/pdf

2018 OECD-DAC peer review of Korea: http://www.oecd.org/dac/oecd-development-co-operation-peer-reviews-korea-2018-9789264288829-en.htm

ODA Korea portal: https://www.odakorea.go.kr/eng/main

Green New Deal ODA Strategy: https://www.odakorea.go.kr/kor/bbs/PlanAndResulList?bbs_id=kor_001

Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA): www.koica.go.kr/sites/koica_en/index.do

Strategic plan for ODA under the Yoon administration: https://www.odakorea.go.kr/eng/bbs/GalleryList?bbs_id=eng_105

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

Korea Export-Import Bank Economic Development Cooperation Fund: https://www.edcfkorea.go.kr/he/index

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): http://www.ngokcoc.or.kr

Korea's practices on the Development Co-operation TIPs: Tools Insights Practices learning platform: https://www.oecd.org/development-cooperation-learning?tag-key+partner=korea#search

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 aid, the gender equality policy marker, and the environment markers.

Notes

← 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.  Non-grants include sovereign loans, multilateral loans, equity investment and loans to the private sector.