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Korea should step up foreign aid efforts after Trump cuts, says NGO chief

Published: 10 Feb. 2025, 17:29 Updated: 10 Feb. 2025, 17:51

LEE SOO-JUNG
[email protected]

Kim Hye-kyung, chairperson of non-governmental organization Global Civic Sharing, speaks during her interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily on Feb. 3 in central Seoul. [PARK SANG-MOON]

U.S. President Donald Trump's return to the Oval Office has signaled a sharp freeze in American foreign aid spending, said the chief of a foreign aid organization based in Seoul, meaning it is more important than ever for Korea to step up as a donor country in keeping with shared global values.

The United States — the world's top aid contributor — withdrew from the World Health Organization and the Paris Agreement, foreshadowing rocky times for official development assistance (ODA) on a global scale.

Kim Hye-kyung, a founding member and chairperson of Global Civic Sharing, an international nongovernmental organization (NGO) specializing in ODA which was established in 1998, stressed that Korea has a "great potential and reason to be a competent ODA player" during an interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily in central Seoul on last Monday.

"With the world growing increasingly stingy with ODA, Korea could once again use the current situation as an opportunity to demonstrate its leadership in development cooperation, just as it showed its presence and leadership by selecting the development agenda of the 2010 G20 summit."

Korea's budget this year suggests Seoul is willing to increase ODA spending even as several developed nations move to prioritize their national interests over shared global values. Korea's giving will reach 6.5 trillion won (nearly $4.5 billion) this year — a 4.2 percent increase from last year’s ODA budget, according to the Office for Government Policy Coordination (OPC).

Kim, who has worked in the foreign aid sector for over 30 years since 1994, highlighted Korea's unique role and position in ODA as a country that transitioned from recipient to donor in 1991. Kim also served as presidential secretary for civil and social agenda in 2010 and for women and family affairs in 2013. She also works as an invited professor at the Graduate School of International Studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Vietnamese people participate in Global Civic Sharing's micro-credit aid program, dubbed cattle bank, which aims to boost their farming community's self-economic reliance. [GLOBAL CIVIC SHARING]

Q. U.S. President Donald Trump’s return could cripple ODA globally. How should the international community mitigate those uncertainties to ensure international aid can continue as planned?

A. Nobody knows. Trump issued an executive order that froze U.S. ODA activities for 90 days — a period where the U.S. government would assess whether its planned ODA programs align with its national interests. As Trump has become a bigger hardliner than in his first term, concerns have arisen in the international community as the United States is likely to cease its foreign aid programs except for those linked with basic livelihoods. The U.S. exit from the Paris Agreement and the World Health Organization means its contribution to climate and health agendas will be compromised. However, the extent of the U.S. foreign aid cut remains uncertain as the U.S. Congress stopped Trump’s drive to cut foreign aid by 30 percent during his first term.

In addition, other uncertainties include global political leadership changes and the potential economic downturn. Germany and Britain are reducing their foreign aid, in contrast to the Covid-19 era when European countries increased their ODA contribution. The global economy is seemingly heading toward protectionism — unfavorable to ODA — with the rise of hardline and conservative figures in Europe and Canada and China’s move to file a complaint against the United States. I believe these changes will continue until Trump’s midterm election in November 2026.

At the same time, recipient countries will not stand still if ODA support decreases suddenly. Their counteractions could reshape the entire global ODA architecture and even that of the United Nations.

What would Korea’s role be in the rise of nationalism amid the global economic downturn?

Korea should preemptively take the lead in upholding ODA globally as it did in 2010 — when Korea chaired the G20 summit. Back then, Korea included a development agenda and fended off the regression toward protectionism due to the fallout of the 2008 financial crisis. Korea showed its presence and reminded fellow G20 member states that there are developing countries left behind. I believe Korea can repeat its 2010 experience in the field of ODA today by taking looming uncertainties as an opportunity.

Specifically, Korea should establish its specific stance — including its role — on world hunger while preparing its fourth five-year ODA plan. Its predecessor, the third of its kind, included national interest as a key principle. However, national interest should be put aside when it comes to ODA.

Thai children eat food provided by Global Civic Sharing. The support was provided between 2023 and last year. [GLOBAL CIVIC SHARING]

Korea is the first country to transition from an ODA recipient to a donor. How can countries currently receiving ODA make the leap like Korea?

When it was a recipient, Korea effectively utilized Western foreign aid despite its top-down nature. Koreans directed the aid resources at the right places and managed them properly. Also, Korea’s success was a multi-dimensional effort that combined Korean diligence, the country's political leadership and entrepreneurial environment, and external factors such as trade-related advantages.

To help recipient countries follow our path, Korea should analyze how multiple factors articulated its national development. Also, nurturing experts majoring in specific fields of ODA is crucial. Those experts can be catalysts in helping local beneficiaries internalize the goals and dynamics of ODA projects while designing tailored development solutions for them. As residents in developing countries largely enact ODA in their neighborhoods, incorporating their voices throughout aid projects could prevent implementation failure — a phenomenon where well-made policy fails to gain an expected outcome.

For example, Global Civic Sharing’s volunteers are dispatched to Rwanda, East Timor, Fiji and Cambodia to learn their perspectives. The volunteers design, implement and evaluate ODA projects with their local counterparts throughout aid projects.

Kim Hye-kyung, chairperson of non-governmental organization Global Civic Sharing, poses for a photograph at her office in central Seoul on Feb. 3. [PARK SANG-MOON]

What consistent visions have guided Global Civic Sharing for the last 27 years? How much has your organization achieved from what it has planned so far?

Global Civic Sharing was established to let Korea contribute better and more to global society through ODA after Korea passed the $10,000 threshold in gross national income (GNI) per capita in 1995 and joined the OECD a year later. Most then-active NGOs inside Korea were foreign-founded and focused on relief efforts and public welfare. Unlike them, our organization strove to develop a Korean-origin NGO specializing in ODA from the get-go.

Korea is scheduled to nearly achieve its goal of spending 0.3 percent of GNI on ODA by 2030, considering its budget allocation between 1998 and 2023 — 0.03 percent to 0.19 percent, respectively. Now, Korea’s ODA corresponds with global standards as it jointly works with the international community to achieve shared goals as a member of the OECD Development Assistance Committee — a group of aid providers.

Retrospectively, Korea, as a country, has achieved much of its goal of giving more to those in need of foreign aid. Simultaneously, the number of Korean NGOs active in the field has grown over the years.

However, Korea’s ODA ecosystem is not mature enough, and economies of scale among foreign aid NGOs have not been realized. The mission to build a Korean-origin ODA model has a long way to go.

Pandemics and violent conflicts will likely hamper ODA efforts as they affect traffic routes and access to beneficiaries. What would be effective ways of overcoming those limitations based on your experiences?

I would say close coordination with various actors in the field, including local governments, the military and international organizations, is the most important, as safety is the priority in tense environments. In 2003, when our group provided urgent aid and development assistance in Iraq, the U.S. military took the lead so that international organizations and NGOs could efficiently allocate their limited resources per their areas of interest — education, hygiene and infrastructure restoration. The mechanism allowed every party to coordinate in a streamlined manner and to cooperate effectively. The U.S. military and local youth groups provided protection when our group distributed relief supplies to people in Baghdad. Also, Korean military personnel in southern Iraq helped us when we supplied wheelchairs in the region.

BY LEE SOO-JUNG [[email protected]]