Policy Updates

On April 12, 2024, it was announced that South Korea was elected to the Executive Boards of UNICEF and the WFP for the 2025-2027 term.

The WFP Executive Board provides policy guidance and oversees all activities as the highest decision-making body. South Korea’s third consecutive election to the WFP Executive Board since 2019 reflects its role and contribution to reducing poverty and ending hunger around the world.

South Korea's election to the Executive Board of UNICEF for 2025-2027 marked its tenth consecutive nomination since 1988. The South Korean government will continue to proactively participate in discussions within UNICEF to advance the protection, health, and education of children and adolescents around the world. The government is also slated to further develop the partnership between South Korea and UNICEF.

On September 21, 2023, South Korean President Suk-yeol Yoon stated in his keynote speech at the 78^th UN General Assembly that South Korea will greatly expand its ODA budget and pursue tailored development cooperation with partner countries in the future.

The government has expanded the ODA budget for 2024 by more than 40% compared to 2023, despite 2023's fiscal austerity policy. The ODA 2024 budget will be twice as large as South Korea's 2019 ODA budget.

Yoon highlighted educational and climate ODA as partner priorities. He added the South Korea has a prominent role in reducing digital divide with partner countries given its notable ICT and technological capacity. South Korea will host the AI Global Forum in 2024.

South Korea, as the World Health Organization (WHO)’s global Biomanufacturing Workforce Training Hub, began training vaccine production personnel from 25 low- and middle-income countries.
Trainees are expected to have the basic capability to cope with future infectious diseases via education on vaccine development and production. WHO and South Korea’s Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) have held two steering committee meetings to discuss training plans and cooperation. They also plan to operate the WHO training hub in a way that reduces vaccine inequality around the world through a strengthened cooperation system.
Press release – Ministry of Health and Welfare (in Korean)
News article – Whosaeng (in Korean)

At the Global Education Summit, the replenishment conference of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), on July 28 and 29, 2021, South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it will provide over US$15 million to the Global Partnership for Education during 2021-2025, an increase from a contribution of US$5 million during 2014-2020.

GPE is a multi-stakeholder partnership between low- and middle-income countries, donors, multilateral and civil society organizations, foundations, and companies, founded in 2020 with the objective to give children and youth all over the world access to education. According to GPE, for the period between 2021 and 2025 US$5.0 billion is needed to support their work.

Press release – Ministry of Foreign Affairs (in Korean)

At the Global Education Summit, co-hosted by the UK and Kenya to replenish funds for the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), donors raised a record US$4.0 billion in funding for educating the world's most vulnerable children between 2021 and 2026.

GPE leadership has said they hope that donors will provide additional financial support in the years to come, in order to reach the full US$5.0 billion in programming funds, which they say would enable up to 175 million children to access education and help get 88 million more young children enrolled in school by 2o25. The replenishment came against the backdrop of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis; the pandemic's dramatic disruption of education worldwide is well documented and is of major concern to sector experts.

Donor contributions included:

• US$837 million from the European Commission;
• US$577 million from the UK;
• US$401 million from France;
• US$375 from Germany;
• US$133 million from Australia;
• US$24 million from Spain; and
• US$15 million from South Korea.

GPE is a multi-stakeholder partnership between low- and middle-income countries, donors, multilateral and civil society organizations, foundations, and companies, founded in 2020 with the objective to give children and youth all over the world access to education.

Press release - GPE

On March 11, 2021, at 4:00 PM CET, the Donor Tracker will host its third gender equality webinar with a focus on development finance for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).

The webinar accompanies the recent publication of a Donor Tracker Insight which analyzes the current funding landscape for the SRHR sector across three subsectors (STD control, including HIV/AIDS; reproductive health; and family planning), highlights trends in the last ten years of spending in the sector, profiles donor countries and multilaterals, and provides recommendations to donors for increasing engagement and impact in the sector.

The Donor Tracker will be joined in the March 11 webinar by Adam Wexler of the Kaiser Family Foundation, an expert on US funding flows to HIV/AIDS projects and global development funding for family planning.

The publication of the final Insight piece completes the Donor Tracker's Pillars of Gender Equality bundle, which also includes the previous two publications on funding for women's economic empowerment and financial inclusion and efforts to end gender-based violence.

Webinar registration - Zoom

Generation Equality? Trends from a Decade of Funding for SRHR - Donor Tracker

Join the Donor Tracker on Tuesday, November 24, 2020, at 15:00-16:00 CET for a webinar addressing education in emergencies, featuring experts from the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), a global fund and partnership to improve education in lower-income countries, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN Refugee Agency.

The growth of protracted conflicts and the increasing prevalence of emergencies globally have impacted the educational opportunities of millions of children. Precarious humanitarian situations around the world have been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis. With just ten years left to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), amid a global pandemic, prioritizing the educational needs of the world’s most vulnerable children is more important than ever.

However, are donors dedicating sufficient attention to education in emergencies? Join the webinar for a discussion on financing needs, donor priorities, and policy trends in the sector.

This webinar complements our recently published report, ‘Decades of neglect: Donor financing for education in emergencies’.

Registration - Zoom

Report - Donor Tracker

South Korean President Moon Jae-in unveiled the New Southern Policy Plus at the 21st Republic of Korea-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit held on November 12, 2020. This policy is an updated version of the New Southern Policy which aimed to build a stronger partnership with the ASEAN member states.

Under the goals of expanding people-to-people exchange, increasing trade, and enhancing trust as a key partner country, the seven core areas of cooperation are as follows:

• Cooperate on comprehensive health and medicine post-COVID-19;
• Support human resource development and share South Korea’s education model;
• Promote mutual cultural exchange;
• Establish the foundation for mutually beneficial and sustainable trade investment;
• Support infrastructural development of rural and urban areas;
• Cooperate on future industries for mutual prosperity; and
• Cooperate in non-traditional security sectors.

Regarding health, South Korea will not only increase the amount of official development assistance (ODA) on health but will also support the fundamental strengthening of health and medical systems over the long term.

News article – Chosun Biz (in Korean)

On November 10, 2020, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez hosted a high-level meeting in Madrid to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the UN.The UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, and heads of state and government from Sweden, Canada, South Korea, Costa Rica, South Africa, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Tunisia, Jordan, and Senegal virtually participated in this event.

This group of donor and partner countries convened to publish the call to action ‘Joint Statement: Reinforcing Multilateralism Together', with the ambition of reinforcing multilateral institutions, advancing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and taking concrete measures to address global challenges in key areas such as global health, climate change, gender equality, and digitalization.

This initiative will be shared with other countries to actively mobilize the international community around the following goals:

• Reduce inequality and leave no one behind;
• Improve conditions for health, health preparedness, and effectiveness of global health systems;
• Protect our planet;
• Promote peace, security, and justice;
• Defend human rights, democracy, and gender equality;
• Take "advantage of the digital revolution"; and
• Ensure sustainable financing.

Press release – La Moncloa (in Spanish)

The UK Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, has stated that his top priority for his office—the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)—is to focus on the Indo-Pacific region in order to build stronger diplomatic, trade, and security ties, given the importance of the region geo-politically and economically.

Speaking at the UK's Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Select Committee, he noted that while 60% of the FCDO’s work is reactive to geopolitical events of the day, he hoped that 40% was strategic and that his top priority was to ensure that the UK leans further into the Indo-Pacific region. Raab, who has made three visits to the region recently, noted the importance of building partnerships with not just large countries in the region such as India, but also key medium-sized players such as South Korea and Vietnam.

Raab also identified the priorities for the UK’s upcoming G7 presidency in 2021, noting that beyond driving forward a global health security agenda, the UK would be promoting:

• Open societies, which includes liberal free trade, democracy, and human rights;
• Global goods, which includes COVID-19 vaccines and global health security more generally, as well as action to address the climate crisis and girls’ education; and
• Building partners in the Indo-Pacific region.

Press release - Foreign Affairs Select Committee

Video - Parliament Live TV