For the first time, the Korean government has released data regarding its official development assistance (ODA) programs to the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI).
The IATI is a voluntary body that contributes to the transparency of the records showing how funds for overseas aid are spent and governed. It does so by encouraging its members — international and private aid organizations — to disclose their data about their projects. Since December 2015, Seoul has been one of the 14 IATI members, including Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, the U.S. and Germany.
The Korea Aid initiative, launched in Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya during President Park’s official visits there, is a campaign to send aid vehicles to help people gain access to medical and food supplies, as well as to help them access educational videos and related cultural assets.
On Aug. 11, Seoul made public data from 13 out of 39 IATI categories, with statistics current as to June this year. The data include information about aid organizations, such as organization identifiers, names, reporting organizations, and, more broadly, aid activities such as project IDs, reporting organizations, titles, descriptions, participating organizations, activity statuses and dates, recipient countries and regions, and sector. There are also data about 740 or so ODA projects currently being carried out or set to be carried out by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and by the Export-Import Bank of Korea.
The South Korean government plans to gradually expand the amount of data it discloses and also information about its participating organizations. It will also join the campaign to release data about civic and academic groups that engage in overseas aid programs.
By Sohn JiAe
Korea.net Staff Writer
Photos: Jeon Han, Korea.net Photographer
jiae5853@korea.kr
