RESEARCH ARTICLE
Comparison between Korea’s Grants-based ODA in Agriculture and Status of Food Security of its Recipient Countries in Asia
Hyejin Lee*, 1
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2019Volume: 13
First Page: 19
Last Page: 26
Publisher ID: TOASJ-13-19
DOI: 10.2174/1874331501913010019
Article History:
Received Date: 14/12/2018Revision Received Date: 24/02/2019
Acceptance Date: 08/03/2019
Electronic publication date: 28/03/2019
Collection year: 2019
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode). This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Introduction:
Agriculture tends to be the main employer and income source in many developing countries. Recognizing the value of agriculture for food security and poverty reduction, major donors invest in the agricultural development through the Official Development Assistance or ODA. Of the donors, the Republic of Korea stands out with its historical experience from being a recipient to donor. However, it is not very clear with what criteria Korea would select its recipient countries to disburse its agricultural ODA. Thus, the main objective of this study is to examine a following hypothesis; Korea disburses its agricultural ODA in Asia based on the recipient country’s level of food insecurity.
Materials and Methods:
To test the hypothesis, collected data are analyzed and comparisons are made between Korea’s grants-based agricultural ODA disbursements and the status of food insecurity of its major recipients in Asia.
Results:
Although limited to the grants-based agricultural ODA, the results reveal that distribution of the agricultural ODA across the select recipient countries in Asia does not correspond to their severity of food insecurity. Rather, the least food insecure country or the Philippines received the largest agricultural ODA.
Conclusion:
It appears that at least at a recipient-country level, Korea may have other selection criteria for its grants-based agricultural ODA disbursement or more likely consider a combination of underlying factors that combine both Korea’s national interest and a recipient country’s sociopolitical environment.
