Korea should streamline its policy process and boost cooperation with the non-governmental sector so that it can follow through with its commitment to overseas development aid despite budget constraints, a leading foreign affairs think tank said.

Seoul joined the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee in 2010 to become the first member of the international community to turn from aid recipient to donor. But the country fell slightly short of its target amount of foreign aid last year.

Hong Ji-in, president of the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy, said the Korean government should take a more humanitarian, strategic and longer-term approach in line with changing needs and scope in overseas development aid.

“If we have so far focused on helping to combat poverty and transferring skills for economic growth, now development cooperation is seen as a more extensive subject branching out into other areas with a new paradigm,” he said in an interview with The Korea Herald on the sidelines of a forum on Friday themed “Diplomacy and Development Cooperation in the 21st Century.“

“Korea will also have to focus on embracing mankind’s universal values in the mid- and long term, which will eventually help promote its national interests and the country’s leadership on the international stage, though it may not link to short-term benefits.”

Korea’s development agenda faces stumbling blocks in the face of global economic woes and budget constraints.

Seoul’s ODA ― comprised of grants and low-interest loans ― totaled about $1.32 billion last year, indicating a 12.5 percent on-year leap and six-fold rise from 2000.

Still, the tally represents just 0.12 percent of gross national income, falling short of the government’s 0.13 percent target and far lower than the 0.35 percent rich-world average, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

“The appropriate scale for Korea’s ODA is still a hotly debated issue. But in an absolute term, we need to expand our resources. That’s one of the most urgent problems the government is trying to tackle,” Hong said.

In addition, policymaking has been fragmented among conflicting plans and goals of state agencies, fueling tension and eroding effectiveness. Experts and relief groups have also voiced concerns about a lack of specialized workforce and short-sighted strategies centering on loans rather than grants.

Some Foreign Ministry officials blame the dwindling aid disbursal on the Finance Ministry’s reluctance for a larger allocation. Economic policymakers, meanwhile, have been striving to prop up public finances as growth is forecast to slow down this year and the next, taking its toll on tax revenues and their plans to balance the country’s books by 2013.

“We have to streamline and consolidate our decision-making processes and implementation channels. There’s a need to improve hardware and software quantitatively as well as qualitatively through more active dialogue with beneficiaries and coordination with the international community,” Hong said.

Given diversifying stakeholders and programs, partnerships with civil society and the private sector are a must to boost effectiveness, Hong said.

“Development, environment and all other fields involving diplomacy are seeing the number of players multiply,” he added.

“Civil society’s participation is no longer an option but already embedded in our system. More and more businesses are showing a sense of social responsibility in line with the overall trend in society.”

The 55-year-old career diplomat took the helm at IFANS in September after spending a year as its chief professor. Since he entered the Foreign Ministry in 1981, he has served in Korean missions in Washington, Jakarta, Amsterdam and Toronto.

The state-run international affairs and security think tank was incorporated into the KNDA in March, with the nation’s sole diplomat recruitment and training agency scheduled to begin its first semester in the latter half of 2013, replacing a decades-long national public servant exam.

During the forum, participants emphasized the significance of official development aid as an effective mechanism to enhance national prestige and the country’s “soft power.”

“The government will have to boost strategic merits of official development assistance in its external strategy and overall foreign policy,” Vice Foreign Minister Kim Sung-han said in his welcome remarks.

As a new donor, Korea should link its foreign policy with multilateral diplomacy and assistance as the ODA produces “good derivatives such as friendships and all kinds of knowledge transfers,” said Lee Sook-jong, president of the East Asia Institute and a Sungkyunkwan University professor in Seoul.

By Shin Hyon-hee (heeshin@heraldcorp.com)