From Aid to Development Partnership

U.S.-ROK cooperation in international development is at its early stages, but forging such cooperation has great potential. It enables the two countries to jointly pursue their common interest in the promotion of international development and the shared hope that stability and prosperity will extend to developing countries, many of whom are eager to take Korea’s path toward modernization. It is also a potential means to both enhance cooperation with aid recipients and strengthen aid efficiency in a fiscal environment that will require development dollars to go further to achieve their objectives. Despite the bureaucratic and political difficulties inherent in pursuing donor coordination, there are important payoffs from enhanced coordination in the U.S.-ROK development relationship. In this program on U.S.-Korea policy Working Paper, Senior Fellow Scott A. Snyder and Research Associate Seukhoon Paul Choi argue that the two countries should seize this opportunity to establish a new system of partnerships between aid recipients and donors and enhance donor coordination.t