A view of international aid from South Korea

Over the last fifty years, South Korea has transformed itself from one of the world's poorest countries to one of the richest. Given that experience they feel they have a unique perspective to add to the international aid conversation.

From the Korean Herald, writer Shin Hae-in talks to the head of international aid assistance for the South Korean government on what they want aid to look like.

“We must admit that not much has changed in impoverished nations, although the world’s advanced countries have been assisting them for more than 50 years,” Park Dae-won, president of the Korea International Cooperation Agency, told The Korea Herald.

“This is largely due to the fact that these advanced countries don’t really have a first-hand experience of becoming rich from poor in a short period like Korea,” he added. “It is time for us to reflect our unique experience in the aging guidelines for international aid.”
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“There are several factors we can share with the world,” said Park. “We have, for instance, the new village (Saemaeul) movement that helped increase income of farmers and fishermen, which we see as one of the most important experiences to be shared with underdeveloped countries.

“It is these people who will send their children to college, a generation that will eventually raise their country to a higher level, that’s something we experienced decades ago.”
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New global concerns such as the environment, poverty reduction and gender mainstreaming have been gaining significant importance in the international community, an aspect KOICA also strives to keep in mind, Park said.

“Let me talk about climate change as one example,” he said. “While helping a Southeast Asian country to improve its rice farming skills, we used to build facilities operated on oil, which is not only expensive but environmentally harmful.

“By building facilities using solar heat and other natural resources, we are not only helping this country, but are also accumulating new technologies that can later be applied to our own environmentally-friendly development models,” Park said. “This is a typical win-win strategy.”
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With its goal of becoming “a thanking nation,” South Korea prioritizes backing countries that fought on its side during the Korean War, Park said.

“Countries such as Ethiopia, the Philippines and Columbia were wealthier than us 60 years ago but are in need of our help today,” he said. “Neighboring Asian countries and newly emerging African allies are also major recipients of our aid.”

South Korea also needs to increase the total volume of its development assistance to match its economic status in the world, the KOICA president said.

The total volume of Korea’s ODA this year is estimated at 1.7 trillion won ($1.58 billion), an increase by 23 percent from the previous year. But this is still a small amount compared to other OECD Development Assistance Committee member states, according to KOICA.

G-20 to announce change in poverty fighting strategy

The G-20 plans on releasing a statement that says they will change their approach to combating poverty. The G-20 will announce that they will begin to focus on creating private sector jobs. From now on, aid to governments will focus on building infrastructure.

South Korea did invite business executives to be guests to this years meeting, and perhaps this is what helped to spur the change. Meanwhile, NGO's were hoping for pledges of more money from the G-20.

From the Globe and Mail, writer Bill Curry and Kevin Carmichael received a leak of the G-20 statement.

The Globe and Mail has learned that South Korea has secured G20 support for a standalone communiqué dedicated to this business-focused approach to development. (While G20 officials have worked on the aid plan as a standalone package, it is not yet certain that it will remain a separate statement, or be wrapped in to the final communiqué.)

“An enduring and meaningful reduction in poverty cannot be achieved without inclusion, sustainability and resilient growth,” states a draft communiqué, dated Nov. 3 and obtained by The Globe. “We recognize the unique role of the private sector to create jobs and growth.”

The Seoul Consensus includes an opening statement of principles and then a larger, multi-year action plan. The plan envisions a larger role for development banks to encourage more investment for small businesses and more infrastructure spending by governments.

Aid groups welcomed South Korea’s efforts to make development a priority for the G20, yet noted there are no indications the G20 will announce new funds when the final communiqué is released Friday.

“It’s important that this meeting doesn’t get totally distracted completely by the currency question,” said Jeremy Hobbs, a spokesman for Oxfam International. Mr. Hobbs welcomed the focus that the South Koreans are putting on development, but that he expressed concern that there is little talk of concrete financial commitments.

“We need to see money,” he said.

OXFAM's wish list for tomorrow's G-20

World leaders arrived today in Seoul, South Korea for latest G-20 meeting that begins tomorrow. There has been little said about if any development issues will be on the agenda. It is expected that recession recovery, and debt bailouts will be the focus of the G-20.

From this OXFAM press release, the NGO gives this wish list for the G-20 meeting. OXFAM hopes that the plans for ecomonic recovery will include those who live in poverty.

As the first non-G8 member to host a G20 heads of state summit, South Korea has made development a central part of its agenda with a focus on boosting poor countries’ growth. But Oxfam is concerned that progress towards tackling poverty could be derailed by rows over currency valuations and monetary policies.

Oxfam is calling on the G20 to forge a new Seoul Development Consensus to replace the failed Washington Consensus of the past. The new consensus should combine financial support for health, education and poor farmers in developing countries with action to make the global economy work in the interests of poor countries.

A narrow focus on growth would not be enough on its own to tackle poverty, the international agency warned. From 1981-2001, when the Washington Consensus was at its height, the world economy grew by $19 trillion but people living in extreme poverty received only 1.5 percent of that.

Takumo Yamada, Oxfam Policy Manager, said: “Too often in the past, the poorest have been denied the benefits of growth. The G20 needs to show that this time it will be different.

“Millions of people have been pushed into extreme poverty by the economic crisis and are facing cuts in already threadbare healthcare, education and social support.

“The G20 has the chance this week to make great progress in tackling poverty. It would be a tragedy if poor people became casualties of conflict over currencies.”

The World Bank estimates that the global slump has pushed 64 million more people into extreme poverty, forcing them to live off less than $1.25 a day. Research for Oxfam shows that 56 poor countries face a $65bn fiscal hole in their budgets as a result of the economic crisis.

Oxfam is pressing the G20 to agree a package of specific measures to help poor countries, including:

* A tax on the major OECD financial centers to fund development. A financial transaction tax could raise $400bn per year
* Rich countries to deliver on their aid promises. Investment in health, education and poor farmers is essential to economic development;
* Action to curb speculation on commodity markets that has contributed to almost 1 billion people going hungry;
* Regulation to protect poor people from the adverse effects of ‘land-grabs’ which have seen huge swathes of prime agricultural areas taken by foreigners;
* A real say for poor countries in the global economic decisions that affect them – at least 3 full seats at the G20 and root and branch reform of the IMF.

Yamada said: “The G20 should learn from its own experience of what works. Korea’s recent success in economic development was achieved with the help of billions of dollars of aid which helped fund vital health and education, as well as land reform to ensure fair access for the poor.

“Rich countries must not use the economic crisis or the G20’s focus on growth to wriggle out of their commitments to the world’s poorest at a time when they need help more than ever.”

Business leaders invited to next G-20

South Korea is the chair of the next G-20 summit coming in November. For each summit, the host country has influence over the agenda for the meetings.

South Korea would like the G-20 leaders to hear from the business world. 100 CEO's from the world's biggest companies have been invited to the next G-20 to participate in a round table discussion with world leaders.

From this AFP article that we found at Google News, we find out more about the invitation.

Previous G20 summits have also included business chiefs, but organisers of the November 10-11 business summit said it would be the largest such gathering and would be closely linked to the main summit.

The chief executives will freely discuss their economic concerns at a round table with the political leaders, organisers said.

The Seoul G20 summit, the fifth to be held by leaders of the 20 top world economies, will mark the start of a transition "from a crisis response mode to post-crisis mode", said Kwon Hae-Ryong, director-general of the organising committee.

"It will mean that the G20 will be able further to solidify its status as the premier forum for global economic cooperation."

South Korea wants to make the business summit part of the G20 process to open up a channel for participation by the private sector.

More fall into poverty in South Korea

Joblessness in Seoul, South Korea is up by 18 percent compared to last year. This is sending thousands more below the poverty line in the city. The local government says over 1000 people have filed for assistance.

From the Korea Tribune, we see more of the stats and figures.

The number of people signing up for basic living subsidies rose by about 1,000 each month this year to 117,933 so far, according to the officials.

Those earning less than the minimum monthly living cost of 1.32 million won ($985) for a family of four are eligible to apply for basic living subsidies.

"An increasing number of households tumbled into poverty under worsening economic conditions," a city official said.

"The city government will support families in crisis through its special relief programs."

The city recently discovered that some 76,000 families are getting along with less than the minimum cost of living but do not meet certain requirements to receive state subsidies.

These low-income families will be covered by the city's special assistance programs, the metropolitan government said.

The city plans to provide up to 5 million won in cash, for example, to households whose main income earners lost jobs or went out of business.

Half of South Korea's elderly in poverty

In scanning over some of the stories from over the weekend, we wanted to be sure to include this one from South Korea.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says that 45 percent of the elderly in South Korea are below the poverty line. The average for a nation in this organization is 13 percent.

The United Press International reports that societal changes may be to blame.

Experts say the change in South Korean society -- from traditional households in which several generations lived together -- is responsible for the large number of elderly poor. Yoo Kyung-joon, a researcher at the Korea Development Institute, said more elderly now live on their own with little help from their children or the government.

"There still aren't many people benefiting from the national pension system as the program is still in its early stages," he said.

`Growth No Solution for Poverty’

from The Korea Times

By Yoon Ja-young


Economic growth is not a cure-all for poverty, a report by a government-run think tank showed, giving policy implications for the incoming administration of President-elect Lee Myung-bak, who has emphasized economic growth.

``History shows that economic growth is a necessity to solve poverty, not a sufficiency,'' said Choi Kyung-soo, senior research fellow at Korea Development Institute (KDI), in a report.

``Economic growth should either have a strong engine or be labor-intensive to solve poverty,'' Choi said.

Korea has seen the poverty rate grow since the mid 1990s, mainly due to the decrease of jobs in the manufacturing sector, according to the economist.

The analysis showed the average real wage of the bottom 20 percent recorded 1.2 million won in 2005, only 1,000 won more than a decade ago. The real wage of the middle class, meanwhile, stood at 2.47 million won, recording an annual 1.6 percent growth on average, indicating the poorest households have not recovered since the Asian financial crisis.

He said low-income households, who lost jobs in the manufacturing sector due to the international division of labor, are not successfully switching to other sectors.

Choi said the discrepancy between growth and distribution after the Asian financial crisis is increasing the need for social cohesion. ``Developed countries have been emphasizing social cohesion as a condition for sustainable growth since the 1990s. Social cohesion is linked with poverty reduction.''

South Korea Creates Funds to Reduce Poverty

from The Korea Times

WASHINGTON (Yonhap) _ South Korea established two trust funds worth $30 million through the World Bank to help countries combat poverty and develop information and communication technologies (ICT), the global lender said on Tuesday.

The sum will be divided into two $15 million funds, one of which is the Poverty Reduction and Socio-Economic Development Trust Fund for East Asia and Pacific countries. South Korea will provide the money for the first year with further resources available based on progress, the World Bank said in a press release.

The fund will co-finance the World Bank's operations on a grant basis, providing resources for technical assistance and training.

South Korea also established the ICT trust fund to provide $15 million over the next three years to projects worldwide, with the possibility of further contributions depending on progress. This fund is designed to support integration of ICT into the delivery of government services, and to help small- and medium-sized enterprises in developing nations.

"This is a generous and very welcome initiative that will help countries in our region as they strive to overcome poverty and deliver services more effectively for their people," said Jim Adams, vice president for the bank's East Asia and Pacific region.

US, Korea fight over food

from Asia Times

By Christine Ahn

The Korea-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA), signed on June 30, awaits ratification by the US Congress through an up-or-down vote without amendment. So far, the Democratic leadership has said that FTA is dead in the water, but only on the unenlightened grounds that the FTA did not go far enough in prying open South Korea's automobile and beef markets.

If enacted, the FTA will become the most economically significant trade deal since the North American Free Trade Agreement



(NAFTA). Financial transactions between the United States and South Korea surpass US$74 billion annually. The US also intends to use it as a model to expand trade liberalization throughout Asia.

Like NAFTA, the FTA will forever change South Korea's agricultural economy. For this reason, the deal has been furiously opposed by Korean farmers who believe it will force thousands of their dwindling numbers into poverty, seriously inhibit South Koreans' right to buy local food, and undermine domestic food-safety laws.

"In 1990, South Korea had 10 million farmers. Today, there are 3.5 million," said Sin Moon-hee, of the Korean Women Peasants' Alliance. "This is what unfettered trade has done to us and to the Korean countryside."

In 2006, the United States exported $3.4 billion worth of agricultural, fish and forest products to South Korea, the sixth-largest US export market. US agribusinesses are salivating at the opportunity to reach more of South Korea's 49 million consumers and the $12 billion agricultural market through the FTA.

Pro-business interests in South Korea argue that the FTA will make Korean farmers more competitive, especially in cultivating rice, the country's most economically and culturally significant crop. But Korean farmers have already undergone severe competition through market-opening reforms over the past two decades. The costs? More than 6.5 million farmers have been displaced and many traditional Korean crops, such as barley, wheat, corn, fruits and cotton, have virtually faded from the Korean countryside.

Korean peasants, militant on the front lines against the FTA, view the agreement as the final straw in a string of domestic and international policies systematically designed for their demise. During the 1960s and 1970s, South Korean peasants in essence subsidized the country's export-led industrial development. Then-dictator Park Chung-hee intentionally depressed agricultural prices to acquire a steady flow of cheap labor for export factories.

But this export-industrialization policy, which drove millions of farmers off the land, was mitigated by South Korean trade policies that limited imports with high tariffs and quotas. Farmers' incomes diverged considerably from those of urban workers in 1995 when the South Korean government joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) and signed on to the Agreement on Agriculture (AOA).

Under the veil of making agriculture more competitive, the AOA forced developing countries to eliminate quotas and forced governments to import a minimum amount of agricultural commodities at a low tariff. While developing countries were shredding the safety net for their farmers, by the early 2000s, the US and the European Union were spending $9 billion to $10 billion more on subsidies than they had spent a decade earlier, with the bulk of subsidies going to large corporate farms.

Small-scale farmers in the global South were surviving on less than $400 a year, while US and EU farmers received on average $16,000-$21,000 a year in subsidies. In 2003, the US dumped on the global market five commodities at 10-47% below the cost of production.

In the US, the average rice farm is 160.7 hectares, compared with South Korea's average rice farm of 1.4 hectares. About 8,000 of the United States' 2 million farms grow rice, compared with South Korea, where more than 787,000 farms - or 57% - cultivate rice. From 1995 to 2005, the US rice industry received more than $10.5 billion in government subsidies, of which 25% went to the top 1%.

"It doesn't even matter that rice wasn't included in the text of the agreement," said Heo Young-keo, vice president of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions. "By 2014, Korea's rice market will be opened," said Heo, referring to the AOA, "and that is the reason why rice does not have to be included in these negotiations."

Going the way of NAFTA
According to South Korea's National Policy Institute, when tariffs on 20 or more sensitive agricultural products are eliminated, within 10-15 years, the decline in production by Korean farms will mean the loss of $1 billion to $2 billion annually. South Korea's agriculture could disappear in 10-15 years.

For example, tangerines account for up to 70% of Jeju (also spelled Cheju) island's agricultural production. It is estimated that opening South Korea's citrus market to powerful US companies such as Dole and Sunkist will force a 59% drop in the price of tangerines and result in a loss to Korean farmers of more than $200 million.

Seeing how the FTA will seal their fate, thousands of peasant farmers swam 80 kilometers off the south coast to confront more than 10,000 Korean riot police to make clear that they weren't going down without a fight.

President Roh Moo-hyun has promised to set aside $119 billion to aid farmers hurt by the FTA, but according to Kim Chee-hyung of the Korean Alliance Against the FTA, this "is the 10-year sum of what the government already spends annually, and only a small portion of that amount translates into actual income". Current subsidies haven't offset the negative impacts of liberalizing Korean agriculture, so peasant farmers are highly skeptical of this promised arrangement.

Dismantling Korea's food safety laws
Not only will the FTA force the extinction of South Korean farmers, it is working to undermine, and already has, the country's food-safety laws. As a precondition even to begin talks, Seoul agreed to re-import US beef, which it banned in 2003 after the discovery of mad-cow disease in the United States. US boneless beef and beef from cattle under 30 months old - considered a lower risk of containing bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) - can now enter South Korea.

But since the ban was lifted last December, US beef shipments have been routinely returned because they contained bone fragments. Last month, South Korea received a shipment from the US of a complete cattle spine, which has prompted Seoul to halt beef imports pending an explanation from the US Department of Agriculture. In response, Democrat Max Baucus, chairman of the US Senate Finance Committee, is threatening to block passage of the FTA unless South Korea changes its food-safety laws. To South Koreans, US beef is not just a matter of trade. It has become the measuring stick of public health and food safety in Korea.

US biotech companies, running out of places to which to export agricultural products containing genetically modified organisms because of worldwide opposition, have turned to the FTA as a way to undermine the Cartagena Protocol of the Convention on Biological Diversity, a multilateral treaty that imposes labeling rules on agricultural and food exports.

According to media reports, the US and South Korea signed a memorandum of understanding that stipulates that when Korea ratifies the Cartagena Protocol, it will not apply the labeling rules to agricultural and food imports from the US, which is not a party to the treaty.

Even an April 17 press release from the Biotechnology Industry Organization refers to a "separate understanding" on agricultural biotechnology. The US and Canada, also not a signatory, put this waiver into place with Mexico under NAFTA. According to the Korean Alliance against the Korus FTA, the side deal will drastically weaken South Korea's legislative authority to implement the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety.

FTA's future
In 20 years, will Korean meals consist of rice from Arkansas, beef from Montana and fruit from California? If global food trends are any indication, this scenario has a high probability of coming true. But the costs will be enormous, not just for South Korea's diminishing agricultural biodiversity, but in terms of the people's general sense of security, as they will be beholden to US-dominated agribusinesses for food imports.

Millions of South Korean farmers - most of them in their 60s - will either die in poverty or seek work in an already saturated urban job market. More than 50% of South Korea's workforce consists of "irregular" workers, meaning they don't have the same rights as workers with benefits, including the right to unionize.

"The fight against the FTA is a class struggle, and who wins in this fight will determine the outcome," said Seo Jun-sub of the Korean Alliance.

Roh is seeking ratification of the FTA before the end of his term this year. In the US, the Korea FTA may come up for a vote in Congress this year, but it all depends on how the Peru and Panama FTAs fare. So far, Democratic Party presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and John Edwards have come out against the Korea FTA, siding with the automobile bloc led by Democratic Senator Carl Levin. But the alliance of agribusinesses, biotech firms, pharmaceutical giants, and financial-services firms might be too powerful in the end.

It may all come down to the resistance of Korean peasants and trade unionists against the WTO and now the FTA. Whether leading the procession of thousands to tear down the metal barricades in Cancun, Mexico, or swimming across freezing waters at the WTO meeting in Hong Kong, South Koreans have been at the forefront of dismantling the perception that these global trade institutions are beyond the people's reach.

Christine Ahn is a policy analyst with the Korea Policy Institute and a contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus.

Ex-UN Adviser Urges Korea’s Greater Role in Aid

from The Korea Times

By Lee Jin-woo

Jeffrey D. Sachs, professor of sustainable development at Columbia University, said in Seoul on Wednesday that South Korea should play a more active and aggressive role in helping poor countries in the world.

Sachs, who served as special adviser to former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) from 2002 to 2006, visited Seoul to attend a one-day international conference on official development assistance (ODA). The MDGs are the internationally agreed goals to reduce extreme poverty, disease, and hunger in the world by 2015.

Sachs, who has been at the forefront of the challenges of economic development and poverty alleviation for more than 20 years, cited several reasons why Koreans should no longer be reluctant about giving economic aid and provide other types of assistance to the outside world.

In a press conference in Seoul, the professor said South Korea has a lot to teach the world due to successful and fast economic development.

He said increasing South Korea’s contribution to poor countries will be also good for South Korean businesses, enabling them to play a more leading role in emerging markets in Asia and Africa.

He also recommended young South Koreans get involved in development work. ``It’s both interesting and fun to be involved in helping the poor countries because it’s also rewarding to learn more about the international community.’’

As for the situation in North Korea, one of the most reclusive and poorest countries in the world, he stressed Pyongyang should eventually open its economy to achieve economic development.

He said the North with its closed system cannot achieve economic development. The North has to be part of the world economy, he added.

``It will have to be able to export and earn foreign exchange in order to import modernizing technology,’’ he said. ``In many areas like agriculture even the most basic inputs are often not available such as fertilizer, which South Korea provides now to North Korea to help to grow food.’’

He emphasized that without basic imports, the country is destined to go hungry.

Asked about Afghanistan and the role of the United States’ war on terrorism, Sachs said a war cannot solve the problems of poverty.

``I’m afraid that so far core reasons for poverty in Afghanistan have not been fully addressed,’’ he said. ``To solve this problem in one of the world’s poorest countries, a war cannot solve the problems of poverty. Only investment can solve the problems.’’

The key architect of the MDGs said the goals are still achievable everywhere.

He praised the MDGs as being globally accepted, specific and with a specific time limit to achieve goals.

``Many developing countries are making quick progress especially in Asia, but there is still more (that) needs to be done in the areas of nutrition, maternal survival and child survival. In Africa, the situation is more difficult,’’ he said.

He leaves Seoul on Thursday, according to the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), which organized the conference.

Seoul to host conference on development aid, goals for next millennium

from Yonhap News

South Korea is to host an international conference here early next month on eradicating global poverty and how to steer the world for the next 1,000 years, conference organizers said Thursday.

Organized by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), an international aid arm of the Foreign Ministry, the conference on "Searching for Effective Measures to Achieve Millennium Development Goals" will be held on March 7, a KOICA official said.

Adopted by an unprecedented unanimous vote by 189 member states of the United Nations in 2000, the Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs, aims to achieve eight major goals, including halving extreme poverty and halting the spread of acquired immune deficient syndrome (AIDS), by the target year of 2015.

This conference "holds significance today, as the MDGs have already become serious and pressing global issues, and the Korean government has committed to join the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD by 2010," the KOICA said in a press release.

The Development Assistance Committee is an international organization through which the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), also known as the rich nations' club, deals with cooperation for developing nations. South Korea joined the 30-member OECD in 1996.

The one-day conference will consist of three separate sessions. The first includes a special lecture on the meaning and assessment of the U.N. millennium goals by Jeffrey D. Sachs, a professor of health policy and management at Columbia University, followed by a discussion session with Park Beom-seok, chief of the Foreign Ministry's International Economic Affairs Bureau, and the British ambassador in Seoul, Warwick Morris, another KOICA official said.

The second session will deal with the main theme of the conference -- searching for ways to achieve the MDGs.

It will be chaired by Cho Hyun, deputy head of the South Korean mission to the U.N. Adrian Davis, head of the British Department for International Development's Beijing office, and the assistant secretary-general of the U.N. Development Program, Bruce Jenks, have been invited to speak during the session.

Foreign Minister Song Min-soon will host a dinner for the participants after they wrap up the meeting with a session on ways to share and exchange development experiences among countries, at which Richard Carey, OECD director for development cooperation, will give a lecture.

"With internationally recognized development experts...I am convinced that this conference will serve as a superb opportunity to enhance public understanding of the MDGs," KOICA President Shim Jang-bum said in an invitation letter, also made available Thursday.

Seoul to host conference on development aid, goals for next millennium

from Yonhap News

South Korea is to host an international conference here early next month on eradicating global poverty and how to steer the world for the next 1,000 years, conference organizers said Thursday.

Organized by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), an international aid arm of the Foreign Ministry, the conference on "Searching for Effective Measures to Achieve Millennium Development Goals" will be held on March 7, a KOICA official said.

Adopted by an unprecedented unanimous vote by 189 member states of the United Nations in 2000, the Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs, aims to achieve eight major goals, including halving extreme poverty and halting the spread of acquired immune deficient syndrome (AIDS), by the target year of 2015.

This conference "holds significance today, as the MDGs have already become serious and pressing global issues, and the Korean government has committed to join the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD by 2010," the KOICA said in a press release.

The Development Assistance Committee is an international organization through which the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), also known as the rich nations' club, deals with cooperation for developing nations. South Korea joined the 30-member OECD in 1996.

The one-day conference will consist of three separate sessions. The first includes a special lecture on the meaning and assessment of the U.N. millennium goals by Jeffrey D. Sachs, a professor of health policy and management at Columbia University, followed by a discussion session with Park Beom-seok, chief of the Foreign Ministry's International Economic Affairs Bureau, and the British ambassador in Seoul, Warwick Morris, another KOICA official said.

The second session will deal with the main theme of the conference -- searching for ways to achieve the MDGs.

It will be chaired by Cho Hyun, deputy head of the South Korean mission to the U.N. Adrian Davis, head of the British Department for International Development's Beijing office, and the assistant secretary-general of the U.N. Development Program, Bruce Jenks, have been invited to speak during the session.

Foreign Minister Song Min-soon will host a dinner for the participants after they wrap up the meeting with a session on ways to share and exchange development experiences among countries, at which Richard Carey, OECD director for development cooperation, will give a lecture.

"With internationally recognized development experts...I am convinced that this conference will serve as a superb opportunity to enhance public understanding of the MDGs," KOICA President Shim Jang-bum said in an invitation letter, also made available Thursday.

Poverty Becomes Harder to Overcome

from The Korea Times

By Lee Hyo-sik
Staff Reporter

Even children born to poor families had chances to overcome poverty and upgrade their social status through diligence and thrift in the past, but these days, the widening income disparity between rich and poor has made such a scenario a thing of the past amid the tight job market.

The world’s 11th largest economy has become a place in which the poor face increasing difficulties in getting out of poverty as the expanding income and education gap have almost deprived the have-nots of opportunities to create a self-made success story, according to a report released Tuesday by the LG Economic Research Institute.

The report said about 26.5 percent of the households, which fell into ``relative poverty,’’ tided it over within a year in 2004. A household in relative poverty is defined as the one that earns less than the half of the average income of a household.

In 2003, nearly 30 percent of such households succeeded in escaping from poverty, down from 38.4 percent in 2002, indicating it had become more difficult for households to overcome economic hardship and reenter the mainstream of society, once they fell into poverty.

``Because of the widening income gap, which leads to disparities in education and other opportunities, more poor households have become unable to upgrade their economic and social status,’’ said Cho Yong-soo, a senior researcher at the institute.

He said education-spending differences between the haves and have-nots and the sluggish job market are the largest obstacle facing the poor in escaping from poverty.

Last year, the top 10 percent of high-income households spent a monthly average of 311,000 won ($334) on private education, including tutoring and language study, more than nine times the 34,000 won spent by the bottom 10 percent, according to the National Statistical Office (NSO).

Children of high income brackets who receive a range of private tutoring on top of formal schooling are more likely to perform better on tests and enter prestigious universities. Students graduating from top schools have a higher chance to become a more privileged member of society, such as a doctor, lawyer or public official.

The report also found that the poor households headed by the elderly had an even lower chance of getting out of poverty, compared to those headed by younger people, as older workers have a harder time finding a job.

Only 16.5 percent of households, which fell into the relative poverty in 2003, escaped from that status in 2004, down from 23.7 percent the previous year.

The report suggested that the government needs to establish a better social safety net for elderly households and create an environment in which senior citizens can get a job more easily so that they can earn money and maintain a descent standard of living.