“Contributing to the advancement of international cooperation through various cooperative projects to promote friendly and cooperative relationships and mutual exchanges between the Republic of Korea and developing countries and achieve poverty reduction, improvement of the quality of life, sustainable development, and humanitarianism of developing countries”
The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), the Republic of Korea’s government agency under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for development cooperation, was first established in 1991. Its key objectives are the following: reducing poverty, improving the quality of life, fulfilling sustainable development and humanitarianism, promoting friendly and cooperative relationships with developing countries, and contributing to global peace and prosperity.
Asia has been KOICA’s top priority for development cooperation in 2021(48.3%), followed by Africa (25.6%), Latin America (14.7%), and Middle East/CIS (11.4%). The aid in Africa is constantly increasing, along with the government’s expansion of international cooperation policies. 38.1% of KOICA’s total sources are allocated for LDCs, and the proportion will continue to expand in the upcoming years.
For more effective support, the ODA delivered is allocated to different sectors in accordance with SDG goals and major development priorities of developing countries. KOICA adopted its top 5 sectors of 2021, which are of the following: Technology/Environment & Energy (17.8%), Education (17.3%), Health (16.5%), Public Administration (16.2%) and Agriculture (12.6%).