16th Forum for International Agricultural Partnership was held on Dec. 22, 2017

Through years, it has been argued that a strategy to enhance the participation and accountability of developing countries themselves in designing and implementing cooperation programs is desperately needed to improve the performance of Korea's ODA technical cooperation projects. The Korea Rural Economic Institute(KREI) (President, Dr. Kim Chang-gil) held the 16th Forum for International Agricultural Partnership on "Technical Cooperation in the Agriculture Sector: Role and Performance and Improvement" at the Koreana Hotel on December 22.

This forum addressed agricultural sector technology cooperation projects, an important means of achieving one of the main goals of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which is 'poverty eradication and hunger relief'. In particular, it was designed to discuss the problems and solutions to the issues in the technical cooperation sector in the implementation of the international development cooperation projects in agriculture sector, funded by Korea. Dr. Kim Chang-gil, in his opening remarks, said, "Various issues related to the sustainability or effectiveness of technical cooperation projects in the various fields of development assistance, including the agricultural sector, have been continuously raised." I hope that it will become an occasion to share the current situation and discuss solutions together."

Dr. Hong Song-chang of KDI explained the meaning of private participation in technology cooperation and the case of innovative technology cooperation in international development cooperation with the theme of 'Knowledge Sharing and Development Cooperation'. Dr. Kim Hwang-yong of the Rural Development Administration (RDA) gave a presentation, titled 'The Significance and Role of Technical Cooperation in International Development Cooperation in the Agriculture Sector', defined the some aspects of technology cooperation project in agriculture and introduced about RDA’s overseas agricultural technology development project (which is called, KOPIA), success factors, and the future direction of KOPIA project.

Dr. Kim Jong-sun, from KREI, presented a presentation, titled 'Examples of ODA Technical Cooperation Projects and Improvement Plan for Korea's Agricultural Sector.' Dr. Kim analyzed the technical cooperation projects by Korean government in various aspects, analyzed the implications, and explained basic directions and strategies for enhancing the performance. In particular, in order to improve the performance of the project, he said, the government need to emphasize the enhancement of private participation and accountability of developing countries, the enhancement of ODA project expertise by stakeholders, and strengthening monitoring and evaluation framework.

The Presentation materials (in PDF format) are available at this link