Photo: Korean Culture and Information Service (Jeon Han)
Professor Daein Kim of Ewha Women’s University’s School of Law (Seoul) is visiting Washington with a team of fellow researchers from South Korea to share lessons learned on humanitarian assistance in fragile states. Professor Kim previously visited George Washington University Law School as a Visiting Scholar, and he is a long-time friend of GW Law’s Government Procurement Law Program.
The team’s visit is part of a broader initiative in South Korea to expand foreign aid. As an October 2024 article in the Korea Times explained:
The [South Korean] government is expanding financial support to developing countries, with its goal of becoming one of the world’s top 10 donors of official development assistance (ODA) before the end of President Yoon Suk Yeol’s term.
A main source of financing for international development assistance, ODA is government aid designed to promote the economic well-being and welfare of developing countries.
The areas of the country’s support range from the fight against climate change to the energy transition, agricultural transformation, education, digital technology and knowledge sharing.
Such support is being made in partnership with international organizations, such as the United Nations (U.N.) as well as Korea’s decade-long foreign assistance programs such as the Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF).
Professor Kim and his team will be meeting with leaders in the procurement and aid communities in the United States to discuss how contracts, grants and cooperative agreements can be used to make foreign assistance more efficient and effective.
