KOICA’s basic objectives are to help create an affluent human society and o build a human society in which we can all live better together. It is now Korea’s turn to assist those in need and the Korean Government established KOICA in order to share the fruits of Korea’s economic development with other developing countries.
KOICA conduct project-type cooperation programs which combine material support, such as providing equipment and necessary components for construction projects, and human cooperation, such inviting trainees and dispatching experts. Project aid covers the well-planned and comprehensive processes of selecting, planning implementing, and evaluating. This process generally lasts from two to five years in accordance with the project proposed by the host countries. During the project period, a developing country comes to improve its technology, advance its research abilities and expand necessary facilities in ways befitting the country’s situation.
(2) Role-sharing support—a host country is in charge of constructing and renovating a particular building and the donor country provides the necessary human and material resources.
(3) Comprehensive support—a project in which the donor country provides all the necessary resources.
KOICA provide assistance for the construction of hospitals, schools, and vocational training institutes – the very types of facilities which developing countries most need to improve public health and sanitation and eradicate illiteracy and poverty.
(1) Providing equipment and materials for public development projects underway in developing countries as well as other materials required to meet basic human needs.
(2) Providing relief materials and funds for disaster relief aid when a developing country hit by natural disaster, war or disease.
For socioeconomic development and the improvement of general welfare, KOICA provides equipment, such as ambulance, tractors, and computers, Emergency relief aid materials are also provided under this program in cases where developing countries have been seriously affected by natural disasters.
This program provides technical assistance for studying possible public development projects in developing countries. KOICA strives to provide assistance when a developing nation is attempting to carry out important public development projects that are essential for economic and social development. KOICA’s Development Studies program helps recipient countries asses proposals for the construction and expansion of infrastructure such roads, airports and ports, the development of regional, urban, agricultural, and fishery regions, and the conservation of energy resources and the environmental.
This type of aid entails technical assistance for developing countries to complete public development studies which are in the planning stage or are actually under way.
KOICA invites people from developing countries to Korea and offers them training courses that teach skill needed for development of their countries. This is a program which transfers Korean expert and technologies to developing countries by inviting and training their government officials, technicians, and policy makers.
(4) Third country training is carried in joint cooperation with a third country.
KOICA also dispatches experts to developing countries for a specific period of time in order to transfer Korea’s accumulated knowledge and experience. Through the Korean experts, the developing countries may have opportunity to learn from Korean’s development experience and expertise. The experts specialize in many fields, including agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and electronics. They also provide assistance in the form of consultations, guidance, research, counseling, survey activities, and training.
Based on the spirit of “Share and Respect”, KOICA dispatches highly motivated volunteers to developing countries in order to help local residents increase their income and improve their living conditions. The KOVs live and work with local people and share knowledge and technical skills.
These well-trained volunteers contribute to better life by helping local people improve social welfare services and by assisting with developing in rural areas. The Korean Overseas Volunteers Program also provides medical services in the field of nursing and public health, training of engineers or technicians as require for economic development, and support in fields as diverse as vehicle maintenance, computers, agriculture, and live-stocks.
Young Korean men of conscription age may elect to fulfill their military service requirements by working as international cooperation personnel. Selected personnel are dispatched by KOICAs or, in the case of those in the medical profession, as medical doctors. The period of dispatch is equivalent to each individual’s required military service.
KOICA dispatch medical doctors to Africa, Asia, the Pacific region, and South Africa where medical service are most needed. This program started in 1968 with the dispatch of doctors to Africa and has expanded so that Korean medical doctors are now serving around the world. Korean doctors service in special fields such as internal medicine, external medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, and pediatrics. These doctors service in the spirit of humanitarianism and philanthropy with self-sacrifice in providing medical services to local residents.
KOICA dispatches Taekwondo Instructors to help people in developing countries maintain physical and mental fitness and lead their healthier lives. Taekwondo instructors contribute to healthier live for local people through exercise while at the same time providing them with access to Korean culture. More and more people have become interest in this martial art, because Taekwondo has been adopted as an official Olympic event beginning at the Sydney Olympic.
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) can, in some cases, provide aid more efficiently than government agencies. They are therefore assuming an increasingly important role in international cooperation as the efficiency and impact of aid projects are becoming of greater concern. Aid through NGOs can be of great help in satisfying basic human needs, including medical and educational needs, improving housing conditions, and raising income level of local people.
KOICA provides subsidies and consultations to Korean NGOs engaged in socioeconomic development projects I developing countries. According in 1994, KOICA established and NGO division, consolidating the system for providing aid to non-governmental organization in Korea.