This report assesses the extent to which the development policies, strategies and activities of Korea meet the standards set by the OECD Development Assistance Committee.

Korea is often cited as a leading example of how sound economic policies can drive growth and development, blazing a trail from poverty to advanced industrialisation throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

The OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) conducts peer reviews of individual members once every five to six years. Reviews seek to improve the quality and effectiveness of members’ development co-operation, highlighting good practices and recommending improvements. Fourteen years after joining the DAC in 2010, Korea is at a pivotal juncture as it rapidly scales up official development assistance (ODA) and assumes more global responsibility. The 2020 revision of the Framework Act signals a more coherent, cross-government approach to implement a larger budget. There is potential to bring greater coherence between domestic and international policies supported by legislation on sustainable development. This peer review provides a set of recommendations for Korea to strengthen strategic partnerships and dialogue with partners, and use the cross-government capacity review and evaluations to prioritise larger ODA volumes to implementers. It recommends that Korea increase the number of qualified staff working in development across government, delegate more authority to partner country offices, and increase its risk appetite to expand private sector operations.

This peer review of Ireland reviews its development policies and programmes. It assesses not just the performance of its development co-operation agency, but also policy and implementation.

The OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) conducts periodic reviews of the individual development co-operation efforts of DAC members. This is the review of the United States.

The OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) conducts peer reviews of individual members once every five to six years. The United States has led with substantial ODA contributions in response to multiple crises.

The OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) conducts reviews of the individual development co‐operation efforts of DAC members once every five to six years. DAC peer reviews critically examine the overall performance of a given member, not just that of its development co‐operation agency, covering its policy, programmes and systems. They take an integrated, system‐wide perspective on the development co‐operation activities of the member under review and its approach to fragility, crisis and humanitarian assistance. The United Kingdom uses its global standing and convening power to promote an evidence-based approach to stability, inclusion and prosperity and continues to provide 0.7% of its national income as Official Development Assistance (ODA). The depth and breadth of its expertise, combined with flexible funding instruments and strong country presence, allow the United Kingdom to focus these ODA resources on developing country needs, while protecting its own longer-term national interests. Articulating a clear and comprehensive whole-of-government vision for its support to international development would allow the United Kingdom to reinforce its policy priorities and engage the public. Further measures to build effective partnerships and institutional capacity in developing countries would allow the United Kingdom to build ownership of development processes and contribute to lasting change.