The Education sector is the core area necessary for achieving effective poverty reduction as it provides social opportunities and social safety nets. The Education sector provides the basis of sustainable development and is critical in ODA programs. Equal educational opportunities should be provided to all people in order to overcome the vicious circle of poverty and to ensure standards of living. Also, vocational training as a safety net is important to prevent people from falling into poverty due to sudden unemployment or retirement and lack of‘decent work’ for professional soldiers after discharge.
Education is one of the fundamental sectors of a developing country and it is a compulsory means to tapping an individual’s diverse potential for social and economic development. The education sector is related to three goals of the MDGs; improving employment for poverty reduction, achieving universal primary education, and enhancing gender equality and women’s empowerment. The world is trying to achieve detailed targets such as improving adult employment focusing on young adults and women, primary education enrollment, youth literacy, and increasing the ratio of women to men in primary, secondary and university level education.
To share Korea’s development experience of achieving rapid growth through developing human resource, KOICA supports the socioeconomic development of developing countries implementing projects to increase primary education enrollment and completion rates by the enlarging primary education opportunities, training technical professionals to improve national productivity, and nurturing high-skilled human resources to lead the country’s development.
The total expenditure of KOICA’s Education sector since 1991 has been 230 billion KRW (USD 245.4 million) which accounts for 16.78% of the entire ODA budget. Within the Education sector, KOICA has supported primary education with USD 63.97 million, vocational training with USD 124.64 million, and tertiary education with USD 15.93 million. Forty-seven primary education projects, 73 vocational training projects, and 21 tertiary education projects were carried out from 1991 to the present. This means a total of 141 projects in the Education system were implemented during the course of KOICA’s operations.
A. Primary Education
From 1991 to 2010, KOICA has implemented a total of 47 projects in the primary education sector including projects still in progress. The total expenditure of these projects is about USD 63.97 million and the average volume per project is USD 1.36 million. Projects in primary education were mainly focused on the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. In Iraq and Afghanistan, primary education has been supported through disaster relief programs. The education projects, which formerly were focused on the Asian regions in the 1990s, have been expanded to include support programs in Africa since the mid-2000s.
B. Vocational Training
From 1991 to 2010, KOICA implemented a total of 73 projects for vocational training including projects that are still in progress. The total expenditure of the projects is about USD 124.64 million and the average per project is USD 1.7 million. The vocational training projects support the establishment of vocational training centers and the adoption of national qualification exams. Vocational training projects are mainly focused in Asia and Africa. African countries are mostly from Northern Africa including Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, and Libya. The size of support for education projects in Sub-Saharan Africa is relatively insignificant because of the poor local industrial infrastructure and manpower.
C. Tertiary Education
From 1991 to 2010, KOICA implemented a total of 21 projects for tertiary education including projects that are still in progress. The total spending of the projects amounts USD 15.93 million and the average per project is USD 1.78 million. In the 1990s, assistance in this area was mainly focused in Asia, but since 2000 educational assistance is being focused on both Asia and Africa. Education programs in the ICT sector are being implemented in these regions to foster high-skilled human resources.
Korea International Cooperation Agency. 2011. 20 years of KOICA 1991-2010, Translated by Institute for Development and Human Security, Ewha Womans University. Seoul.