Why Koreans must show interest in development issues

By Shomi Kim

Korea in 2009 became the 24th member state of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, making it the first former aid recipient to join the "advanced nations' assistance club." Since then Korea's official development aid (ODA) to gross national income has been increasing rapidly backed by data showing that among DAC member countries, her contribution has witnessed the highest increase.

This trend leads to an obvious question. Does this reflect the growth of Korean people's interest in international development issues? Not in real terms. There is a considerable gap between the government's contribution and the level of public awareness and engagement on this matter.

This mismatch can be easily found in the ratio of Korean staff serving at international development organizations. According to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, the proportion of appointed Korean staff to the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and International Monetary Fund hardly reaches one third of the government's share of between 1 and 2 percent in the respective organizations. Is this phenomenon attributed to failure in government policy or public indifference? I am inclined to believe that the reasons are embedded in various areas in our society which is difficult to attribute a straightforward cause-effect factor.

Nevertheless, a few factors are palpable enough to inform a charitable analysis. One such factor is the country's education system. Our education system does not sufficiently expose students to the world, through such subjects as world history, current and international affairs. The general pedagogical system is one that does not stimulate the interest of students to get engaged in some of the pertinent global issues of our day and age. For instance, the official school curriculum offers a world history class only for the first and second year in middle school and thereafter given very little attention. The official excuse is that history is an elective course in high school and therefore students with such interest can pursue it at that level.

Students are consequently put in a situation where they are deprived of enjoying the essence of the subject because of the absence of a foundational curriculum provided at the primary level and comprehensive learning at the advanced level. A passive classroom setting also limits opportunities for open discussion of international affairs.

The media's role in this discussion is equally critical. Its general reportage of global and development issues is overly theatrical and laughable, demonstrating an acute inability to engage with substance. Take the case of our media's obsession with celebrity centered broadcasting, for instance. It's fashionable to show celebrities in tears holding starving kids to fit the theatrical media landscape, without raising or addressing the questions that have created the environment of distress that is causing children in developing countries to starve.

ODA Watch, a local civil organization, monitored six major newspapers ― Chosun, JoongAng, Dong-A, Maeil, Hankyoreh and Kyunghyang ― and three broadcasters ― MBC, SBS, KBS1 ― and concluded that they have an abysmal lack of understanding of international development issues. They therefore report skewed and misleading information to the public. The report in question also chides how they have not just reduced themselves into government mouth pieces but also become praise singers of Seoul's ODA contribution and other forms of downright yellow press.

That the media is failing in responsible journalism has a direct link with its inability to adequately inform the public on critical global issues. The very few times they have tried to provide coverage on global development challenges, they soon get carried away by news of Japan and China. Suffice to acknowledge that Korea has a very short exposure to the world far afield, which explains why the media has the responsibility to better inform the public about the world beyond our narrow periphery.

Our tendency to appear inward looking is in some ways understandable, given our recent history. Driven by the scourge of poverty, our forebears were more concerned about transforming their economic lot and cared little about what happened elsewhere. The Korea Press Foundation also reported that economic themes dominated the press reports of international relations between Korea, Japan and China. Perhaps the press reportage may be feeding the public indifference about global development issues or playing into it. Either way, the correlation is obvious.

As a rapidly rising middle power, it is meet and right that our government and its citizens sing from the same song sheet on international development. The current mismatch between our government's international development priorities and the low level public awareness and engagement is untenable.

The writer is a project officer at British Council Korea, with an interest in issues of international policy development.