Parliamentary Role in Aid Policy Should Be Greater
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
The National Assembly should be allowed to exert more power and influence than it does now when it comes to crafting and implementing aid policies for poor nations, a foreign policy researcher said Thursday.
"Like their counterparts in the U.S. Congress, members of the Assembly can consider linking the recipients' records in major criterion, for example democracy and human rights, to external assistance," said You Woong-jo, a legislative researcher at the National Assembly Research Service.
In an interview with The Korea Times, You stressed that the first thing lawmakers ought to do is fix the law restricting their roles.
Under the current scheme, lawmakers' hands are tied when it comes to the implementation of aid and loan programs to underprivileged countries.
They are allowed to conduct studies, increase or decrease the budget and request the administration to hand over data related to trends in international development and cooperation.
But that's all they can do, leaving them on the sidelines.
You recommended that in the future, the legislature should link international standards and the Korea's foreign policy goals to the aid policy.
"Lawmakers should look at whether recipients have showed an improved track record or demonstrated the will to improve their status in standards over the past year. Based on the results, they can decide whether or not to increase or decrease Official Development Aid (ODA) or maintain the status quo the next year," he suggested.
Two schools of thought, pragmatists and idealists, inside the government strove to make their voices heard when lawmakers introduced several measures to set forth guidelines for international development last year.
Pragmatists claimed that the Ministry of Finance and Strategy should oversee all ODA, adding policymakers need to be convinced that assistance to poor nations will pay off in the long run.
Korea should benefit from tangible material or diplomatic outcomes when it lends a helping hand to those in need, they said.
Meanwhile, idealists proposed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade handle both aid and loan programs.
They warned of the danger of linking ODA to national interest, saying recipients could consider Korea a self-serving country with the motive of taking advantage of what poor nations do have, such as energy or natural resources.
The gap between the two sides over the issue of who should oversee ODA led the National Assembly to pass the international development law last year, allowing the foreign ministry to take care of aid while the finance ministry handles loans.
You concurred with the risk of linking aid to national interest.
He said there should be open debate regarding whether there is a role for lawmakers to play in making aid policies more effective.