By Ragnheiour Elin Arnadottir
From COVID-19 to climate change to Russia's war against Ukraine, the world is weathering a perfect-storm of multiple, cascading crises. The consequences of which have spread fast and far, affecting the world's most vulnerable people the most. To face these crises, we need more financing and more importantly, we need more solidarity and more partners on-board.
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| Ragnheiour Elin Arnadottir |
To quote former United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon: "(…) Broad partnerships are the key to solving broad challenges." A mantra that we, the OECD's Development Centre and our partners for 30 years, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), very much share.
Indeed, embracing new actors and bringing countries together, regardless of levels of development, is at the core of what we do at the OECD Development Centre. An approach that has become increasingly relevant over the last two decades, as the world's economic center of gravity has shifted, with more than half of the world's GDP growth occurring in emerging markets today.
Korea was ahead of the curve. Known for its stellar rise to one of the most advanced economies in the world today, its average GDP growth rates accelerated to 7.5 percent in the 1960s, 8.6 percent in the 1970s, and 9.3 percent in the 1980s.
In 1992, Korea joined the OECD's Development Centre, before joining the OECD in 1996. And from aid recipient to global development cooperation partner, Korea became the first former aid recipient to join the OECD's Development Assistance Committee in 2009. From $1.2 billion in 2010, Korea's net ODA reached $2.3 billion in 2020.
Following Korea's lead, a growing number of countries that were traditionally perceived as aid recipients are showing solidarity and providing support to other countries and communities in need. These acts have been especially visible throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, as we have seen a number of developing and emerging countries share their knowledge and resources to support the response and recovery. Going forward, we need to embrace both traditional and emerging partners to resolve our global challenges and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
As an example, take the global food crisis and SDG 2: zero hunger by 2030. Today, 49 million people are facing famine or near famine conditions, an all-time high, according to the U.N.'s World Food Programme. If recent trends continue, the number of people affected by hunger will surpass 840 million by 2030. The needs are colossal and we urgently need to come up with new solutions. This means more innovation and new partnerships ― such as how Korea is partnering with the Africa Rice Centre to raise rice production by crossing African and Korean varieties.
At the Development Centre, we see a great potential in continuing to collaborate with Korea in this area in the future. Ten to 12 million youth enter the workforce every year in Africa, to be met with only 3 million jobs. With most of these youths living in rural areas, innovating the food economy to create good jobs, as in the above example, could be a huge opportunity. Korea's successful digital transformation efforts also offer lessons for developing and emerging countries. As does its commitment to accelerating its clean energy transition by prioritizing clean innovation and technological solutions.
The transition to a greener world is by far the biggest challenge ahead of us that we all have to face. Developing countries in particular will need to strike the right balance between helping achieve "net-zero" and extending energy access to hundreds of millions of their citizens. Guiding emerging and developing countries as they chart their transitions to more sustainable economic models is another area in which I see enormous scope for Korea and the OECD's Development Centre to grow our cooperation.
Ragnheiour Elin Arnadottir is the director of the OECD Development Centre and former minister of industry and commerce of Iceland.
