Beyond the Aid Trap for Emerging Donors: Private and Public Partnerships in South Korea's Official Development Assistance (ODA) Strategy

Abstract

In 2009 Hubbard and Duggan published The Aid Trap and argued that to bring countries out of poverty through economic development a thriving business sector in the recipient country must be encouraged, otherwise foreign aid simply creates and reinforces a cycle of debt, poverty and dependency. This debate can be placed within disagreements between neoliberal and statist Keynesian development theories. The debate is particularly significant in influencing the formation of effective foreign aid strategies by the new Official Development Assistance (ODA) donors such as South Korea. The paper provides a critical assessment of South Korea's ODA policies by focusing on recent initiatives on aid effectiveness and fostering private/public partnerships which call into question the terms of the “aid trap” debate. The paper goes on to critically consider and judge these elite-led ODA initiatives by addressing these issues from a grassroots NGO perspective. These themes include considering private and public partnersh...