The Significance of Korea’s Saemaul Undong (New Village Movement) for Africa’s Development

Abstract

This paper underscores the significance of Korea’s Saemaul Undong (SMU) for Africa’s development. For Sub-Saharan African countries, agricultural-rural development is deemed crucial in view of their natural endowment and stage of development, for their social-economic transformation. With SMU, Korea achieved an unprecedented success in rural development that positively contributed to its overall national development. The international development community tried various rural development programs for developing countries with little avail. Why SMU proved successful while the others did not is because SMU was highly action-oriented and practical, emphasizing diligence, self-help, and cooperation, and especially because it applied the principle of “economic discrimination” (ED) that effectively motivated the people, while the others were more or less carried out simply as assistance. The three main benefits of SMU are the enhancement of (i) governance, (ii) social capital, and (iii) sustainability; hence SMU has a great value for African countries to adopt. Uganda’s case is introduced to highlight SMU’s relevance for African countries, and South African case is referred to show SMU’s necessity and the challenges it faces in the countries like South Africa. A SMU scheme is suggested for Africa in the context of policy recommendations.