The Korea Institute for Development Strategy (KDS, President Seung-Hun Chun) dispatched experts to attend KOICA’s event in Bogota, Colombia, “Rural Development and Poverty Reduction Project” fair, for eight days from October 6 to October 13. They gave a presentation about Korea’s experience in rural development and Saemaul Undong. Furthermore, they confirmed the progress on the “Pilot Project of Rural Development Policy Capacity Building and Income Generation in Three Rural Communities” run by the UNDP.
The UNDP Country Office in Colombia and KOICA Colombia office team co-hosted the fair on October 10 at Virgilio Barco Library, which was attended by MADR, ADR, ICA, CORPOICA, FINAGRO, Bank of Agriculture, and regional co-operatives. UNDP presented experiences of regional co-operatives and project implementation modalities. Researcher In-kyu Lee of the Rural Development Administration (RDA), representing the KOICA Colombia office team, gave a presentation on Korea’s agricultural policies, the 5-year Economic Development Plan, and cases of Saemaul Undong.
Researcher In-kyu Lee also gave another presentation on October 11 on Korea’s successful food marketing cases, Saemaul Undong, and rural development cases for those who are interested in the process and outcome of Saemaul Undong, such as Carlos Edward Gechen from ADR.
The UNDP and KDS held a discussion session on the second phase of the program and baseline study results. Additionally, they agreed upon choosing a different project site with higher prospects of success for a new project scheduled to kick-off in 2017. The KOICA Colombia office team will finalize the matter through discussions with the Government of Colombia.
KDS in consortium with the Korea Rural Economic Institute (KREI) have been conducting the KOICA Project, “Integral Result-Based Management Service for Rural Development Projects in the Latin American Region” from 2015 to 2017.
**The “Integral Result-Based Management Service for Rural Development Projects in the Latin American Region” is aimed at improving the effectiveness and quality of the rural development projects of KOICA in Latin American countries, specifically, i) To enhance the coherence in the process of rural development projects in Latin American countries, and ii) To create synergy by sharing the knowledge and experience of each project, and raising the overall quality of the rural development projects in Latin American countries. The project has been launched targeting rural development projects in six countries (Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Paraguay, Ecuador, El Salvador).
