Republic of Korea becomes IATI’s latest publisher

Aid transparency in Asia has received a huge boost with the Republic of Korea (ROK) becoming a new IATI publisher.

The ROK government shared information on its spending on over 700 development activities to the IATI Registry. Officials at the Prime Minister’s Office for Government Policy Coordination said publishing was part of their efforts to enhance transparency in its overseas aid programmes.

“We anticipate that the disclosure of Official Development Assistance (ODA) information would help improve transparency and effectiveness of development projects, and satisfy citizens’ right to know,” the policy coordination office said in a statement.

Next year, the government plans to spend around 2.73 trillion won (US$2.29 billion) on ODA projects to support developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

The ROK is the 480th organisation to start publishing to the IATI Standard since the first published in 2011. At the start of this year, they joined over 70 government and multilateral donors, partner countries, Civil Society Organisations, and private sector organisations on IATI’s Members’ Assembly.