The Republic of Korea joins IATI
Good news to start the year – the Republic of Korea (ROK) has just become the latest member of IATI, bringing the total number of members to 71 organisations. The news of its membership was welcomed by the IATI Steering Committee at a meeting in UN City, Copenhagen last month.
The decision to join IATI was first announced at the first High-Level Meeting of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation held in Mexico in 2014. At the meeting, the Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se said he hoped the ROK’s membership would increase the trust of both the taxpayers and partners, draw more public support for ODA, and boost development effectiveness and aid transparency. Since then the ROK has been reforming its ODA reporting system.
2016 marks the sixth year since the ROK transitioned to a full-fledged donor. Now, the ROK has finally become the 14th member of IATI among the 29 members of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee. By joining IATI, the ROK has clearly demonstrated its will to take a leap forward as a solid development provider. The ROK is currently planning on formulating a statistical system to report to the IATI Standard so that it can begin publishing aid information to IATI in 2016.