KOICA Establishes 15 Key Action Tasks for 'Human Rights Promotion' in Development Cooperation Projects

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] KOICA (Korea International Cooperation Agency) is set to implement 15 key policy tasks to systematically create human rights values in international development cooperation.

KOICA announced on the 4th that it has established a comprehensive plan titled 'Human Rights-Based Development Cooperation Implementation Plan (2020?2023)' by operating a task force (TF) with stakeholders such as civil society to gather opinions on improvement tasks, and through evaluation and resolution by the Human Rights Management Committee composed of human rights scholars, human rights lawyers, and project implementation partners.

To realize the establishment of a human rights-based approach in its projects, KOICA has prepared a strategic framework including △ project planning based on human rights situation analysis △ establishment of a human rights risk management system △ performance management and evaluation based on human rights △ strengthening human rights accountability systems △ enhancing human rights approaches for vulnerable groups, and has finalized 15 detailed implementation tasks.

Among the 15 tasks, the key detailed tasks for this year include △ establishing guidelines for discovering human rights-based projects △ expanding the implementation of human rights impact assessments and building a human rights risk management system that strengthens accountability △ developing human rights indicators to measure the contribution of development cooperation projects to the SDGs and the promotion of human rights △ conducting research on improvement measures for implementing disability-inclusive projects, among others.

According to the Human Rights-Based Development Cooperation Implementation Plan, KOICA plans to design projects considering the human rights situation of residents in partner countries during international development cooperation projects and to further strengthen prevention and management systems for potential human rights risks arising from the projects.

During the execution of the plan, KOICA will also conduct regular stakeholder dialogues to communicate with and reflect the opinions of stakeholders such as civil society and clients. The Social Value Innovation Team under the newly established Social Value Management Office, created through recent organizational restructuring, will oversee the implementation process of this comprehensive plan.

KOICA expects to systematically establish systems that enhance human rights response capabilities not only for human rights violations such as sexual misconduct against local residents and cultural asset damage during international development cooperation projects in developing countries but also for large-scale safety and disaster incidents that may unexpectedly occur due to the projects, strengthening prevention and accountability in daily operations.

Furthermore, KOICA will spare no effort in supporting companies and civil society that guarantee the human rights and safety of global citizens and create universal global social values in carrying out international development cooperation. In the second half of this year, KOICA will operate an e-learning human rights education platform to strengthen partner institutions' empathy toward human rights.

Jung Jin-sung, Chair of KOICA’s Human Rights Management Committee and Professor Emeritus at Seoul National University, said, “Through the implementation of the Human Rights-Based Development Cooperation Implementation Plan, I hope that Korea’s international development cooperation can substantially contribute to the promotion of human rights for residents in partner countries,” adding, “I hope KOICA can establish itself as an institution that leads the agenda of ‘development cooperation and human rights’ in the international community and actively responds to the COVID-19 crisis.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.