KOICA Expands Youth Participation in International Development Cooperation on Youth Day, 19th

Youth Day on the 19th... Guaranteeing Opportunities for International Peace Promotion Movements and International Cooperation Activities
Providing Overseas Experience to Foster Youth Startups → Supporting Youth Entrepreneurship → Supporting Early-Stage Startup Overseas Expansion → Systematic Support Including Youth Policy Participation

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] KOICA (Korea International Cooperation Agency) is actively supporting opportunities for youth participation in international cooperation in celebration of the 1st Youth Day.

On the 18th, KOICA announced plans to systematically promote the ‘Youth ODA’ project, focusing on four areas: △accumulating overseas experience for youth △nurturing youth start-ups △overseas expansion of early-stage start-ups △youth policy participation and rights protection, to provide a platform where young people aspiring to enter the international development cooperation field can gain practical experience and showcase their capabilities at overseas project sites.

KOICA will continue to promote overseas volunteer projects and development cooperation talent cultivation projects to assist Korean youth interested in international development cooperation in going abroad. Through overseas volunteering and talent cultivation, it facilitates the overseas advancement of approximately 4,200 young people annually.

KOICA plans to support local language acquisition, global citizenship awareness, and small-scale entrepreneurial activities for dispatched volunteer groups in 53 countries linked to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), providing a stepping stone for youth to grow into ODA and regional experts. Through systems such as ODA Young Professionals (YP, youth interns), development cooperation coordinators, and international organization experts (KMCO), who gain work experience at KOICA overseas offices and UN agencies, KOICA will continuously enable youth to accumulate overseas development cooperation experience.

From the 21st, KOICA will open applications for ODA Young Professionals and select 165 experiential interns. Additionally, a youth-centered fair trade volunteer group project to strengthen the recovery of the global value chain will be launched in the second half of this year.

Furthermore, to help youth returning from overseas activities secure jobs in the international development cooperation field and enter the ODA ecosystem, KOICA will provide △employment consulting, job information, and mentoring through the Development Cooperation Career Center △scholarships for graduate studies in development cooperation fields △advanced career development training.

Jobs for ODA talents will also be created in the private sector. KOICA plans to supply new ODA projects by outsourcing ODA project execution to the private sector and focus on creating domestic and international jobs for youth by introducing a youth incentive system. As part of the youth incentive system, private companies wishing to participate in KOICA projects must mandatorily employ youth. Additionally, youth-friendly small and medium enterprises will receive extra points when bidding for KOICA projects, and quantitative evaluations of youth job creation performance will be reflected in NGO cooperation project competitions.

Moreover, youth entrepreneurship and youth enterprise development will be further strengthened through the ‘Return Program’ and ‘KOICA Innoport,’ which provide support funds and capacity-building education for social economy enterprises aiming for global social value.

The Return Program is a social economy enterprise start-up support system that allows KOICA global talents to give back their development cooperation experience to society and return to the development cooperation field. This year, through the Return Program competition, 12 youth start-up teams will be supported in three categories: △solving domestic community issues △contributing to SDGs achievement △discovering ODA-related tourism products.

Plans have also been made to promote competitive projects supporting early-stage start-ups to ODA-ize social economy businesses and enter a stabilization phase, focusing on companies within 10 years of establishment through △social solidarity economy programs △innovative technology programs △inclusive business programs.

The social solidarity economy program will mandate consortia between civil society and social economy organizations to encourage network expansion between domestic and local, civil society and social economy organizations. Through a call for proposals targeting prospective entrepreneurs and startups within 10 years of establishment, the innovative technology program (CTS) will provide budget support to selected companies, enabling youth to propose innovative technologies and projects applicable to developing countries and receive funding.

Along with the Youth Policy Officer system, building governance to activate youth participation in ODA is also a task. KOICA stated that this year it will select youth members for various committees to establish a participation base and is also considering introducing a youth director system.

KOICA plans to conduct global citizenship education in collaboration with the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, local governments, and regional universities to help youth grow into sound democratic citizens. Additionally, to ensure youth participation in ODA policy and rights protection, KOICA will operate the Citizen Participation Innovation Group, KOICA Supporters WeKo, and the Global Fund for Disease Eradication promotional V-Creators to strengthen youth engagement.

KOICA Director Lim Kyung said, “This year is a meaningful year as Youth Day has been designated as a legal commemorative day,” adding, “Going forward, KOICA, as Korea’s representative development cooperation agency and public institution, will continue to implement various support projects to offer comfort and hope to youth who are anxious due to youth unemployment and COVID-19, as well as those interested in international development cooperation.”

Meanwhile, to commemorate Youth Day, KOICA will hold the youth participation event ‘Bridging Festival’ on the 26th under the theme ‘A Sustainable Global Village Created through Diversity and Inclusion.’

The event on the 26th will be conducted via online streaming to allow any youth interested in diversity and inclusion issues to participate. From the 22nd to the 25th, pre-events will be held online featuring relay interview videos with influencers such as broadcaster Jonathan, known as the Prince of Congo, and Nepalese broadcaster Susan Shakya, discussing inclusive societies.

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