It is to be recalled that the foreign minister of Korea visited Ethiopia last July. Reciprocally, a delegation led by Premier Abiy Ahmed has just visited Seoul, the capital city of Korea, to attend the high level discussion to further strengthen the cooperation between the two countries in various spheres.
Among the Korean humanitarian organizations, KOICA seems looking forward to support the country through engaging in the activities of economic, cultural, rural development as well capacity and ICT programs. In this regard, The Ethiopian Herald had approached Kim Dong Ho, Country Director of Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). Excerpts:
Herald: In which activities does your organization involve pertaining to development issues of the country?
Kim: We focus on education, health and rural development and other sectors that deal with every kind of cooperatives’ tasks. KOICA provides cooperation programs in forms of financial support. It deploys Korea technical personnel in Ethiopia. We have also a training program in Korea. When we carry out a project, we focus on specific target income generations of certain areas for improvement of health conditions.
So it means we give, for example, 5 million up to 10 million USD of our support in kind-some equipment-and deliver capacity building programs here in Ethiopia and in Korea. So, our projects focus on development-oriented activities, which involve building capacity, seeing to the availability of facilities in kind and bringing Korean experts. For instance, it has established Tigray TVET Polytechnic College.
Herald: Would you say something about the relationship between the two countries?
Kim: Korea and Ethiopian have been very friendly. They have cooperative relations. Their clicking is more of a brotherhood. It was in 1950 Ethiopia troops went to Korea to fight the war. From 1951 to 1953, we had an enduring history of cooperation. So we feel Ethiopia is like a brother country.
And we feel very friendly and very comfortable when we carry out cooperation programs pertaining to the exchange of personnel or economic collaboration. So it means that even if the economic cooperation between the two countries is not that strong, we have a good history of cooperation.
We do many things to further improve the cooperation we have with the country. That is the reason why our Ministry of Foreign Affairs visited Ethiopia last July. Therefore, presumably, there would be a high level visit by each part. I envisage more and more such kind of cooperation in the near future.
Herald: Does your organization have a project to improve the living standard of the people here in particular and Africa in general?
Kim: KOICA has been providing vocational training courses through Entoto Poly Technic Institute. We have also been supporting veterans of the Korean War. So we provide our support for the descendants of Korean community through provision of training program in poly technic institute.
So we gave our community a training program which is taken as a center of excellence. We have a plan for the training of the trainers in Ethiopia colleges. The Korean government has established KOICA, hope and Other Korean organizations too have been lending hands around the border of Addis Ababa, Oromia state.
We had given opportunities for free facilitations for the descendants of the veterans. And we also give free meal service in the school. We have our volunteers who are working in the school for veterans’ village.
And also Korean Embassy has been providing its cooperation program to veterans of the association. So, Korean Embassy is providing some kind of support through hosting a ceremony for the veterans currently leading association. Regarding veterans who participated in Korean War in 1950, there are about 100 individuals. Now, they are on the wrong side of 80 and the right side of 90. There is some kind facilities-related support for the veterans’ associations.
Herald: Is your organization involved in right-based activities like human right cases?
Kim: We are actually supporting education in the health care. We will take into account issues like supporting cases of human rights, gender equality as well as the disadvantaged community. And also KOICA has some cooperation programs with UNCHR, via which we render our support for refugees from South Sudan and Eretria. We have such kind of indirect program. In collaboration task with UN Agencies we are providing our support for the refugees.
In the near future, we are going to give support for internally-displaced people affected by ethnic conflict in particular places of Somalia State or in some other states. We are going to conduct more activities for the refugee community. So we did not carry out right-based focus project.
KOICA focuses on programs which are standing for the right of women confined to domestic chores and children in the conflict areas and some other remote areas. And also we are going to give support programs for child health care, especially, for female under 20.
Herald: What kind of mission does your organization have in Africa, particularly, in the horn of Africa?
Kim: we have around 17 offices in Africa. But our office in Ethiopia is the biggest one in the African continent. So in Africa we focus on cooperation program especially, in the countries of Rwanda, Uganda, and Ethiopia or in the eastern Africa countries.
We are also active in the remaining western Africa countries, such as Nigeria and Cotedivore .So we focus on health care and education programs especially for western African countries because there are so many diseases like malaria, Ebola, tuberculosis and in general communicable diseases.
Here in Ethiopia, we have been focusing on water supply, sanitation and hygiene called WASH program. And also we focus on maternal health problem because there are so many women who are living in the rural areas. As it is known more than 80 percent of the total population resides there.
We focus on maternal health programs through the provision of our equipment for the establishment of primary health care hospitals. We are also giving our backing for specific education program for the females and community leaders for counseling, campaign for the importance maternal health problem.
Obviously, sending daughter- in- laws to hospitals is significant because a single female gives birth for about five to six children. So in the rural areas, facilitating primary health centers, where deliveries of new born child takes place, is the utmost mission of KOICA.
They can care for the health of the newly born child. Giving birth under a difficult situation is difficult for the delivery of mothers as well as new born child. Focusing on maternal and infant health program is significant to extend the life span of the generations.
Nowadays, we prioritize on rural development program because job creation in the rural areas is very critical. As I already mentioned earlier around 80 percent of the total population is living in rural areas. We have to exert some efforts to create jobs in rural areas by promoting industrial development. So we are going to firmly engage in such programs the coming year.
As far as my understanding is concerned, the Ethiopia government aims at joining the ranks of middle income countries as per the agenda of 2025. This implies that the economic development in the country is mainly based upon the interest of the rural community. So, we give due attention to cooperation programs to promote investment and step up productivity in the industrial parks and back up rural economies.
Currently, KOICA is giving such kind of consultation to farmers, state agricultural bureaus to enhance comprehensive support to farmers, state bureau technicians at kebel and Woreda levels. If farmers get technical support from the supporting groups, they could manage to generate income and improve themselves.
Facilitating a platform for deployment of middle-level technology to agricultural bureau is a necessary tool to increase production and productivity. If they could get technology, farmers could step up production and productivity and help a lot to make small- businesses.
Making some kind of product out of primary products like crops, vegetable and fruit, is the expected result from farmers. We give our technical support towards the increment of production but also we give more support to making our own business after cultivating the harvested products through creating market linkages.
Then the farmers can make granaries and warehouse to collect their yields. This eases things for them to supply their primary products to agro-processing parks. And they can make own marketing centers. They can also sell their products to neighboring countries, like Djibouti.
So, we are going to focus on post- harvest or after-harvest activities, which are useful for income generation. We are supporting the farmers to engage in value-chain addition activities of products, in getting market opportunity and in processing. For instance, if farmers are actively engaged in value- addition on potato seeds, they could possibly make potato chips and potato powders, among others.
And also we are working on climate-resilient programs. Climate change is an issue given due concern in this country. MoA has also a mission regarding climate resilience, dry development and green economy as well clean economy.
In this regard, we are in good position to support the environment policy of the country pertaining to climate resilient program. We consider such kind climate change issue. Alongside, we carry out rural development. We are also preventing the epidemics of malaria through handling drastic climate change.
Herald: Does your organization have any cultural exchanges in shaping the mindset of the people of the country?
Kim: In this regard, we have Korean Voluntary Program which consists of 16 Korean individual members. In concert with the Korean embassy, they are doing a lot in sharing and exercising their own culture. They are usually working in the countryside. They are giving and sharing their knowledge for just cultural development.
We have about 10 Korean teachers here in this country. They teach Ethiopians about Korea’s culture, language, knowledge and something like that. We have an elementary school that teaches subject matters of mathematics and physical education.
They are also sharing their knowledge to the Ethiopian community regarding the Korean positive attitude. Such kind of activities is basics for the local students to get lesson from the Korean experts in various field of studies.
Our life philosophy really sets an example. It is more of an engine and motivation to those who aspire to be be industrious workers. We Koreans are very energetic learning approach in schools zones, including university level. The Korean voluntaries are glad to share their knowledge and wisdom for the Ethiopians people.
If one works hard, it is possible to alleviate poverty. We are doing our level best in the sphere of education for conceptual and attitudinal changes to the local people because our voluntaries and experts are showing satisfactory result for the community at large.
This motivation and skill development helps a lot for income generation tasks. If one is doing by himself/herself, one can generate two or three times income. If you are working hard, you can generate a great deal of income in the rural areas. So, we have a three-year rural development program in Amhara state. So, we are going to see the result really soon. “Saenaeu” program has showcased a good result in motivating the rural community.
Herald: Does your organization have contribution in transferring technology?
Kim: We have an incubation center in the level of university. I think middle- level technology will be very useful to help small-scale factories in the rural areas. We are going to engage with the given project to beneficiaries’ party. We are formulating our program together with Ministry of Innovation and Technology in specific department of higher learning bureau to disseminate such kind of idea generation.
For instance, when I visited many villages, the farmers use firewood. Then, we decided that we are going to give support regarding middle level technology such as energy saving stoves and charcoal products. It helps to prevent smoking-related diseases. It also helps a lot for job creation.
KOICA has been using the utilization of ICT program through E-learning system, cell phone, online campus to diagnosis the symptoms and dispatching digitally to remote areas to screening x-rays. In transferring technology, we are doing our level best in collaboration with Adama Science and Technology University.
The Ethiopian Herald Sunday Edition 1 September 2019
BY MEHARI BEYENE
