The Significance of Non-Government Aid Chanels: Based on an Online Survey about Foreign Aid in South Korea

Abstract

This paper conducts an online survey about foreign aid in South Korea, and analyses the results of a public survey developed for the purposes of this research. This study offers a unique insight into opinions of South Korean people on the role of government in providing foreign aid, which is an area in this field of study that has thus far been unaddressed by previous studies. Existing literature shows that public mistrust towards their own government or the publics lack of knowledge about foreign aid has been known to influence the government into choosing more non-government or multilateral channels of aid provision. However, the results drawn from this study on the South Korean public contradicts this premise. The survey results show that although the majority of the respondents are in favour of providing foreign aid and have decent knowledge about foreign aid, although they prefer foreign aid to be provided via non-government channels like NGO/NPOs or international organisations rather than through its government. The survey has shown this is mainly because of their mistrust towards the government and its lack of transparency. The pilot study making a comparison with the case of Australia shows that Australian public opinion about foreign aid is aligned with its governments actual policies in key areas unlike South Korea. Whether this alignment is due to governments efforts to collect Australian public opinion requires further investigation. Nevertheless, the results also help to explain how the South Korean government need to opt for non-government channels of foreign aid provision owing to the credibility problems it is experiencing with its own voters.