At the Fourth High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan, leaders and experts in development cooperation around the globe will be able to establish a new global partnership where all stakeholders can participate in seeking better ways to make development aid more effective, chief of the forum organizer said.

Dubbed the HLF-4, the forum is co-organized by the South Korea and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Hong Seong-hoa, head of the Organizing Office for the Fourth High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, said not only donation providers but emerging economies, civic groups and general private corporations can play an important role in development aid.

“The most meaningful result of the Busan forum will be establishing a new paradigm, a new global partnership for aid,” Hong said in a phone interview with The Korea Herald.

“In the past, donor countries played a major role in aid. The forum will shift the focus of talks to how to use aid to make a meaningful impact on the growth of developing countries,” he said.

Especially after Korea was able to draw the Seoul Development Consensus for Shared Growth during the 2010 G20 Seoul Summit which allows developing countries to take a more active role in drawing up their economic growth strategies, the hosting of the aid effectiveness forum in Busan will help the nation boost its national brand and international status, Hong said.

The ratio of emerging economies’ contribution to international aid has grown to almost half of the total international aid, he said.

How to bring BRICS countries ― Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa ― to the discussion table for a global partnership for development will be significant during the Busan forum, he said.

By Kim Yoon-mi (yoonmi@heraldcorp.com)