 Dr Soyeun Kim (right) appointed to a policy advisor (environment issue) to a Korean NGO 'ODA Watch'. Dr Soyeun Kim is researching the aid policies and practices of East Asia's three largest economies - China, Japan and South Korea - and their impact on developing countries. She is currently writing on the Japan's environmental aid during the 1990s, Japan's climate aid to Africa, Korean aid, and the East Asian donors and political ecology. These projects have evolved and then have been expanded from her past PhD research on the political ecology of 'greening' processes in Japanese aid. Through her development studies teaching at Birkbeck College (University of London), her research interests on the East Asian donors have been further enriched and reinvigorated through a critical consideration of the so-called 'norms/ values' and 'issues and problems' in mainstream international development as well as development studies literature, such as:
Dr Kim has carried out field research in Japan and South Korea through extensive literature reviews (including grey literatures only available in both Japanese and Korean; and reports/studies on Chinese aid only available in both languages); interviews with both governmental (in Japan, Korea; also Asian Development Bank) and non-governmental (academics, think-tanks, NGOs). Her research aims to study why and how those East Asian donors operate in such ways, which enables a better understanding of the subsequent social and environmental impacts by their aid practices. By highlighting differences / similarities between the East Asian donors as well as the traditional donors and the East Asian donors, this effort in turn inform policy-makers and more importantly practitioners in the international development circle (both governmental and non-governmental) for a more effective communication and co-operation with the East Asian donors. |
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East Asian Aid Donors |