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African officials share national development experiences with Korea in local administration


Thursday, May 18, 2017


WANJU – A delegation of mid- to senior-level public officials from six African countries are now in Korea to hear about the nation's strategies in local administration and regional development.

In the country since Sunday, the 19 representatives from Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, DR Congo, Mali, Senegal, and Uganda will complete their course of study in a training program jointly run by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and LOGODI on Saturday, June 3.

This year's "Capacity Building Program on Local Administration (Africa)" marks the second in a series begun in 2007. Courses are tailored to respond to the training needs of each country represented, with a focus on the sharing of strategies employed by Korea toward administration in local governments as well as the expansion of regional development.

The program features site visits to the Rural Development Administration, National Agency for Administrative City Construction, and Busan's Saha District Office, where trainees have the opportunity to personally experience these strategies in action.

In addition, course modules are interlinked with lectures and seminars that focus on topics such as local administration and finance, transparency in the public sector, and others. LOGODI has hosted training programs for public officials from developing countries since 2000, and has so far accommodated 4,152 trainees from 87 countries in 160 courses. While Africa was holistically incorporated into its scope a decade ago, LOGODI has separately welcomed African countries such as Egypt and Tunisia from as far back as 2002.

"It's my hope that the knowledge and experiences from this year's training program will lay the foundation for the strengthened capacity of local government officials as well as a developed system of local administration in Africa," said LOGODI President Bae Jin-hwan. "I hope this opportunity is one in which our country's advanced local administrative system spreads out to the African continent through our own 'Korean Wave'."