1. The Foreign Ministry will hold the policy consultation 2017 between the Republic of Korea and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in New York on December 1.

° The ROK and OCHA head delegates to the consultation will be Director-General for Development Cooperation Jeong Jin-kyu of the Foreign Ministry and Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Ursula Mueller, respectively.

° In the forthcoming policy consultation, the two sides will exchange views on the ROK government’s policy on humanitarian assistance and OCHA’s strategic policy priorities; ways to respond to major humanitarian crises, including in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and the Democratic Republic of the Congo; OCHA reform; and ways to raise funds for humanitarian assistance. They will also discuss specific ways to work together in that regard.

° OCHA is a body that seeks to step up cooperation among governments, international and non-governmental organizations, and various other parties that conduct humanitarian assistance operations in the international community, and coordinates their operations in a way that facilitates consistent responses. The upcoming policy consultation between the ROK and OCHA is expected to help further enhance bilateral cooperation in humanitarian assistance.

2. On December 4, the Foreign Ministry will hold the 2017 round of the annual ROK-UN Development Programme (UNDP) policy consultation in New York.

° The ROK and UNDP delegations will be led by the Foreign Ministry’s Director-General for Development Cooperation Jeong Jin-kyu; and Assistant Administrator and Director of the Bureau of External Relations and Advocacy Michael O’Neill, and Assistant Administrator and Director of the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support Magdy Martinez-Soliman.

° The policy consultation will cover the ROK government’s areas of focus in its policy on multilateral development assistance; the UNDP’s efforts to implement “the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development” in the UN; the progress in the reform of the UN’s development system; and ways to beef up the ROK-UNDP partnership.

° The UNDP is the UN’s largest specialized agency on development and one of the ROK’s five major cooperative organizations, as well as the country’s main partner in implementing sustainable development goals (SDGs) and its policy on multilateral development assistance effectively. The upcoming ROK-UNDP policy consultation is expected to lead to a closer and broader cooperation between the two sides.

3. The Foreign Ministry holds annual bilateral policy consultations with the UNDP, the World Food Programme (WFP), OCHA and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF). Going forward, it will continue to step up strategic partnership with these as well as other major multilateral organizations in the fields of humanitarian assistance and development.


* unofficial translation