1. The Foreign Ministry held the 14^th Republic of Korea-UNICEF policy consultation in Seoul on July 23. The ROK and UNICEF head delegates to the meeting were the Foreign Ministry’s Director-General for Development Cooperation Oh Hyun-joo and Deputy Executive Director Shahida Azfar, respectively.

2. In the policy consultation, the two sides exchanged views on ways to step up the bilateral partnership; the official development assistance (ODA) policy directions of the ROK and the UNICEF; ways to work together in the areas of child healthcare and youth education; and UNICEF’s assistance project for North Korean children. They also discussed specific ways to work together.

3. Director-General Oh, citing the more than a four-fold increase in the ROK’s contribution to UNICEF over the past ten years and the more than an annual $90 mln donated by the Korean nationals to UNICEF through the Korean Committee for UNICEF, brought attention to the growing ROK-UNICEF partnership.

※ The ROK government’s contribution to UNICEF increased to $38.17 mln in 2017 from $8.41 mln in 2008.

※ The ROK’s donation to UNICEF through the Korean Committee for UNICEF marks the third largest among those from the 33 national committees.

° The Director-General also noted with appreciation that since its formal opening in April 2017, the UNICEF Seoul Office had been contributing to the efforts of the ROK government and UNICEF to seek out and conduct cooperation projects in various fields, including child healthcare, education, drinking water and sanitation, and nutrition.

4. Director-General Oh, taking note of the UNICEF work to step up assistance to “the most marginalized children” through its “Strategic Plan” for the years 2018- 2021, voiced hope for a stronger ROK-UNICEF cooperation on education and healthcare, the ROK’s priority areas for assistance.

5. Deputy Executive Director Azfar extended appreciation to the ROK for its robust contribution to UNICEF; expressed hope to work more closely with the ROK in areas the country is strong in, such as education, healthcare, gender equality and innovation; and asked for the ROK government’s attention to “the Young People’s Agenda” to be launched during the UN General Assembly session in September.

6. The Deputy Executive Director, bringing attention to UNICEF’s various ongoing projects for young children and women in North Korea in the areas of healthcare, nutrition, drinking water and sanitation, underscored the need to increase assistance to North Korea in a bid to improve its poor humanitarian situation.

7. The ROK-UNICEF policy consultation is seen to have served as an opportunity to bolster partnership between the ROK and UNICEF -- one of the five international organizations the country works most closely with and a major UN agency for helping children and youth; and to further step up bilateral cooperation in areas of mutual concern.

* unofficial translation