Role of Official Development Assistance in Enhancing Resilient Coastal Community in Small Island Developing States

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to discuss the role of official development assistance (ODA) in improving the resilience of coastal communities through a case study of a marine science cooperation project supported by Korea International Cooperation Agency for Caribbean small-island developing states (SIDS). Resilience characteristics (social technological-environmental domain, spatial scale, transformability, adaptability, and self-organizing ability) were examined. As a result of the scale-domain matrix and cascading effect analysis, this project formed a multi-level governance model and attracted voluntary participation from various stakeholders. The role of this project to improve the resilience of the Caribbean was spatially extended from fisheries and coastal tourism infrastructure to coastal communities, regions, countries, and Caribbean Islands. Regarding aspects of transformability, adaptability, and self organizing, a coastal expert group (Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology) and an educational institution (University of the West Indies) formed a network to provide training programs that enable countries to acquire coastline monitoring technology and adapt and transit on their own. This study holds significance in terms of providing directions to future ODA projects to improve sustainable development of SIDS and quality of life of coastal inhabitants.