Re-Inventing Africa's Development

Jong-Dae Park is the South Korean Ambassador in South Africa and a specialist in African Development and Korea’s soft power. Park, a career diplomat, has been heavily engaged in development assistance for the last seven years when he was the Ambassador in Uganda. He also held the position of Director of Policy Planning in the Foreign Ministry, and served in the Presidential Office. He holds a BA from Yonsei University, Korea, an MA from UC Berkeley, USA, and a Ph.D. from Kyungnam University, Korea. Park has an extensive network with government leaders and elites, the academia, the international development community, business circles, the media, and volunteers and NGOs both in Africa and internationally.

• Part 1: The Paradox of Sub-Saharan Africa.- 1. Disillusionment and Dilemma.- 2. Assessing the Role of Foreign Aid, Donors and Recipients.- Part 2:  Rethinking the Root Causes of Africa's Under-Development.- 3. Review of Conventional Explanations.- 4. Uncovering the Main Root Cause: The Mindset Factor.- Part 3:  Africa’s Incomplete Nation-Building: What is Missing?.- 5. Finding the Missing Links.- 6. Reasons for Optimism and the Tasks at Hand.- Part 4:  Understanding Korean Development Model and Policies.- 7. Korea's Path of Development in Retrospect.- 8. The Essence of the Korean Model of Development.- Part 5:  Implications of the Korean Development Model for Africa.- 9. Applicability of the Korean Model of Development for Africa.- 10. Policy Recommendations for Africa.- 11. Engineering Rural Development for Africa.- Part 6: Re-Inventing Africa’s Development from the Lessons Learned.- 12. Re-Setting the Priorities.- 13. Enacting a Bold but Harmonious Change.

“The work is geared towards a general readership interested in Korea’s development process and African politics in relation to the obstacles to development.” (Joonhwa Cho, Pacific Affairs, Vol. 93 (1), 2020)