A feasibility study for an official development assistance project in the forest sector between the Republic of Korea and Tajikistan

Abstract

Central Asian countries have demanded forest sector development to cope with depletion of the Aral Sea and desertification. As one of the development measures, the forest official development assistance (ODA) project between the Republic of Korea and Tajikistan has been discussed. This study evaluated the feasibility of the project by reviewing the literature materials, and the implications for establishing strategies were drawn. The feasibility study was conducted in accordance with three evaluation criteria (relevance, readiness, and sustainability), which were modified from the ones of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development/Development Assistance Committee (OECD/DAC). Even though the project was evaluated as feasible, the result of the evaluation revealed that the overall capacity of forest sector in Tajikistan should be advanced to guarantee sustainability of the project's outcome. This study will serve as a referable case study for developing reasonable evaluation system for the forest ODA projects and promoting the forest cooperation projects in Central Asia.