Exchange of Circular Economy Experiences with Korea

Project Summary:

The grant will develop capacity on circular economy transition through, knowledge development and exchange of experiences with Korea focusing on key sectors and contribution to green, resilient, and inclusive development approaches.

List of Activities:

• Activity 1. Exchange visits to Korea to benefit from Korea’s circular economy experiences: This activity will organize exchange of experiences between World Bank client countries and Korea. The exchange will focus on planning and implementation of circularity approaches, and benefit from Korea’s technological and policy innovations. The exchange will build on lessons learned from previous exchanges. The target audience for the exchange will be both the technical staff in key agencies related to different aspects of circularity economy (CE) and policy makers. The exchange visits will contribute to development of learning course on circularity and accelerate the development of the framework (activities 2 and 3). The exchange visits will focus on countries that can enhance lending and country programming, and that also benefit from KGGTF grants for circular economy, such as Jordan, EAP countries that have activities linked to bank lending or country engagements. Moreover, it is envisioned that the exchange visits will be organized around the middle point of the grant to allow for any follow up activities.

• Activity 2. WBG Open Learning Campus (OLC) course on circularity: In consultations with the client countries course will be developed to extract policy, innovation and economics related lessons on circular economy in key sectors. Under this activity Korean Partner(s) knowledge centers, and global knowledge resources (including internal WBG expertise) will be used to develop a WBG Open Learning Campus (OLC) course on circular economy approaches. The OLC is a comprehensive learning platform with a wide access and an enhanced learner experience. The OLC course will be available in English and will be targeted at internal and external audiences. The course will have significant contributions in advancing circularity in Bank operations and dialogue.

• Activity 3. Framework to mainstream circularity in Bank operations: This activity will develop an operational framework for Bank teams and clients to facilitate the mainstreaming of circularity approaches into Bank operations, as well as develop a template facilitating the development of Bank instruments to mainstream circularity. The activity will identify prior actions for DPFs, suggest relevant results framework output and outcome indicators, distill best practices and lessons learned from the design and implementation of the DPFs, PforRs and IPFs, and will be used to develop a framework to mainstream circularity transition in Bank operations. The output will be one consolidated report, and a launch / dissemination event.

Outcomes:

Outputs 

• 1.1 Study tour to Korea to exchange experiences on CE  
• 1.2 Two virtual events to exchange experiences
• 1.3 Summary report of the study tour
• 2.1 OLC e-learning training course on circular economy transition 
• 3.1 Report summarizing framework to mainstream circular economy approaches in World Bank operations

Collaboration with K-Partners and Others:

The team has reached out to the Ministry of Environment in Korea and its affiliated agency the Korea Environmental Industry & Technology Institute (KEITI). The proposed exchange of experiences will be key for the implementation of the scope of collaboration detailed in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the World Bank and the Ministry of Environment (MOE) in Korea. Coordination is also sought with Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy (MOTIE); and Korea Institute of Industrial Technology.