National Council of Women - Parallel Event - The Korean Saemaul Movement and Beyond

Korean National Council of Women sponsored a session on National Development and Rural Women n Asia Pacific. President Jung-Sook Kim gave an excellent presentation on the Korean Women in Agriculture, The Saemaul Movement and Beyond. In 2011, the IMF ranked Korea as the 6th in the world in terms of Incremental GDP, which is a remarkable achievement.The following description is taken from Dr. Jung-Sook Kim's presentation.

Korea has achieved a Miracle of Han River through the Semaul Undon (New Community Movement, New Village Movement) in the 1970's, and it is through this movement that women in agriculture emerged as Community leaders. Before the movement started, the status of Korean women in general was very low, under the Confucian system, which assumed male superiority. As the process of industrailization started, young labour forces moved to the cities to get jobs, and women who remained in the country side came to fill the vacuum and become the majority of the rural labour force. The Saemaul Undong is an example of a strong role of the government in leading rural movement. Also know as the New Village Movement or New Community Movement, it was a political initiative launced on April 22, 1970 by Pres. Park Chung Hee to modernize the rural South Korean economy. It initially sought to rectify the growing gap between the urban centers and the small villages. Later focus was on rural infrastructure. The movement promoted self help and cooperation among the people, as the central government provided a fixed amount of raw materials to each of the participating villages free of charge, and entrusted the locals to build whatever they wished with them. The success can be attributed to 3 basic strategies of poverty reduction adapting to  and making use of the Korean contexts.

The government actively encouraged women's participation and provided guidelines. The Saemaul Undong did much to improve infrastructure in rural S. Korea, bringing modern facilities.

It developed women leaders in rural areas. One person per family was asked to participate in the meetings, and many women participated when men were not available. When it came to choose leaders, one male and one female were chosen.Saemaul Undon Women's Organization was established in each community and women's activities started playing the central role in the New Community Movement. The women leaders played the role of mobilizing other women during the Community development projects.

Te women got really involved, in rice saving campaigns, running village co ops and child care centres. The championed eradication of pubs from villages, and burned Korean playing cards - as they believed that the backwardness of rural communities was largely due to men's habitual drinking and gambling.

Other panelists included Hon. Yun-Sook Lee (Former MP),Prof. Yenlin Ku (Prof. National Chiao Tung University), Elisabeth Neuman, from International Council of Women.