The role of intermediation on the international aid for the governance of technical training program

• Governance is defined as the workable mechanism for the sustainable performance.
• The Korean government lacks for the governance in the international technical training.
• The consultocracy of Korea causes the lack of a governance-oriented mediating role.
• Capacity-related factors of recipient country are crucial in ODA performance.

This paper examines the factors affecting the governance of technological training programs under official development assistance (ODA) for the information and communication technology sector. There are diverse theories explaining the effectiveness of ODA in recipient countries. The most representative theories are based on paradigm shifts over time, starting from classical economic growth support, proceeding to socioeconomic integration, and ending with sustainable governance in the macro perspective. In general, ODA is considered to contribute to the development of recipient countries.However, the question of the effects of ODA still remains unanswered. This may result from methodological bias, which considers all arguments in parallel as independent variables. Inconclusive results may also arise from the missing link between ODA influx and its performance. Using the stepwise approach, the present study identifies this missing link in terms of mediation. Using the partial least squares regression (PLS) model, our empirical research concludes that sociocultural factors could be fully mediated, while sustainable governance factors, in terms of internal capacity and readiness, are partly mediated.