OREANDA-NEWS. The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has launched a scholarship program which aims to help strengthen the public sector of Latin America and the Caribbean through a Master?s degree program in two educational institutions of the highest level in Korea.

The Korea-LAC Scholarship Program (KLSP) seeks to help the region’s development by providing civil servants with the skills necessary to design, implement and evaluate successful public policies.

The KLSP, financed by the Korea Poverty Reduction Fund, will benefit 26 mid-level public officials from 22 eligible countries. Selected public officials will receive full academic scholarships to study a Master's program in public policy or public management conducted in English at the KDI School of Public Policy and Management or Sungkyunkwan University.

The countries eligible to participate in this program are: Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uruguay.

There are several stages in the application process for the KLSP. In the initial stage, the government of each eligible country will identify potential candidates and present a list of three shortlisted candidates. Subsequently, the shortlisted candidates will apply directly to the host institutions. These institutions will then select the final 26 participants based on their respective admissions criteria. The final selection results are expected to be announced in July 2016.