[Initial Insight] Low Birth Response Planning Department, Conditions for Success

Overcoming 'Jeogowi' Limits
Presidential Office's Behind-the-Scenes Personnel Work Including Selection of Working Moms Balancing Work and Childcare
Urgent Coordination and Distribution of Scattered Tasks

President Yoon Suk-yeol is holding a press conference on the morning of the 9th at the briefing room of the Yongsan Presidential Office Building in Seoul to mark the 2nd anniversary of his inauguration. [Image source=Yonhap News]

"In Korea, there is not a 'valley of transition' but only a 'swamp of transition.'

Recently, a sociologist lamented in an interview with a reporter. In Western European welfare states, as female employment rates increase, fertility rates initially decline but then, at a certain point, the fertility rate bottoms out and begins to rise alongside employment rates?a phenomenon known as the 'valley of transition.' However, in Korean society, as female employment rates increase, fertility rates continuously decline, resulting only in a 'swamp of transition.' Amid neglect by the state and society, the number of women choosing careers over childbirth and childcare at the crossroads is increasing.

Last year, South Korea’s total fertility rate (the average number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime) was 0.72, ranking last among the 38 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The quarterly fertility rate fell to 0.65 in the fourth quarter of last year, dipping into the 0.6 range for the first time. It has become almost commonplace to see new record lows every year and quarter.

President Yoon Suk-yeol has made a bold move to overcome Korea’s ultra-low birthrate. At his second anniversary press conference, he announced plans to establish a Low Birthrate Response Planning Department (tentative name) to overcome the limitations of the Low Birthrate and Aging Society Committee (LBASC), and proposed that the minister in charge of low birthrate affairs serve as Deputy Prime Minister for Social Affairs to lead a full-scale response. Although he positioned this as a population policy 'control tower,' the LBASC, lacking budget and execution authority, remains only an advisory committee, and there is a strong sense of crisis that it cannot resolve the current emergency, which can be described as a national crisis.

In addition, a Low Birthrate Senior Secretariat is being created within the Presidential Office, and President Yoon has instructed the appointment of a 'working mom' as the inaugural Low Birthrate Senior Secretary, with behind-the-scenes preparations underway. President Yoon mentioned to his aides the case of his mother, Choi Seong-ja, a former Ewha Womans University professor who resigned due to childcare responsibilities, judging that a working mom who balances work and childcare would help realistically address the issue.

While the establishment of the Low Birthrate Response Planning Department is gaining momentum, there are also many concerns. Without properly analyzing the causes of failure to overcome the low birthrate crisis and without a concrete organizational design plan, rushing to set up a dedicated ministry may lead to overlapping duties among ministries and inefficiencies in budget execution. The key is to coordinate and allocate tasks scattered across ministries such as health and welfare, education, and employment. Efficient reorganization of duties involving the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family?which is on the path to abolition as a presidential pledge?and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, responsible for regional balance, must precede. It is also inevitable to revise the current low birthrate and aging society-related laws, which lack accountability for collaboration and have unclear roles and responsibilities among ministries due to policy implementation being carried out on a task-by-task basis.

Since establishing a dedicated low birthrate response ministry is rare worldwide, even more meticulous work is required. Japan, which has long grappled with low birthrates, established a new ministry last year called the 'Children and Families Agency,' beginning to separate responsibilities for low birthrate and aging issues. Germany has maintained the name and functions of the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth since 1995, and succeeded in reversing fertility decline through proactive family policy shifts. In Korea, since both ruling and opposition parties share a common awareness of the low birthrate problem, they must work intensively together to ensure that the establishment of a dedicated ministry becomes a turning point in the serious population crisis. The appointment of the Low Birthrate Senior Secretariat is the beginning of this effort.