Regarding Taiwanese NGOs and cooperation with New South-bound countries, we put forward the following policy suggestions:
first, build partner relationships of trust to facilitate civil engagement.
Due to the lack of a mechanism and legal basis for cross-ministerial horizontal coordination and integration in international cooperation and development projects, each ministry implements its own inter-national cooperation policies, making consolidation difficult. So the government should facilitate horizontal coordination between all ministries engaged in international cooperation and establish an in-tegration mechanism. The government should also establish a regular communications mechanism with corporations and NGOs on the use of overseas assistance funds, as well as international cooperation project planning, participation, monitoring and assessment, to collectively appraise the effectiveness of international cooperation projects, which would be an important point of reference to improve foreign aid policy.
Second, improve ODA transparency. Increasing ODA is the basic requirement for Taiwan to participate in international cooperation.
The UN target for ODA is 0.7% of GNI.13Currently Taiwan’s ODA is only 0.053% of GNI,14 leaving much room for improvement. In addition, ODA effectiveness should match the Busan Agreement, which requires localized, results-orientated, accountable, transparent and inclusive partnerships. So how to monitor the development effectiveness of government ODA (for example, learning from the establishment of Korea’s ODA Watch) should be a key future policy.
Third, reform overseas assistance laws and policies to encourage long-term development programs. In light of Taiwan’s foreign affairs situation, diplomacy-related international cooperation and development needs an injection of new ideas. Resource distribution and allocation should be balanced between allied and non-allied nations. Especially now the government is energetically promoting a New Southbound Policy, the question of how to consolidate local resources – including NGO, business and government resources – and utilize the local knowledge of Taiwanese NGOs, is crucial to promoting foreign re-lations. Therefore, revising the International Cooperation and De-velopment Act, establishing a transparent operational mechanism to
International Implementation Framework, “Official Development Assistance,”
July 25, 2012, International Implementation Framework, <http://iif.un.org/
content/official-development-assistance>.
In the past 3 years (2013-2016), Taiwan’s GNI is around 17 trillion, according to National Statistics R.O.C.(Taiwan), “Taiwan’s Directorate-General of Budget Accounting and Statistics Data,” August 2017, National Statistics R.O.C.
(Taiwan), <http://www.stat.gov.tw/np.asp? ctNode=492&mp=4>; ODA is around 9 billion, according to Ministry of Foreign Affairs R.O.C.(Taiwan), “Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Budgets,” August 16, 2017, Accessed, Ministry of Foreign Affairs R.O.C.(Taiwan), <http://www.mofa.gov.tw/NewsNoHeadOnly-Title.aspx?n=D78EA22C51DC706E&sms=04C0F2D009469151>.
select international cooperation projects, actively encouraging NGOs to join long-term international development projects, and offering resources in a dignified way, can motivate Taiwanese NGOs and cor-porations to invest in international cooperation work, to strengthen the impact and visibility of Taiwan’s genuine concern for Southeast Asia, South Asia and the SDGs.
Fourth, create an Asian humanitarian assistance platform. With global climate change and the increasing frequency of natural disasters, the government is faced with the threat of a major international disaster, yet it lacks a response mechanism and a comprehensive disaster relief SOP strategy, and has not prepared the funds and re-sources to react to an international disaster. In contrast, NGOs are more mobile, flexible and capable than the government. Although Taiwan’s government has set up a disaster relief fund, according to the law it cannot be used for major international disaster relief work, so it is functionally limited. That is why the disaster relief fund and the functions of its designated appropriation organization should be assessed. There is also a need to establish a cross-border emergency disaster relief and mutual-help mechanism and resources bank, which is flexible enough to incorporate the power of civil society into disaster relief, post-disaster rebuilding and recovery projects.
Fifth, provide a systematic mechanism for youth to volunteer on long-term international development. Youth engagement in inter-national volunteering has long been an interinter-national trend. Youth participation can offer innovative and out-of-the-box thinking and partnerships to programs. Another strength of young people is making connections through social networks, which is seen as an essential advocacy tool for key international development issues. Taiwan’s Youth Development Administration, Ministry of Education, provides subsidies to encourage young people to volunteer, but its limited
re-sources are concentrated on short-term activities, with not enough attention on long-term, in-depth volunteering projects, including volunteering destination, location, organization and project assessment, volunteer selection, training, task allocation, management, supervision, completion rewards, and other long-term planning considerations, which makes it difficult to establish deeper connections. In the future, there will be more demand for qualified long-term international youth volunteers. Working in partnership with NGOs and the private sector, and through their overseas branches, a variety of placements and in-ternship opportunities can be created to send long-term volunteers (3 months to 2 years) to assist with the implementation of international cooperation projects, and at the same get a proper understanding of international cooperation and development.
Sixth, lobby for corporate social responsibility (CSR) in foreign investments by overseas Taiwanese corporations. International co-operation and development projects in partnership with corporations, apart from effectively using corporate resources such as funding, per-sonnel, expertise, skills, and networks, can also help companies promote CSR locally. According to 2016 statistics, overseas Taiwanese business investment (including in China) is around US$12 billion.15 Apart from earning foreign currency, these businesses can promote local social enterprise and sustainable corporate development, which are important strategies. Through cooperation with local NGOs they can implement local partnership programs in education, the environ-ment, health, infrastructure, women’s empowerment and other local community developments in need of assistance. Unfortunately, for many overseas Taiwanese businesses the concept of social enterprise
Executive Yuan R.O.C.(Taiwan), 〈對外貿易與投資〉, April 11, 2017, Executive Yuan R.O.C.(Taiwan), <http://www.ey.gov.tw/state/News_Content3.aspx?
n=1DA8EDDD65ECB8D4&s=9BC22A8E74771B7E>.
goes no further than holding events and offering scholarships, without achieving an overall plan. In the future, international cooperation projects implemented locally by Taiwanese NGOs, combined with the overseas investment resources of Taiwanese companies, can help overseas Taiwanese entrepreneurs promote social enterprise. In addition, the government can establish a reward system to reward and encourage Taiwanese companies investing overseas to promote local social enterprise and fulfill their obligations as global citizens.
Finally, encourage the Taiwanese government, private and civil society sectors to actively engage in South-South development co-operation (SSDC). SSDC is a future international development trend.
Through this collaborative framework, developing countries in the global south can work in partnership, and share experiences, knowledge, tools, skills and resources to assess the challenges they face and explore solutions. Furthermore, former developing countries in this area (such as China and Brazil) are now major donors of aid resources, skills and funding to help other countries develop, especially middle-income and low-middle-income countries. Taiwanese NGOs running projects in developing countries should jointly create new methodologies, via knowledge sharing, technical instruction, training, advocacy and other activities, to help SSDC countries promote economic, human rights, governance, gender equality and other developments. The government can use NGOs to actively invest in SSDC, and illustrate its concern and capacity for international work.
References
English
Journal Articles
Edwards, Michael & David Hulme, 1996/6. “Too Close for Comfort?
The Impact of Official Aid on Nongovernmental Organizations,”
World Development, Vol. 24, Issue 6, pp. 961-973.
Kamat, Sangeeta, 2004/4. “The Privatization of Public Interest: Theo-rizing NGO Discourse in a Neoliberal Era,” Review of Inter-national Political Economy, Vol. 11, Issue 1, pp. 155-176.
Korten, David C., 1987/Fall. “Third Generation NGO Strategies: A Key to People-centered Development,” World Development, Vol.
15, Supplement 1, pp. 145-159.
Overseas Development Institute, 1995/8. “NGOs and Official Donors,”
Briefing Paper, No. 4, pp. 1-4.
Pearce, Jenny, 1993/10. “NGOs and Social Change: Agents or Facilitators?” Development in Practice, Vol. 3, Issue 3, pp.
222-227.
Uphoff, Norman, 1993/4. “Grassroots organizations and NGOs in rural development: Opportunities with diminishing states and expanding markets,” World Development, Vol. 21, Issue 4, pp.
607-622.
Online Resources
International Implementation Framework, 2012/7/25. “Official De-velopment Assistance,” International Implementation Framework,
<http://iif.un.org/content/official-development-assistance>.