After helping its African allies in areas such as agriculture and medicine for decades, Taiwan is now putting greater emphasis on training local people to do the work themselves to foster sustainable development, a government-funded agency said recently.
“We’ve broached the issue of localization for years,” deputy secretary-general of the Taipei-based International Cooperation and Development Fund, Lee Pai-po (李柏浡), said in an interview.
A common problem with many assistance projects set up in developing countries is that they take a top-down approach which often fails to deliver sustainable outcomes because it lacks a local perspective, Lee said.
“A localized project is a must for sustainable development,” he said. “Our goal is to provide training that makes people able to work independently.”
To this end, Taiwan has been implementing assistance programs based on a model that promotes local people engaging in the programs under the guidance of Taiwanese consultants, Lee said.
Examples of this approach include agricultural projects in Burkina Faso, one of Taiwan’s four allies in Africa, which have been in place for more than 40 years, he said.
Taiwan is also helping the Gambia expand its upland rice projects in an effort to address food scarcity in the African country.
Such initiatives echo Gambian President Yahya Jammeh’s policy of attracting young adults to return to the countryside and engage in the farming industry to help increase food supplies, Lee said.
Taiwan also offers several medical programs to its African allies.
In addition to providing medical care, another important goal is to train local doctors and other medical personnel so they can operate and manage hospitals on their own, Lee said.
This way, “their hospitals will continue to be up and running after our assistance teams leave,” he said.
Taiwan’s assistance programs to its African allies also include vocational training programs aimed at improving local people’s professional skills and knowledge so they can earn more money.
For example, some women in Swaziland have benefited from sewing classes offered by Taiwan, which equipped them with skills they could use to make a living. The program was cited by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) as an example of Taiwan’s successful development projects in Africa.
Ma’s remarks came at a recent news conference held shortly after his 12-day visit in April to three of Taiwan’s allies in Africa -- Burkina Faso, Swaziland and the Gambia.
For several decades, Taiwan has been helping Africa through humanitarian emergency assistance and projects aimed at improving local industrial developments.
Besides helping the countries’ people, the assistance programs have also played a significant role in maintaining bilateral ties between Taiwan and its African allies.
Taiwan was a beneficiary of US foreign aid in the 1950s and 1960s. Helping the African allies is an opportunity for Taiwan to give something back to the international community at a time when its economic achievement allows it to do so, National Chengchi University professor Yen Chen-shen (嚴震生) said.
Yen, an expert in Taiwan-Africa relations, said the assistance programs not only help the countries in need, they also strengthen ties between the countries.
These African allies often stand up for Taiwan, voicing support for the nation’s bid to participate in organizations such as the WHO, the International Civil Aviation Organization and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Having their support is “what we need at the moment,” Department of African Affairs Director-General Hsu Mien-sheng (徐勉生) said in a recent interview.
Officials from the US or the EU are unlikely to speak publicly in support of Taiwan during meetings of UN organizations, Hsu said.
Asked about Taiwan’s future Africa policy, Hsu said the foreign ministry would continue to work closely with the four allies.
Meanwhile, “we will seek to deepen relations with non-diplomatic allies in Africa,” Hsu said, adding that this can be achieved through more frequent interpersonal exchanges and increased trade.
Echoing Hsu’s remarks, Yen said Taiwan needed to maintain ties with its African allies and keep a close eye on the region for any sign of them switching recognition to China.
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
HOSPITALITY HIT: Hotels in Hualien have an occupancy rate of 10 percent, down from 30 percent before the earthquake, a Tourism Administration official said The Executive Yuan yesterday unveiled a stimulus package of vouchers and subsidies to revive tourism in Hualien County following a quake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale. The tremor on April 3, which killed at least 17 people and left two others missing, caused the county an estimated NT$3 billion (US$92.7 million) in damages. The Ministry of Economic Affairs is to issue vouchers worth NT$200 at the price of NT$100 for purchases at the Dongdamen Night Market (東大門夜市) in Hualien City to boost spending, a ministry official told a news conference after a Cabinet meeting in Taipei. The ministry plans to issue 18,400