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In September 2000, the United Nations issued the
Millennium Declaration and proposed eight Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) intended to spur global
cooperation and development and to build a more
peaceful, prosperous and equitable world. With the MDGs
set to expire in 2015, the international community began to
review the progress and shortcomings of these goals and
discuss the blueprint of a successor program.
According to findings, the goal of reducing extreme
poverty by half was achieved five years earlier than
expected, the global malaria mortality rate was lowered
by over 58 percent, the proportion of undernourished
people fell by over 8 percent, the maternal mortality rate
dropped by 45 percent worldwide, and the global under-
five mortality rate was halved. Furthermore, the global
population with access to an improved drinking water
source rose from 76 to 91 percent, and 2.1 billion people
gained access to improved sanitation. In addition, the
amount of funds invested by governments for development
aid grew substantially (by 66 percent) over the 15-year
period, reaching US$135.2 billion. Global population of
cellphone users rose to nearly 7.1 billion, over 95 percent
of the world’s population, and internet coverage also grew
from 6 to 43 percent, linking 3.2 billion people together
online.
Overall, the MDGs have brought significant changes
that achieved economic growth, reduced poverty and
greater peace to partial countries of underdevelopment,
middle income or under domestic or foreign conflict.
Indeed, there has been remarkable improvement in terms
of reducing inequality, increasing access to universal
healthcare and improving social security policy in the
countries mentioned above.
ApplyingTaiwan’s strengths to address the
needs of partner countries, responding to
trends in international development aid
With reference to the spirit of the main MDG indicators,
the TaiwanICDF focused resources based on Taiwan’s
comparative advantages to develop our annual work
plan in 2015. In agriculture, to respond to the first MDG
to “eradicate extreme poverty and hunger,” our projects
have not only focused primarily on production to help
partner countries augment their production, distribution
and marketing capacity, but have also considered the
needs driven by regional characteristics and phased
development, providing appropriate solutions and
deepening cooperative relationships with professional
international institutions. By integrating existing international
resource networks and Taiwan’s areas of expertise, we
have helped foster sustainable development in our partner
countries’ agricultural sectors.
Taiwan’s public healthcare system is highly specialized,
with ample experience in public policy formulation, public
health promotion, development of community healthcare
systems, and monitoring and management of epidemics.
Thus, in terms of the TaiwanICDF’s medium- and long-
term development strategies for public healthcare and
medicine, in addition to emphasizing Taiwan’s priority
areas and the needs of partner countries, we have
also consolidated the resources of Taiwan’s healthcare
institutions in response to relevant international trends in
development assistance. For example, to echo the MDGs
to “reduce child mortality,” “improve maternal health,”
and “combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases,” we
have promoted projects on maternal care and chronic
disease prevention. As well, we have continued to build
the capacity of partner countries, including strengthening
basic equipment, health information systems, health
personnel, and research capacity through our Healthcare
Personnel Training Program and the dispatch of experts,
thereby expanding the positive effects among such
partners.
In education, many developing countries lack the
resources and capabilities to formulate and implement
effective human resource development strategies. In view
of this, we assist our allies and friendly countries to build
human capital and improve their technical and professional
skills through our International Higher Scholarship Program,
customized workshops and short-term vocational training.
Information and communications technology (ICT)
is an effective aid to education, the success of women
empowerment, and government accountability and
transparency. In ICT, we have continued to draw on our
experience in e-government to assist our friendly nations
build their capacity to manage electronic documents and
files, and worked on improving ICT skills to shrink the
digital divide and promote ICT education programs. At
the same time, we have applied information technology
to public health projects so that the people of our friendly
nations can enjoy the benefits of Taiwan’s use of ICT in the
field of healthcare.
In environmental protection, developed countries need
to step up to help least developed countries (LDCs) build
their capacity to adapt to the impacts of climate change,
of which key tasks include climate and environmental
risk assessment and prevention. To this end, we have
integrated Taiwan’s advanced space and remote sensing,
geographic information systems (GIS) and global
positioning system (GPS) technologies to help our partner
Planning strategy and direction for sustainable development
Strategic Planning and Direction
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