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Women’s Economic Empowerment Program Wins Global Corporate Sustainability Award for Best Practices
A joint women’s empowerment initiative carried out by the International Cooperation and Development Fund (TaiwanICDF) and the Pan American Development Foundation (PADF) has been honored at the 2025 Global Corporate Sustainability Awards (GCSA).
The project—Assisting the Economic Empowerment of Women in Latin America and the Caribbean in the Post-Pandemic of COVID-19: Women’s Economic Empowerment Guarantee Project (Haiti)—received the Best Practices Award at the ceremony held on November 26 at the Grand Hotel Taipei. TaiwanICDF Deputy Secretary General Peifen Hsieh attended on behalf of the organization. The GCSA is organized by the Taiwan Institute for Sustainable Energy.
Haiti has long faced severe economic challenges, with 76 percent of the population living below the poverty line. Women, many of whom lead single-parent households, play a central role in trade and commerce but are often excluded from formal lending due to being classified as high-risk borrowers—an issue worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic.
To address this, the TaiwanICDF and PADF launched a dedicated credit guarantee mechanism for Haitian women in July 2023, providing them with improved access to formal financial services. The program initially focused on Port-au-Prince, but as worsening insecurity forced women to flee the capital, it expanded nationwide to help displaced women start businesses and rebuild economic independence.
Deputy Secretary General Hsieh reported that the project has so far guaranteed more than 500 microloans, enabling participating women to secure US$2.72 million in financing. Loan performance has been notably strong, with a claims ratio of only 3 percent.
Hsieh said the GCSA recognition affirms both the impact of the TaiwanICDF–PADF partnership and the resilience of Haitian women. She noted that people remain at the core of sustainable development and highlighted the TaiwanICDF’s wider efforts over the past two years to advance women’s empowerment, technical cooperation, and financial inclusion across Latin America and the Caribbean—strengthening post-pandemic recovery and social stability. The success of the Haiti initiative, she emphasized, carries particular significance for delivering long-term support to vulnerable communities.
Since its establishment in 2018, the Global Corporate Sustainability Awards has become a leading international platform for recognizing excellence in sustainability. This year’s competition received 95 submissions—including best practice cases and sustainability reports—from organizations across 11 countries, evaluated by an international panel of 26 experts from seven countries. The award presented to the TaiwanICDF and PADF underscores TaiwanICDF’s sustained contributions to global sustainable development.
Founded in 1962 by the Organization of American States (OAS), PADF is a Washington, D.C.–based nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting countries in Latin America and the Caribbean in improving livelihoods, strengthening disaster resilience, and promoting human rights and sustainable development. Taiwan and PADF have partnered since 2012 on projects ranging from disaster prevention and reconstruction to infrastructure development, capacity building, and women’s economic empowerment.
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- Update: 2025/12/01
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