Examining Taiwan's Foreign Aid Policy through a Gender Mainstreaming Perspective
Date Issued
2012
Date
2012
Author(s)
Cheng, Hsin-Wei
Abstract
With the rise of human security concept in the post-Cold War era, the “People-Centered” approach to development has been widely recognized by the international community. For most donor states today, the priority of foreign aid is to promote human rights alongside pursue their own diplomatic and political interests. Meanwhile, there has been an emerging consensus that “gender equality”, as an essential part of human development, must be seriously considered and integrated into any foreign aid agenda. After the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, 1995, “Gender Mainstreaming” has been endorsed by governments and institutions as the most important global strategy for improving gender equality.
Although not a member of the United Nations, Taiwan continues to make efforts toward achieving gender equality by adopting mainstreaming strategies. Furthermore, under its “Flexible Diplomacy” policy, Taiwan government has also promised to stop “Checkbook Diplomacy” and has started to adjust its foreign aid initiatives. With clear trends toward gender equality both domestically and internationally, to what extend has Taiwan’s foreign aid policy been engendered is now worth discussing. This research thus aims to examine Taiwan’s foreign aid policy through a gender mainstreaming perspective. Based on case studies of two ICDF projects, this research attempts to distinguish whether or not “gender equality”, which has been strongly emphasized by Taiwan government as an important domestic policy goal, has truly been considered on the foreign aid agenda.
This research finds that Taiwan’s foreign aid policy has improved in terms of project management. However, the government remains unaware of the indivisible link between human rights and sustainable development and still holds a rather narrow definition of “development” focusing exclusively on economic growth. As a result, it seems that gender equality in Taiwan’s foreign aid policy is neither in accordance with the international expectations nor integrated into its own domestic agenda. This research suggests that in order to become a responsible stakeholder in the international community, Taiwan must play a more active role in promoting human development by conforming to the global trends in foreign assistance. A multi-level governance model should be applied not only to increase the effectiveness of Taiwan’s foreign aid, but to ensure that people in the recipient countries can fully enjoy his or her fundamental rights to development and equality.
Subjects
Foreign Aid
Gender Mainstreaming
Human Development
Governance
Type
thesis
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