During the COVID-19 pandemic, Taiwan’s flag appeared on the European Union’s website, as Taiwan donated hundreds of millions of masks to countries seriously affected by the COVID-19
pandemic. Earlier in late 2015, Taiwan’s flag, alongside that of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the US, and others in the Zaatari Refugee Camps in Jordan because Taiwan provided humanitarian assistance to Syrian and Iraqi refugees as part of a global coalition of 60 nations to defeat the Islamic State.
In both cases, Taiwan mobilized resources from governmental and non-governmental actors. Such joint efforts in countries without diplomatic relations marked a new paradigm of Taiwan’s foreign aid policy, which significantly increased Taiwan’s reputation worldwide and expanded Taiwan’s global image beyond a handful of diplomatic allies to hundreds of countries.
To understand Taiwan’s changing and growing role in the world, we will explore Taiwan’s experience in international development and cooperation. In the first part (weeks 1-4), we will give
a general picture of global development trends (including Taiwan’s transitional experience). In the second and the third part (weeks 5-15), we will invite practitioners from official agencies and NGOs to introduce their main activities abroad based on their professional field.