Over the past decade, the United States and Taiwan have begun working together to improve governance and bolster democracies in Asia. In 2015, they launched the Global Cooperation Training Framework (GCTF) as “a platform to utilize Taiwan’s strengths and expertise to address global issues of mutual concern” and provide training programs for officials and experts from countries in the Indo-Pacific region. Since then, the GCTF has held over 80 international workshops across a broad range of subjects, including public health, law enforcement cooperation, women’s empowerment, e-commerce, energy efficiency, cybersecurity, humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, and media literacy. Japan (2019), Australia (2021) and Canada (2023) have also joined as full partners of the GCTF.
In 2021, Taiwan was invited by the Biden Administration to join the US-initiated “Summit for Democracy.” Under the “Summit Pillar: Defending Against Authoritarianism,” Taiwan committed “to foster a more open and enabling environment” and “to act as a regional hub for international civil society.” In advancing this effort, Taiwan has facilitated the establishment and operation of regional offices in Taiwan by several international human rights non-governmental organizations (NGO)—including Amnesty International, Reporters Without Borders, and Freedom House, as well as US NGOs such as the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and International Republican Institute (IRI).
Additionally, in 2023, the Taiwan Alliance in International Development (Taiwan AID) launched an NGO Fellowship Program, jointly funded by the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) and Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), to provide training for young NGO professionals from South and Southeast Asia to enable regional NGOs to more effectively tackle problems of inequality and human rights in their own countries. During the first week of the program, Taiwan AID—a coalition of more than 30 Taiwan NGOs—held a workshop inviting experts from Taiwan NGOs to speak on subjects related to project management, fundraising, and advocacy. Following this, each fellow was placed in a host Taiwan NGO according to their own specialization for another three weeks.
In this pilot program, the ten fellows (selected from a list of 172 applicants) came from NGOs that pursue efforts in a range of areas: to include assisting remote villages in building sustainable agricultural systems and educational facilities, providing vocational training for persons with disabilities, menstrual hygiene management training for adolescent girls, and advocacy work for the rights of women and those suffering from HIV/AIDS. In this process, the program also sought to build connections between Taiwan and regional NGOs as well as to help create a support network among NGOs in Asia.
Image: Recipients of grants through the NGO Fellowship Program, jointly funded by the American Institute in Taiwan and Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, pose with the flags of their countries in a group photo (September 30, 2024). AIT Deputy Director Jeremy Cornforth and MOFA Vice Minister Remus Li-Kuo Chen (陳立國) are also present in the photo (back row, middle). (Source: Author’s photo)
2024 Taiwan NGO Fellowship Program
Upon completion of the 2023 program, Taiwan AID reported that the fellows “expressed a sense of fulfillment and inspiration” from their experience in Taiwan, and “all fellows and host organizations believed that the NGO Fellowship Program should continue in the future.” During the workshop, the fellows also had the opportunity to visit the Office of the President, AIT, and the Taiwan International Cooperation and Development Fund (ICDF), and came away impressed by the close cooperation between the government and civil society organizations (CSO) and the role of CSOs in the democratization process of Taiwan. They expressed surprise that Taiwan NGOs are able to raise funds internally without having to rely on resources from the United Nations and other international organizations. Based on this positive feedback, Taiwan AID was able not only to obtain funding from AIT and MOFA but also from a major Taiwan NPO (Ming Yi Foundation, 明怡基金會) to continue the program.
In 2024, Taiwan AID thus expanded its NGO Fellowship Program beyond South and Southeast Asia to invite applicants from NGOs in Mongolia, Japan and Korea. In total, Taiwan AID reported that it received 1,372 applications (up from 172 the previous year) and increased the number of selected applicants from 10 to 15 fellows. Moreover, the number of Taiwan host NGOs doubled from 10 to 20, so that most of the fellows were able to be placed in more than one Taiwan NGO during the last three weeks of their training in Taiwan.
With the increase in the number of host NGOs, Taiwan AID was also able to expand significantly the breadth of societal issues covered in its program. In 2024, the Taiwan host NGOs included those that focus on a range of social causes:
- Providing services to people with disabilities, or people suffering from HIV/AIDS or substance abuse;
- Promoting child welfare through services and advocacy;
- Fighting gender-based violence and protecting women’s rights;
- Supporting marriage equality and the LBGTQ community;
- Advancing environmental conservation;
- Providing vocational skills to migrant workers in Taiwan;
- Advocating for penal reform and an end to the death penalty.
Many of these Taiwan NGOs have also extended their presence abroad. In 2023, the Garden of Hope Foundation—focused on combatting gender-based violence—organized the “Asian Conference of Women’s Shelters” to train professionals to address new forms of violence through technology to ensure digital safety for women. It was invited in 2024 to join the Asia-Pacific Advisory Committee for the UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women. The Foundation for Women’s Rights Promotion and Development has served as a think tank for Taiwan’s participation in APEC women’s economic issues and the international NGO Committee on the Status of Women Forum (NGO CSW). Others have also set up branch offices in the region. One-Forty—an NGO providing vocational education to migrant workers in Taiwan—is currently planning to set up offices in the Philippines and Indonesia to continue to assist returning migrant workers in their own countries.
The feedback from the 2024 fellows have also been very positive. Upon returning to her country in November, for example, one of the fellows engaged in advocacy work supporting indigenous peoples in Thailand published an online post highlighting the value of platforms like Taiwan AID that “support NGO exchanges, broaden perspectives, foster connections, and provide new approaches for complex issues.” She noted that “one significant difference between Taiwan and Thailand (and many developing countries in South and Southeast Asia) that contributes to the success of these initiatives is the political will from the government.” Finally, she stressed the value of diversity among peoples that “nurtures empathy, helping me see the world with compassion and curiosity rather than judgement,” and which “enables us to connect meaningfully, support one another’s rights and build societies where every individual feels seen, respected, and valued.”
Looking Ahead: Challenges and Opportunities
Based on the feedback from the past two years, it appears that Taiwan AID has indeed been very successful in its initial effort to build a regional NGO training center in Taiwan and to help create an NGO support network that will contribute to strengthening the foundation of civil societies in the region. If this NGO Fellowship Program is continued, and perhaps even expanded further, in the years ahead, there will eventually be hundreds of NGO activists who will have benefitted from their experience in Taiwan and who will form the core of a network connecting and fostering collaboration among NGOs in the region.
Nonetheless, this effort will continue to face many challenges in the years ahead. It is now very clear from the number of applicants in 2024 that there is immense demand for such a program in the region. The most immediate challenge that Taiwan AID faces is the fact that it needs to seek funding each year to be able to continue its work, especially if the program is to be expanded to meet the growing demand. This process requires a great deal of time and effort each year, with a high degree of uncertainty that delays preparation for the program itself. It is thus important that Taiwan AID find sponsors who are willing to fund the program on a multi-year basis to address this issue.
Moreover, Taiwan AID will need to begin thinking about different ways to expand the program to meet the growing demand from the region. It could consider increasing the number of selected fellows perhaps by organizing more than one class each year in order to keep each class smaller and more manageable for itself as well as for the host NGOs. It will also need to do more follow-up work to maintain regular contact with program alumni over the years in order to build and sustain a support network that will continue to generate collaboration among the NGOs in the region. All of this will of course require additional funding to allow Taiwan AID to increase its staff and other resources to manage an expanding program.
Finally, as Taiwan eventually develops into a regional NGO hub in Asia, Taiwan AID might want to consider inviting US and other foreign NGOs to become involved in the program as lecturers or even as host organizations (at their offices in Taiwan) where some fellows could be placed. Doing so would expand the perspective and scope of expertise offered by the program as well as create opportunities for Taiwan to use this regional hub to further collaboration with international NGOs. As Taiwan committed under the “Summit Pillar: Defending Against Authoritarianism,” such a regional hub would help “to foster a more open and enabling environment” and “act as a regional hub for international civil society.”
The main point: Over the past two years, with the support of AIT and MOFA as well as local NGOs, a Taiwan NGO alliance has successfully initiated a Fellowship Program to provide training for young NGO activists in the region and to create an NGO support network in Asia. It is important that this program be continued and expanded in order to strengthen civil societies and bolster democracies in the region.
