This year, São Tomé and Príncipe, an island nation lying off the west coast of Africa, made its debut appearance on CNN Travel’s dream vacation wish list. Taiwanese foreign aid volunteer Mei Hsiao (蕭媄文) says she is gratified by the African nation’s inclusion on the CNN list, as she has been involved in developing tourism-related marketing programs for the São Tomé and Príncipe government—a Republic of China (ROC) diplomatic ally—since her arrival there in August 2012. Hsiao is a volunteer for the International Cooperation and Development Fund (ICDF), the ROC’s foremost foreign aid organization; her two-year volunteer service will end in August this year.
Because Hsiao has 15 years of experience working in the tourism sector and is highly proficient in English (São Tomé and Príncipe’s official language is Portuguese), in 2013 she was selected to represent São Tomé and Príncipe’s Tourism Bureau at international travel trade fairs in Berlin and London. She has also assisted in the production of English promotional materials like brochures, films, maps, videos and websites; helped with the government’s effort to increase international flights to the African country; and organized cultural tourism festivals and workshops.
“The São Tomé and Príncipe government has identified tourism as a key sector for development, but there’s not much of a budget for marketing. To participate in travel fairs, for instance, the country often needs to solicit funds from international organizations, which means that the government’s decision on whether it can afford to attend sometimes comes down to the last moment,” Hsiao says. “Still, I’ve always been committed to doing my best to assist in developing the country’s tourism potential. That’s what I’m there for. I dearly hope that more international tourists will seize the opportunity to enjoy the beauty of São Tomé and Príncipe. They’ll have a great experience and their visits will create job opportunities for locals.” The country’s inclusion on this year’s CNN Travel wish list appears to be helping, as the ICDF volunteer says she has seen significant growth in tourist arrivals since its release.
In late January this year, ROC President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) visited São Tomé and Príncipe during a three-nation tour that included stops in Burkina Faso, West Africa and Honduras, Central America. The overseas tour—Ma’s ninth since he took office in May 2008—completed his effort to pay state visits to the ROC’s 22 diplomatic allies. The trip solidified the ROC’s ties with allied nations and validated the government’s policy of viable diplomacy, the president said upon his return at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on January 30. Under the viable diplomacy approach, Taiwan strives to expand its international space and reduce cross-strait tensions by pursuing pragmatic cultural and economic relations based on dignity, flexibility and mutual trust and benefits. The leaders of the three ROC allies visited during the trip pledged continued support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations and their activities, Ma said.
During his eight-day tour, the president said he was able to gain an in-depth understanding of the achievements of cooperative development and humanitarian assistance projects carried out in the partner nations. He also took advantage of the visits to exchange thoughts with fellow heads of state and explore new avenues of cooperation.
Kao Xiang-tai, right, a member of the Taiwan Technical Mission in São Tomé and Príncipe, teaches local agricultural workers how to select corn seeds. (Photo courtesy of International Cooperation and Development Fund)
Over the past few decades, the ROC has initiated myriad international assistance projects that draw on the country’s competitive strengths and development experience. The projects are carried out in partner countries by the ICDF, nongovernmental organizations, ROC embassies, representative offices and technical experts. Since the ICDF was established in 1996, it has conducted projects on behalf of the ROC Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) as well as operated its own separately funded programs. In 2013, the independent organization conducted some 80 cooperative projects that were overseen by more than 160 technicians and project managers in 29 countries throughout Africa, the Asia-Pacific region, the Caribbean, Latin America and the Middle East. The projects are aimed at developing the capacity of partner nations in fields ranging from animal husbandry, aquaculture and health care to information and communications technology (ICT), small and medium-sized enterprises and vocational training, among others.
Yen Ming-hong (顏銘宏), deputy director of the ICDF’s Technical Cooperation Department, says his organization has in recent years made a number of adjustments in project planning and implementation to boost effectiveness and sustainability. “We now put a major emphasis on offering a total solution for an industry’s entire supply chain—from production, processing and distribution to marketing and sales. We also focus on localization, which we work to achieve through capacity building. That’s why local people are asked to take an active role in implementing ICDF-organized projects while Taiwanese technicians act as consultants, providing their know-how,” he explains. “Moreover, we set project deadlines—five years, for example—and then hand the projects over to locals to ensure continuity after our technicians leave. That way, we can move on to other projects for different industries.”
Big Differences
Creating a project in São Tomé and Príncipe, which has a population of only about 187,000, is very different from tailoring one to serve the 17.8 million people in Burkina Faso, Yen notes. As the ICDF designs a project, it closely examines the partner nation’s economic and social conditions, geography, limitations and resources to make sure that content is geared toward local development needs.
“São Tomé and Príncipe relies heavily on imported food because there isn’t enough land for raising that many crops and animals, which makes food security a pressing issue for the country. That’s why we launched two development projects there in 2012 that will run through 2017. One of the projects targets food crops and the other pork production,” he says. “On the other hand, the government of Burkina Faso is concentrating on economic and social development. In 2013, the ICDF started a large-scale vocational training project there that will run through 2016 to help locals acquire skills that are needed in the labor market.”
Two members of the TTM, right, and São Tomé and Príncipe government officials explain the ICDF’s food crops project to farmers there. (Photo courtesy of International Cooperation and Development Fund)
The two recent projects in São Tomé and Príncipe aim to make the most of the limited land by increasing per-unit productivity. The food crops project focuses on producing local staples such as cassava, maize, soybean, sweet potato and taro. Members of the Taiwan Technical Mission (TTM) there provide farmers with high-quality strains and instruction in cultivation methods, fertilizer use and post-harvest handling. The program’s objective, Yen says, is to increase agricultural production in the African country by more than 60 percent. Meanwhile, the ICDF’s pork production project involves importing superior breeding pigs from the United Kingdom, constructing a breeding center and formulating standard operating procedures for slaughtering, processing and selling meat. The project’s goals are to revive the country’s pork industry and satisfy 80 percent of domestic demand.
Kao Xiang-tai (高祥泰), a member of the TTM team in São Tomé and Príncipe, says he has been impressed by the participation of São Tomé and Príncipe government officials in ICDF-initiated development projects, particularly in their collaboration with the TTM to survey land and organize workshops for farmers. “I’m glad to see that the relationship [between host and donor country] has been transformed from ‘give-and-take’ in the past to the partnership we have today,” Kao says. “This model not only makes our aid projects more effective and sustainable, but also brings our practices in line with contemporary international development assistance norms.”
Likewise, Tsai Ming-yi (蔡明義), a Taiwanese hydraulic technician serving as a consultant in Burkina Faso, says the ROC’s foreign aid emphases on capacity building and partnerships for sustainable development have yielded positive results there. For example, there has been a substantial improvement in the livelihoods of farmers in a reclamation area in Bagré, Boulgou province in Burkina Faso’s Centre-Est region. Since 1994, Taiwan has contributed to the development of the area by providing agricultural technology, funding and rice strains. “These days, I often see local farmers working in the fields under the scorching sun without ever taking a rest. That’s probably because now they know they can get a good price for their crops,” Tsai says. “You can see their joy in their smiles during harvest time.”
The TTM handed over administration of the reclamation area to the Bagré Reservoir Management Office under the Burkina Faso Ministry of Agriculture in December 2009. In 2011, however, the ICDF dispatched Tsai and a Taiwanese agricultural expert to the West African nation to strengthen local farmers’ cultivation techniques and ability to maintain irrigation systems. “With Taiwan’s technical assistance, what was once barren land [in Bagré] has been turned into fertile rice paddies that currently account for some 26 percent of the nation’s total rice production,” Tsai says. “Seeing those hardworking farmers enjoy the fruits of their labor gives me a sense that my work is worthwhile.”
Farmers at work in a reclamation area in Bagré, Burkina Faso. Taiwan’s funding, rice strains and agricultural technology have helped turn the once-barren land into rice paddies. (Photo courtesy of International Cooperation and Development Fund)
Regarding the implementation of the ICDF’s vocational training project in Burkina Faso, Yen says the agency is working to establish industrial education departments at a local university and four vocational colleges, as well as set up two national and 13 regional training centers. The ICDF has also sent Taiwanese experts to the country to provide technical instruction, guidance on the compilation of teaching materials, and assistance in developing a skills certification system and employment service. In addition, the agency offers microloans to encourage those who have completed its training programs to start small businesses such as bakeries or auto repair shops.
During Ma’s state visit to Burkina Faso on the second leg of his trip, he pointed out that the ROC and the African nation have cooperated closely and fruitfully in areas including agriculture, education, health care, solar energy and vocational training. To underscore his point, the president cited the results of a recent survey commissioned by the US Embassy in Burkina Faso on local attitudes toward assistance provided by donor nations. The survey was performed in 2013 and found that 91.45 percent of respondents expressed satisfaction with the ROC’s aid. Garnering the highest approval percentage of any donor demonstrates the effectiveness of the ROC’s aid to Burkina Faso, Ma said.
On the last leg of his diplomatic tour, Ma and his delegation arrived in Honduras to attend the inauguration of Honduran President-elect Juan Orlando Hernandez and review ROC-Honduras cooperation in the fields of agriculture, aquaculture, education, health care, ICT, infrastructure and tourism, the last of which is a new domain for ROC foreign aid. During his stay in Honduras, the president visited Valle de Angeles, a quaint colonial town that lies northeast of Tegucigalpa, the nation’s capital. Valle de Angeles is notable because it is home to a One Town, One Product (OTOP) project jointly executed by the ICDF and the Office of the President of the Republic of Honduras. In Taiwan, the OTOP program was launched by the Small and Medium Business Administration under the Ministry of Economic Affairs in 1989 to assist the growth of local cultural industries, while the OTOP project in Valle de Angeles began in 2012 and will run through the end of this year. Ma said that by applying Taiwan’s extensive OTOP experience to assist in the development of the Honduran town’s signature products—calla lilies, coffee, handicrafts and works of art featuring Mayan culture or an angel theme—the project has substantially increased the area’s appeal and popularity as a tourist destination.
Yen says the Honduran OTOP project aims to duplicate the success of New Taipei City’s Yingge District, which has emerged as the hub of Taiwan’s ceramics industry. Consequently, Taiwanese craftsmen have been sent to the Central American country to train seed teachers and artists to incorporate creativity into product design and development. Members of the Taiwan team also help Valle de Angeles with image building, management and promotion through the development of local organizations and establishment of demonstration stores and sightseeing facilities. The cultural and creative project in Honduras is the first the ICDF has launched in a partner country, the agency’s deputy director says. In view of the positive results in Valle de Angeles, the agency plans to inaugurate an OTOP project in neighboring El Salvador later this year.
A Taiwanese technician, right, shows women how to prepare ingredients for baked goods as part of the ICDF’s vocational training program in Burkina Faso. (Photo courtesy of International Cooperation and Development Fund)
Meanwhile, the ICDF kicked off two five-year integrated pest management projects in Central America in 2013. The initiatives are aimed at combating citrus greening (aka Huanglongbing, HLB), an insect-borne bacterial disease that infects citrus trees; and coffee rust, a fungus known to devastate entire coffee plantations. Both diseases are spreading in Latin America, resulting in large losses for growers of two of the region’s most important crops. “Given the cross-border threat of coffee rust and HLB, the ICDF has opted to promote control and prevention measures through regional cooperation,” Yen says. Partners in the effort include the International Regional Organization for Plant and Animal Health (OIRSA), which is headquartered in El Salvador, and the Honduras-based Central American Bank for Economic Integration.
“The goal of the pest management programs is to work out a full range of financial and technical solutions to help farmers safeguard the quality and yields of their crops,” Yen says. Solutions developed thus far include the establishment of surveillance and reporting systems, improvement of diagnostic and pest management technologies, introduction and cultivation of healthy seedlings to replace infected and aging plants, and provision of microloans to help farmers procure equipment and fertilizers.
Heading Off HLB
More than 4,000 citrus farmers cultivate a combined 18,000 hectares of land in Honduras. HLB hit the country hard in 2013, causing a 30 percent decrease in production. To combat the disease, three Honduran technicians traveled to Taiwan to attend ICDF-organized training courses on HLB control in May 2013. Two months later, the agency sent Taiwanese agricultural experts to the Central American nation to assist local citrus farmers.
Taiwan is also helping to fight the disease in other ways. After earning a master’s degree in entomology at Taipei’s National Taiwan University, Wu San-he (吳三和) joined the ICDF-managed Taiwan Youth Overseas Service, which allows young Taiwanese men to perform one year of alternative service instead of compulsory military service. Wu, who was dispatched to Honduras in late 2013 to work with a TTM, notes that Taiwan has 60 years of experience in tackling citrus greening and could make a significant contribution to the management of the disease in Central America.
“You could say that HLB is the ‘cancer’ of citrus diseases,” Wu says. “The epidemic is devastating citrus crops in Central America at an alarming rate and eliminating the main source of income for many farming families. That’s why we’re working closely with experts from OIRSA to develop pest management tools. Our goal is to help the region’s citrus industry regain full vitality. I plan to help out by sharing my knowledge with local farmers whenever possible.”
“Of course, I’d like to learn from them as well,” he adds with a smile. “I really like their easygoing attitude toward life.”
Write to Kelly Her at kher@mofa.gov.tw