【Graduate Institute of Development Studies】
On the morning of November 22, the Graduate Institute of Development Studies held a lecture on international development assistance, hosted by Professor Mei-Chuan Wei. The invited speaker, Mr. Li-Chun Shih, Deputy Secretary General of the International Cooperation and Development Fund (ICDF), gave a talk titled “Tools and Methods of International Development Assistance: The Project Cycle.” As Mr. Shih had recently led a delegation to the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, UK, and was undergoing quarantine upon return, the lecture was conducted online.
Mr. Shih explained that COP26 reached partial consensus on topics such as forest conservation and energy policy. However, issues concerning voluntary versus mandatory carbon reductions and target timelines will need to be resolved at COP27 in Egypt next year. The ICDF has already implemented project components aligned with the summit's goals, such as expanding forest cover in Honduras through pest control initiatives. During the summit, ICDF also met with its long-term partner, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), to discuss potential collaboration in carbon trading.
Regarding the project cycle, Mr. Shih provided a brief history, noting that the World Bank first adopted the project cycle as a standard for development aid in the 1970s. The UN emphasized aid effectiveness with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2000, and the 2005 Paris Declaration further established five key principles: ownership, alignment, harmonization, results-based management, and mutual accountability. These principles underscore the importance of the partner country’s active role, alignment with national systems, non-duplication of aid efforts, and mutual responsibility between donor and recipient nations.
Mr. Shih elaborated on how the ICDF applies the project cycle in practice through its development assistance projects, focusing on relevance, sustainability, effectiveness, and efficiency. He used a discontinued poultry farming project in an African ally as an example, highlighting the importance of sustainability through technical transfer and capacity building. He also explained the three intervention levels of project planning: national (considering overall context), sectoral (prioritizing sector-specific needs), and project-level (guided by the logic of the project cycle).
Mr. Shih noted that the ICDF has adapted the World Bank’s project cycle to fit its own scale and operations, consisting of: project identification, preparation and assessment, approval, implementation, completion, and evaluation. He explained that project identification involves assessing project rationale, using tools such as the “problem tree.” The preparation and assessment stage includes evaluating the economic impact on the recipient country (e.g., GDP growth contribution), often conducted with the help of consulting firms. During implementation, on-site monitoring is essential, as illustrated by a rice farming project in which false reporting had occurred.
After the lecture, Mr. Shih provided students with case data on ICDF projects in Nauru, Haiti, Belize, and Saint Vincent—including vegetable farming, rice cultivation, flood mitigation, and diabetes prevention. Students were asked to analyze these cases using the ICDF’s “problem tree” tool and offer their feedback, resulting in a valuable learning experience.
The Institute noted that it is collaborating with ICDF through a lecture series as part of the “Development Studies Seminar” course. A total of six lectures are planned. This was the fourth session, following previous talks by ICDF Secretary General Timothy Hsiang, Deputy Secretary General Chih-Hung Lee, and Director of Humanitarian Assistance Division Hung-Tzu Wang. The upcoming fifth lecture will be held on December 6 by Min-Hung Yen (Director of Technical Cooperation) and Shih-Hung Liu (Director of Investment and Financing), and the final session on December 13 will be presented by Yun-Ching Tseng (Director of R&D and Evaluation) and Hsiang-Wu Tsai (Director of International Education), titled “Human-Centered Development Aid / Introduction to Project Evaluation and Implementation.” Those interested in international development or ICDF are encouraged to register and attend.
