The aim of this Plan is to develop a social welfare system for indigenous peoples. It emphasizes that proactive welfare protection with respect to the specificity of collective culture must be established upon the self-determination principle fully expressed by the common interests of indigenous peoples, recognize the right to autonomy and self-determination of indigenous peoples, realize protection for the right to work of indigenous peoples, and create sustainable employment for indigenous peoples through promoting employment services for indigenous peoples and adopting long-term and steady employment service measures. Apart from developing an indigenous long-term care system based on the cultural specificity and geographic characteristics of indigenous peoples to meet long-term care needs of indigenous peoples and eliminating welfare and healthcare inequalities to improve healthcare services for and value the right to health of indigenous peoples, a cross-ministerial collaboration platform will be established to promote long-term care services and make healthcare policies for indigenous peoples based on the indigenous cultural contents. Localized support services will be developed to promote the social welfare rights of indigenous peoples based on the respect for the interests and spirit of indigenous peoples and encourage their participation in the welfare services. The welfare delivery system for indigenous peoples will be developed to plan an indigenous social security system encompassing the collective interests and autonomous vision of indigenous peoples.

I.              Objectives

(I)           Promotion of employment services and creation of sustainable employment for indigenous peoples and creation of sustainable momentum of employment for indigenous peoples 

1.   Enhancing employment competence and improving employment competitiveness: To mitigate any macroenvironmental influence on indigenous employees and to resolve the labor shortage of industries and the job change needs of workers, related technical resources of schools and enterprises will be integrated to provide technical training based on the proportion of occupations and the specificities of employment of indigenous peoples to achieve the co-development of technical workforce. In response to the needs of industries and the job market, training in different fields will be arranged to improve the professional competency and stabilize and enhance the workability of indigenous peoples. Although the education standard of indigenous peoples has been rising in recent years, most indigenous peoples still engage in labor-intensive jobs. In terms of the overall job environment, as indigenous peoples lack both human capital and technical skills, they are prone to macro-environmental influences. Degree programs and youth internships will be organized based on the proportion of occupations and the specificities of employment of indigenous peoples by integrating the related technical resources of schools and enterprises to help bridge the education-to-employment gap of indigenous peoples and resolve the labor shortage of industries and the job change needs of workers to achieve the co-development of technical workforce and the education for employment. In addition, integration with market needs and the related MOL resources will be enhanced for vocational trainings to strengthen the theory-and-practice connection to stabilize the employability of indigenous peoples.

2.   Promoting the feature industry production-sales platform and linking industries in indigenous townships and metropolitan areas: In recent years, the Council of Indigenous Peoples (CIP) has promoted the related guidance programs including the “Indigenous Villages Sustainable Development Implementation Plan”, “Lottery Reciprocation Fund Utilization Plan”, and “LOHAS Indigenous Townships and Happy Agriculture” to provide guidance on product packaging, product processing and transportation, research and development of feature souvenirs, and channel marketing through professional guidance teams. Apart from developing local talents and character industries, these programs are implemented to help market specialty agricultural products from indigenous townships and develop feature cultural shopping areas of individual indigenous groups in the city to create business opportunities for indigenous cultural and creative industries and opportunities for local industrial development for the further development of industries in indigenous industries and the preservation, inheritance, and publicity of indigenous cultures. For example, “Ayoi Taiwan Indigenous Specialty Boutique” in Huashan 1914 Creative Park has won critical acclaim since it was established. Apart from satisfying the public’s curiosity about indigenous cultures and a yearning for aesthetics, the boutique has successfully disseminated indigenous cultures and products to help indigenous villages to develop a sustainable self-sufficient industrial model between traditional manufacturing and the modern market economy.

3.   Optimizing the service network and circulating employment information: Nine employment service offices and “one full-time staff for one township” have been established across the country by integrating trans-regional resources to provide indigenous peoples in indigenous townships and metropolitan areas with individualized and professional employment services, improve the overall quality of employment services for indigenous peoples, and continuously provide employment guidance, matching, and referral services. In addition, websites of MOL’s “TaiwanJobs” and CIP’s “Indigenous Job Agency Website” are connected, the MOL 0800-777-888 employment service hotline, and the CIP 0800-066-995 free employment consultation service hotline with transfer service have been completed. Furthermore, real-time services are provided and enhanced, such as publicity of the latest employment information through social media and chatroom software, annual rituals and festivities in different regions, employment expos, and college and university campuses, to accelerate the dissemination of employment information and contacts with communication channels to help unemployed or between-job indigenous peoples to enter the job market smoothly and promote employment and stabilize the financial situation of indigenous peoples.

(II)           Improvement of healthcare for indigenous peoples and establishment of a healthy environment with cultural contents

1.   Developing impartial and fair healthcare services to protect the right to health of indigenous peoples: Healthcare for indigenous peoples involves healthcare services and indigenous affairs, and they are inseparable and complementary. The Department of Nursing and Health Care (DNHC) of the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) was established by the formerly Department of Health on July 1, 2004 to promote healthcare and long-term care services in mountain and offshore regions. Based on the principle to “expand care services for specific ethnic groups”, the DNHC engages in the subsidization of healthcare facilities and community health empowerment in indigenous and offshore regions (by locality, not by ethnicity). In terms of the three-stage and five-level disease prevention approach, secondary (treatment) prevention is the present focus of the MOHW, with less concern about “health promotion” in primary prevention and “special protection” for indigenous peoples (e.g., prevention of causes of deaths by special diseases, health of indigenous peoples in urban areas, and health inequality between indigenous and Han peoples). To supplement and improve the above inadequacies, CIP continues to implement measures to subsidize the NHI premium of indigenous peoples and the reward for TB treatment completion, produce the annual statistics on the population and health of indigenous peoples, and subsidize the casualty insurance for indigenous peoples from low-income families.

2.   Promoting the Safe Village (Community) Plan and stimulating the health awareness and choices of indigenous peoples: While “health and disease” form a dynamic process, well-planned public health services should cover disease prevention, longevity , and health promotion. In addition to “merely the absence of disease or infirmity” (WHO, 1946) , the future health roadmap of indigenous peoples will actively promote the “complete physical, mental and social well-being” (WHO, 1946) in order to build a healthy living environment and develop a happy lifestyle for indigenous peoples. Under the ultimate goal of “daily life for health and health for daily life”, the resources and energy of families, villages, communities, schools, religions, and private groups will be integrated to achieve the strategic goals: “strengthening the performance and research and development of cross-sector integration and division of labor; stimulating health awareness and choices in indigenous peoples; and fair and appropriate healthcare and welfare protection.”

3.   Promoting healthcare with cultural contents for indigenous seniors: In-depth and persistent care and homecare services will be provided for elderly indigenous peoples living alone and indigenous peoples with minor disabilities in activities of daily living through teamwork and collective care in collaboration with indigenous culture and health caregivers based on the reciprocation concept. The needs and survey platform of indigenous elderly cultural and health care will be established. Proximate indigenous cultural and health care stations will be promoted continuously to provide telephone greeting, care visit, daily life consultation and care service referral, food supply, spiritual and cultural, and health promotion services to strengthen the indigenous elderly care service and support systems for indigenous peoples and ensure indigenous elderly people to receive appropriate services and daily life care. The value and significance of tradition, culture, and healthcare of each indigenous group will be symmetrically established to develop a cross-culture perspective for development of the cultural and heath care criteria for elderly people in each indigenous group.

4.   Building an indigenous long-term care platform to protect the rights and interests of indigenous peoples: With respect to articles 6, 14, and 24 of the Long-Term Care Services Act involving indigenous matters, CIP and the MOHW will establish a collaboration platform to include in the laws and regulations in relation to long-term care and maintain full communication with the MOHW, the competent authority, the special situations of indigenous regions and the future long-term care needs of indigenous peoples, hoping to include the viewpoints of indigenous peoples in related laws and regulations, keep closer to the needs of indigenous peoples, and to protect the rights and interests of indigenous peoples.

5.   Realizing the informed consent mechanism for human subject research on indigenous peoples: Prior to the promulgation and enactment of the Human Subjects Research Act, regulations in relation to research ethics emphasized only on the protection of “individual”, without considering the protection of the collective rights of indigenous peoples. It was not until the promulgation and enactment of the Act that the protection for the collective rights of indigenous peoples was legislated under Article 15 of the Act: “For research on indigenous peoples...additional consultation to acquire the consent of their indigenous group shall be required.” Based on the Act, CIP established the “Regulations Governing the Informed Consent and Business Interests of Human Subject Research and Their Applications” and implemented them on January 1, 2016. These Regulations are divided into three tiers implemented through case division according to the region of project implementation to acquire the informed consent of indigenous peoples through consultation.

(III)           Protection of indigenous welfare rights and establishment of the delivery system of indigenous welfare 

1.   Protecting the economic security and maintaining the basic right to life of indigenous peoples: To prevent economic insecurity caused by income disruption or insufficiency as a result of senility, diseases, disability, death, disasters, or poverty in indigenous peoples, this plan hopes to provide the indigenous benefits in National Pensions, emergency allowances, income maintenance, calamity assistance, and legal aid to protect the basic economic security of indigenous peoples through the income provision and support to relieve them from deprivation and ensure their right to life. We also conduct a statistical analysis by gender.

(1)    Due to the specificity of indigenous cultures, the mainstream welfare delivery model in society is less applicable to specific ethnic groups and geographic environments. It is hoped that by establishing indigenous family service centers based on ethnic-specific needs and community-based welfare service delivery through subsidizing local governments and teaming up with private groups, we can establish a responsibility-sharing partnership to provide accessible services that meet their needs, actively smoothen welfare service delivery channels, and strengthen the function of welfare service delivery systems to resolve the long-time problems, such as skipped generational families, single-parent families, domestic violence, and child raising environment, found in indigenous peoples for indigenous peoples to acquire sufficient information and resources to face family problems.

(2)   Organizations and human resources are inseparable and complementary for establishing a well-structured service delivery system. The establishment of indigenous family service centers in collaboration with private groups mentioned above is the practice of partnership in the trend of welfare privatization. In human resources, by hiring local indigenous peoples as social workers and organizing related training systematically for indigenous family service centers, we can develop the multicultural sensibility of service providers, and improve the quality of professional services delivered by indigenous social workers. In addition, we can actively recruit and train volunteers with cultural and indigenous language abilities to provide services with native languages to attract indigenous peoples to seek assistance. Consultation services including protective and personal safety issues, employment and vocation trainings, study service, legal consultation service, social welfare, and medical service referrals will be provided. Individualized and persistent case management service can be provided by matching with social resources to progressively develop a professional system for indigenous social work integrating with cultural context and regional differences.

(3)   Furthermore, professional social workers promote the building of the social security network. As most indigenous family service centers are in the rural and remote areas with limited accessibility, social workers will face higher risk in service delivery. Due to the tight interpersonal relationship in indigenous regions, and most social workers are either friends or relatives of indigenous peoples, social workers are often stuck by the dilemma between friendship and professionalism. Take the protective case for example, social workers of the indigenous family service center are being criticized, intimidated, or threatened, sometimes with violence, by indigenous peoples due to the struggle between the said friendship and professionalism. In the future, it is hoped that this plan can enhance the work safety protection of social workers for them to provide welfare services for indigenous peoples in a safe, worry-free, and reliable environment and raise the awareness to personal safety and ability to protect themselves. 

3.   Establishing a public-private partnership to promote the well-being of indigenous peoples: By exerting the limited human resources of CIP, we aim to coordinate related central government departments and local governments in collaboration and reflect the perspectives of indigenous peoples to them in policy making, in order to promote the well-being of indigenous peoples. We will also team up with experts, scholars, and private groups to establish public-private partnerships to improve the performance of the indigenous welfare service delivery system.

Strategy and method of implementation

To smoothly implement this Plan, apart from continuing the social security framework in the first two 4-year plans, this Plan will implement various work items in terms of three aspects: (1) Promoting indigenous employment service; (2) enhancing indigenous healthcare; and (3) protecting indigenous social welfare rights through active establishment of public-private partnerships to promote the indigenous social security network. In the public sector, CIP will collaborate with competent authorities in the central government. For example, we will establish the “Indigenous Long-Term Care Collaboration Platform” in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Welfare to develop localized long-term care services in different indigenous regions, enhance the accessibility of long-term care and medical resources for indigenous peoples. We will also establish the “Indigenous Employment Service Promotion Collaboration Platform” in collaboration with the Ministry of Labor to deepen competence training and stabilize employment rate for indigenous peoples by integrating cross-ministerial resources. We will also attend the social welfare meetings of different government departments to express multicultural perspectives and different needs of indigenous peoples to deepen partnerships through discussions and exchange. Apart from subsidizing municipal and local (county/city) governments to implement various indigenous social welfare plans through collaboration with the private sector, we will timely guide and support indigenous localization organizations to improve service quality and maintain the rights and interests of indigenous peoples. This Plan includes 12 implementation strategies and 33 work items. The division of labor and schedule of each work item are described as follows to build the indigenous social security system: