According to 2021 Ministry of the Interior Population Statistics of Taiwan, the country saw the first-ever negative population growth in 2020; and in 2021, all monthly birthrates were lower than death rates. Moreover, Taiwan’s total population in 2021 was even reduced by 185,000 people compared with the previous year. On the other hand, births and wedded couples in 2021 were both of historic lows. There were only 153,820 newborns in 2021, which made the birthrate to drop once again below 1, and the total birthrate has reached as low as 0.975. Taiwan’s birthrate has already been declining for 7 consecutive years, which only further highlights the country’s severe issue of low birthrate.

Child Welfare League Foundation (CWLF), and other organizations including Child Health Alliance Taiwan, Taiwan Pediatric Association, Taiwan Fund for Children and Families, and Raising Children Medical Foundation, along with cross-party legislators from the Child and Youth Rights Promotion Committee of Legislative Yuan, Wan-Yu Wang, Wan-An Chiang, Mei-Ling Loh, Chen-Yuan Chiu and Hung-An Kao, held a press conference on March 17^th. The attendants collectively examined current fertility policies and called the Executive Yuan to establish a “Low Birthrate Response Unit”, so that implementation of low birthrate policies can be regularly monitored, the needs of parents will be responded as top priority, and comprehensive parenting support can be provided for the parents.

Recently, Executive Yuan has declared that its current administration is historically the one that has offered the most attentive care for families with young children.  CWLF has reviewed the government’s relevant policies and concluded with three major causes for Taiwan’s low birthrate: “lack of integration, assessment, and thoughtfulness”          

                                                                                 

Cause I: Roughly assembled low birthrate response policy lacks horizontal integration.

CWLF chief executive officer Li-Fang Pai noted that, Executive Yuan authorized and passed the “Low Birthrate Coping Strategy Plan” in 2018, which seemed to have responded to the issue of declining low birthrate, but the Plan was in fact composed of dividing policies implemented by various government agencies. The policy was roughly assembled and lacked horizontal integration amongst government agencies. The authorities behind this Plan were apparently Ministry of Health and Welfare and Ministry of Education. However, depending solely on these two agencies was insufficient to elevate birthrate. The expenses and manpower that Ministry of Labor, Ministry of Interior, and Ministry of Labor have put forth were apparently not enough and ineffective. Moreover, since Executive Yuan launched the “Low Birthrate Coping Strategy Plan”, the participating government agencies have merely been responsible for filling up forms to report their progress. Ministry of Health and Welfare and Ministry of Education had to serve as the responsible agencies in rotation to conduct supervision and evaluation of associated affairs, and to prompt the other agencies to thoroughly report quarterly. Moreover, all the agencies seemed to end up operating individually on paper, lacking proactive interagency collaborations. 

Cause II: Low birthrate response policy lacks effectiveness evaluation. Birthrate of 1.4 is hard to achieve.

Since Executive Yuan launched “Low Birthrate Coping Strategy Plan” in 2018, even though the government funding has reached record-high every year, with the budget amount increased from more than NT$15 billion in 2016 to more than NT$80 billion in 2022, Taiwan’s birthrate has only been declining for 7 consecutive years from 2015, and there is no sign of bouncing up. Even when Executive Yuan is offering a significant amount of monetary subsidies every year, Taiwan’s birthrate is still “riding down the slide”. Evidently, policy effectiveness proves to be poorer than expected. If the overall low birthrate response policies are not thoroughly examined and revised, the goal of having a birthrate of 1.4 by 2030, as set forth by Executive Yuan, will be an audacious wish.

Cause III: Monetary subsidy is insufficient as pronatalist policy. Planning of low birthrate response policy lacks thoughtfulness.

Senior Director of CWLF Advocacy Center, Harold Lee, pointed out that, according to CWLF’s “2021 Survey of Current State and Needs of Families Raising Preschoolers”, for families raising children under 6 years old, besides continuously increasing government expenditures on parenting subsidies and childcare grants, the most “useful” policies to help lighten parenting stress voted by the parents include: granting tax benefits, expanding public childcare services, housing discounts / house rental subsidies for families raising young children, seven-day paid family leave, and public education starting one year younger. In other words, in addition to financial aids, the policies that families with young children earnestly anticipate are policies related to childrearing-friendly workplace, housing, childcare, education, and tax. Compared with content of Low Birthrate Coping Strategy Plan (see Chart 1), it is evident that the depth of the abovementioned policy planning and the resources that it has devoted in are insufficient in satisfying the expectation of parents.

Saving the low birthrate crisis, Japanese government plans to set up a “Children and Family Agency”.

       CWLF Chairperson Chih-Chia Lin noted that, in order to resolve its issue of low birthrate, the Japanese government added the “小孩・生育本部” under the Cabinet Office in 2015. Nevertheless, its insufficient competent authorities and cross-agency integration have resulted in the overall parenting support policies not as effective as expected. To overcome the disparities of each government agency, since 2021 the Japanese government has begun planning for the establishment of “Children and Family Agency” in April 2023, which will be directly governed by the Prime Minister. The Agency will use family-based approach on the integration of childrearing policies. Overviewing Japan’s efforts since 2015, the central government has established a special agency in response to low birthrate, and has elevated its level of administration, exhibiting proactive integration of resources from various government departments. Even though the birthrate has nevertheless been declining, birthrates over the past three years still maintained above 1.3 (see Chart 2). It is evident that Japanese government’s approaches and determination in fighting the low birthrate crisis are valuable for Taiwan to learn from.

Legislator Wan-Yu Wang, the President of the Child and Youth Rights Promotion Committee of the Legislative Yuan, pointed out the causes of Taiwan’s low birthrate: high housing price, long working hours, price hikes and low salaries, which resulted in late marriage and child plan among Taiwanese youths. Percentage of women working today is higher than before, but reasonably priced childcare facilities are insufficient. Employers, on the other hand, are also not willing to offer flexible working hours. These have all impeded employees from balancing between family and work. Moreover, women are still the main responsible one in the family to rear children. Men’s public restrooms are often not equipped with diaper changing stations, which somehow excludes men from participating in the childcare duties.  Legislator Wang indicated that, low birthrate response policies have been individually proposed by the various government agencies, and it has resulted in the pitfall of “not treating the roots of the problem”. Executive Yuan shall establish a low birthrate response agency, inviting interagency collaboration to plan for a comprehensive low birthrate response policy.

Legislator Wan-An Chiang pointed out that, hundred billions of NT dollars have already been spent on the implementation of low birthrate response plans to date, but birthrates still have been falling year by year. To improve Taiwan’s low birthrate status, Chiang believes that one must thoroughly understand the reasons behind Taiwanese people’s late marriage and decision not to have children. The government shall reinforce horizontal interagency connections and integrated communication.  At the press conference, Chiang shared his experience when taking out his two children. When Chiang needs to change diapers for his kids, he has had hard time finding a diaper changing station at men’s restrooms. Chiang pointed out that only 9% of Taipei City’s public restrooms are equipped with diaper changing stations, and only 3% of men’s public restrooms have these stations installed. Chiang explained that, besides having the central government to take reference of Japan’s strategy of setting up a low birthrate response agency, Taiwan’s overall parenting environment shall advance towards gender equality and family friendliness.

Legislator Meei-Ling Loh pointed out that, low birthrate brings the issues of reducing workforce population and increasing needs for long-term care. It is necessary to propose corresponding measures to improve on this matter. Loh has already proposed several acts, including Act of Gender Equality in Employment, Employment Insurance Act, and Fundamental Act of Low Birthrate Response, calling up the central government to prudently assess the possibility of establishing a low birthrate response unit. Loh hopes that the government will endeavor to create childrearing friendly workplace, so that the systematic issues of low birthrate can be resolved through interagency integration.

Legislator Hung-An Kao also said that, boosting birthrate shall not only depend on birth subsidies and tuition grants. As shown from CWLF’s survey statistics, parents’ needs during childrearing are comprehensive. Low birthrate response policies shall encompass inputs across government agencies, i.e. Ministry of Health and Welfare, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Economic Affairs, and Ministry of Interior. The central government shall also set up a low birthrate response agency that will proactively integrate various parenting resources.

Legislator Chen-Yuan Chiu stated that, the conundrum of Taiwan’s low birthrate resides in the disperse authorities. The government has merely been encouraging higher birthrate, but it has not provided enough incentives for parents to be willing to have children and raise them with an eased mind. Chiu is calling upon the Executive Yuan to refer to Japan’s establishment of the “Children and Family Agency”, to resolve current dividing protocols held by various government agencies.

Taiwan Pediatric Association President Hung-Chang Lee pointed out that, even though the Executive Yuan has been dedicated to improve on the condition of low birthrate, all the government departments are still pushing their responsibilities onto one another. Moreover, the agencies in charge are also of low administrative level–an integrated government agency is urgently needed to be the sole responsible party. Chairperson of Raising Children Medical Foundation, Frank Wu, believed that, children are “mini size” adults, Taiwan shall establish a response agency to tackle the various types of children related issues. On the other hand, Director Ta-Yao Chou of the Social Work Department at Taiwan Fund for Children and Families has pointed out that, child welfare groups had already called upon the government to establish a children agency many years ago, but the central government declined with the excuses of having no openings for new agencies and “Children and Youths Welfare and Rights Promotion Team” being already in place within Executive Yuan. Taiwan needs a low birthrate response agency consisting of a fixed group of staff.

Representatives from non-profit organizations: CWLF Chairperson and Child Health Alliance Taiwan President Chih-Chia Lin, CWLF chief executive officer Li-Fang Pai, Taiwan Pediatric Association President Hung-Chang Lee, Chairperson of Raising Children Medical Foundation Frank Wu, Director of the Social Work Department at Taiwan Fund for Children and Families Ta-Yao Chou, and cross-party legislators have all come forth and appealed to the government with the following three proposals in regard to the low birthrate crisis.

1. Executive Yuan shall establish a low birthrate response agency, and interagency resources need to be consolidated.

As “Children and Family Agency” established by the Japanese government, Executive Yuan shall promptly set up a low birthrate response agency to avoid planning and implementation of low birthrate response policies being too concentrated on specific government agencies. In this way, horizontal interagency consolidation and resources integration would be reinforced.

2.  Effectiveness of low birthrate policies need to be assessed.
Regarding current low birthrate policies, Taiwanese government shall perform routine policy effectiveness evaluation and conduct reviews and modifications accordingly.

3.  Parents’ needs shall be prioritized when devising low birthrate response policies.
The government shall take reference of other countries’ childcare friendly policies and prioritize responses to the needs of parents such as parenting friendly workplace, parenting friendly residence, public childcare services, extension of public education, and childcare tax reductions, so that comprehensive low birthrate response policies that parents find truly helpful could be implemented.

【Chart 1: Ranking of Childcare Policies that Reduce Childrearing Stress (CWLF 2021 Survey)】

Note: Childrearing policies that have not been implemented and those with insufficient resources are presented with the color block.   
Chart made by: CWLF

【Chart 2: 2015-2021 Taiwan and Japan Fertility Rate Comparison Chart】　　　　　　　　　　　　　                

Resources: Department of Household Registration, Ministry of Interior, Taiwan; Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare, Japan