Policy innovation and policy realisation: the example of children future education and development accounts in Taiwan

ABSTRACT

The Children Future Education and the Development Accounts (CFEDAs) are the first anti-poverty policy in Taiwan developed to provide incentives for the poor to accumulate assets for their future. Using CFEDAs as an example, this article analyses the process of developing and implementing an asset-based policy. It begins with an introduction to the policy structure. It then reviews the history of how the innovative idea of building assets for the poor became a policy proposal before presenting the convergence of three policy streams driving the prioritisation of CFEDAs in Taiwan’s policy agenda. It concludes with challenges facing the policy implementation.

KEYWORDS:

• Child poverty
• asset-based welfare theory
• anti-poverty strategy
• policy innovation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Li-Chen Cheng

Li-Chen Cheng is a professor at the Department of Social Work at National Taiwan University. She is an expert on testing Child Development Accounts and antipoverty measures in Taiwan and advising government officials.