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Building a Resilient and Inclusive Whole-of-Society Defense Policy: Recommendations from Taiwan

Facing threats from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Taiwan is strengthening not only its national defense but also its civil defense capabilities. In 2024, the government established the Whole-of-Society Defense Resilience Committee under the Presidential Office to formulate a comprehensive civil defense policy by bringing together experts from government agencies and civil society.

While this direction has been recognized as positive by civil society in Taiwan and by international experts, the Committee’s current structure and the government’s policy outputs raise questions about whether their scope and depth are sufficient to systematically and comprehensively protect all demographic groups.

For example, it remains unclear whether existing policies adequately address different needs of women, LGBTQ+ communities, persons with disabilities, migrants, children, elderlies, and Indigenous peoples during wartime.

It is also uncertain how the government recognizes different strengths these groups—and society as a whole—can contribute to Taiwan’s defense, and how these capacities can be supported and transformed into bottom-up sources of resilience.

To address these concerns, the Awakening Foundation and the FNF Taiwan Office launched Building a Resilient and Inclusive Whole-of-Society Defense: Policy Recommendations for Integrating Gender and Diverse Human Rights Perspectives into Taiwan’s Social Resilience to identify existing challenges and proposing actionable policy recommendations.

More than 33 human rights and civil defense organizations in Taiwan were invited to map the challenges to different demographics arising from PRC threats, gaps in current policies, and collective actions needed to address them. These contributions were consolidated into the policy recommendations presented in this report.

Some of the key challenges identified include:

1. Limited broad-based participation in defense efforts and uneven infrastructure quality and implementation
Due to the insufficient participation of representatives from diverse demographic groups in decision-making processes, many specific needs remain unmet. For example, many air-raid and evacuation shelters are still not equipped with ramps accessible to wheelchair users. Also, the challenges that women face is still not addressed. caregiving professions in Taiwan—such as nurses, kindergarten teachers, and care facility staff—are predominantly held by women and are expected to shoulder essential service responsibilities during wartime. However, civil defense guidelines tailored to kindergartens, childcare facilities, and eldercare institutions are still lacking. Heavy daily workloads also discourage many essential workers from participating in civil defense training.

2. Information warfare has evolved into a systemic challenge, driving value-based polarization
The PRC’s information warfare extended beyond the dissemination of disinformation. Participants observed that issues related to gender, childcare, and migration have also been strategically leveraged to exacerbate social divisions and polarization within Taiwan. These tactics have intentionally constructed polarized narratives that frame public debate as a binary choice between national security and human rights, or that amplify ideological divisions within human rights discourse. Such manipulation risks fragmenting Taiwan’s human rights and democratic civil society organizations and weakening social cohesion.

To address these challenges, participants developed 14 policy recommendations for individual, every kind of organizations, and government. Key recommendations among them include:

1. Ground Civil and National Defense in Taiwan’s Democratic Values
The protection of democracy, freedom, and human rights is what motivates each Taiwanese to defend their country. Civil defense policies should therefore be firmly rooted in these values to help citizens understand why civil defence matters to each of them and to strengthen their resilience against PRC psychological warfare. The recommendations propose three guiding principles for policy making:

• Ensure Equitable Protection
  National and civil defense frameworks must proactively identify and remove barriers that prevent diverse communities from accessing information, facilities, and services, ensuring that essential protections are available to all.
• Promote Inclusive and Transparent Decision-Making
  Women, marginalized groups, and diverse communities must be meaningfully represented in defense-related decision-making through formal institutional channels. At the same time, citizens should actively monitor whether local governments effectively implement mandated civil defence measures to prevent the personal political positions of these leaders from undermining these responsibilities.
• Actively Build Social Trust
  Maintaining civic trust and solidarity should be treated as matters of national security. Government and civil society must foster dialogue to prevent and mitigate divisions that external actors may seek to exploit. Governments should also establish responsive mechanisms to prevent human rights violations when formulating and implementing defence policy.

2. Institutionalize Civil Society Participation in Defence Decision-Making
Civil society should be recognized as a key partner in defense policy, as it can help identify problems, provide expertise and innovation, and respond agilely to unprecedented crises. The government should establish permanent mechanisms for collaboration and actively seek opportunities for open cooperation. For example, participants emphasized the need for civil defense guidance tailored to different demographic groups and real-life scenarios. The government could collaborate with childcare centers, disability advocacy groups, and private companies to develop guidance for children, persons with disabilities, and office-based workers.

3. Ensure Accessible Facilities, Inclusive Guidelines, and Equitable Access to Information
A comprehensive review of infrastructure quality—including shelters and temporary accommodation facilities—should be conducted to inform concrete guidance on inclusive and universal design.

Additionally, the government should establish a central information platform to ensure equitable access to civil defense information, with particular attention to the needs of immigrants and persons with disabilities. In Taiwan, there are approximately 612,000 immigrant spouses and 854,000 migrant workers, many of whom originate from Southeast Asia. However, the majority of government-issued civil defense guidance has not yet been translated into their languages. Moreover, these materials are largely unavailable in accessible formats suitable for persons with visual or hearing impairments.

In addition, the government and civil society should jointly develop differentiated civil defense drills and scenario-based guidance. Given that the roles of education and child-affairs authorities within current civil defense decision-making structures remain unclear, the government should clarify their responsibilities and empower them with clear mandates to protect children’s safety and ensure their right to be heard.

4. Promote and Strengthen Psychological Resilience
The government should establish a nationwide psychological resilience support system that provides sustained assistance to essential workers, and it can work together with civil society to develop resources to strengthen the psychological resilience of citizens across different demographic groups.

These recommendations aim to contribute to more inclusive, practical, and people-centered civil defense policies—not only in Taiwan, but also globally.