The “Taiwan Model” for the Containment of COVID-19 Pandemic: Wither the Managerial Philosophy, and Need Developing Countries Take Any Lessons?

Abstract

This article examines the COVID-19 pandemic experiences of Taiwan intending to contrast it to the African and particularly Nigerian experience with COVID-19. Depending on published literature and personal observation, the article traces the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan which spawned what is known today as the Taiwan Model down to the present period to what is now being talked about as ‘a new Taiwan Model’. The article explores the various elements of the Taiwan Model from the works of researchers who have captured the different aspects of the Taiwan Model in their studies. Thus, the article isolates such elements as the workings of the Taiwan Central Epidemic Command Centre, the Taiwanese state, its governance, and societal elements in the Taiwan Model, the systems, organizations, collaborations, and citizens volunteering in the Taiwan Model, the management of frontline nurses’ stress levels, the COVID-19 pandemic management and Taiwanese agri-food e-commerce, and the COVID-19 health waste management in Taiwan. The article also highlights the emerging situation with the so-called new Taiwan Model for the management of COVID-19 and makes an imperative proposal for a systematic investigation of the managerial philosophies and strategies behind the initial successful management of the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan and the determination of how these could be successfully transplanted to Africa as well as other parts of the global south in event of future pandemics. To do this, the article noted the need to conduct a cross-sectional sample social survey of those in the managerial spaces of drive Taiwan’s COVID-19 response strategy, to determine these core managerial philosophies and considerations behind their management strategies for the containment of the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan because of the excellent results they achieved and to distil the relevant lessons for countries in Africa and by extension the rest of the global south.