UNICEF and China work to enhance social equity

28 January 2011, Beijing – The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) will adopt an equity approach in the next five years of cooperation with the Government of China. This will ensure the Country's poorest and most deprived children and women are not left behind by rapid economic growth.

Since the early 1980s, UNICEF has harmonized its development cooperation progammes with China's Five Year Plans to better complement national priorities. As UNICEF and China enter the 8th five-year progamme cycle (2011-2015), resources and efforts are being directed to reduce the entrenched inequalities and disparities, notably between urban and rural, western and eastern areas.

Though China is well on track to achieve the overall Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, the absolute number of under-served children and women, mostly in poor rural areas, remains huge.

It is estimated that more than 100 million Chinese children are living on less than 2 dollars per day. Official statistics also show that the health outcomes in the poorest areas are similar to those in low-income countries. China is still among the top five countries of under-5 child deaths. Some 8 million children under two, larger than the entire population of Hong Kong SAR, are living with anemia due to micro-nutrient malnutrition.

The Government is committed to building a harmonious society, at the core of which is to leverage social expenditures, resources and quality services for the disadvantaged population.

This coincides with UNICEF's global advocacy for achieving the MDGs with equity. UNICEF studies contend that providing services to the poorest children is not only just but also more cost-effective than the current policy of mainly helping the less poor and easier-to-reach.

"The Millennium Declaration was designed to improve the lives of the world's most disadvantaged people,” said Anthony Lake, UNICEF Executive Director. “We believe this study's findings can have a real effect on global thinking about how we are pursuing the MDGs, and about human development generally -helping us to improve the lives of millions of vulnerable children.”

In the coming years, UNICEF will work with government partners to prioritize the poorest and most marginalized communities, including migrant children and children left behind in rural areas by migrate workers; ethnic minorities; children living in poor, rural and remote areas; street children; unaccompanied children; working children; children with disabilities; children affected by HIV/AIDS; and children affected by disasters.

Designed to fulfill universal child rights to survival, development, protection and participation, the main progammes include Social Policy and Reform, Health and Nutrition, Education and Child Development, HIV/AIDS, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene. Geographically, project sites are located in the worst-performing areas of the mid-western region.

Working with central government ministries, UNICEF has adopted a “Pilot to Policy” and cross-sectoral strategy in all of the programmes. This has leveraged remarkable government and other resources to roll out at scale in the past decades.

UNICEF's main strategy involves: a) establishment of pilot interventions in the poorest communities, b) documentation of the best practices as references for policy-making, c) support for the collection of disaggregated data to make the deprived groups more "visible” in social policies and budgeting, and d) support of policy research and analysis to support roll out by the Government as national programme. UNICEF also advocates for a cross-sectoral child welfare and child protection system (laws, policies, services) for all vulnerable children.

UNICEF is able to engage and support national policy development and implementation thanks to its long-term strategic partnerships with China's key ministries, policy makers, think tanks and organisations.

While introducing international best practices, as China's role and influence continue to rise, UNICEF also commits to export China's experience to the world, especially to the developing counties.