Memorandum submitted by Foreign and Commonwealth
Office (China)
VI. TACKLING
POVERTY
108. Although poverty is still a serious
problem in China (some 100-200 million poor people by the World
Bank $1 per day definition), China is committed to, and has made
impressive progress on, poverty eradication, and makes effective
use of external support.
109. DFID is working with the Government
of China to build up a new poverty-focussed programme, as outlined
in its Country Strategy Paper for China (September 1998). The
British Embassy has an important role to play in supporting these
objectives, in particular by using its network of contacts to
promote exchanges of information, ideas and policy thinking about
key areas of the programme such as HIV/AIDS and State Owned Enterprise
Reform.
110. DFID's programme is focussed on the
inland provinces where the majority of the poor are located. DFID
is providing support to health and education; economic reform;
and the environment. The programme is expected to increase from
£20 million in 2000-01 to £25 million in 2001-02.
111. Effective co-operation with other key
players, such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank,
is central to DFID's approach. Specific ideas are being developed
to blend DFID money with that of the World Bank in key areas relevant
to poverty reduction such as tuberculosis control and primary
education.
112. The key areas of DFID's programme are:
— Health: improving the accessibility
and effectiveness of health services for the rural poor in seven
provinces; helping China to develop an effective response to the
growing threat posed by HIV/AIDS; developing proposals for urban
healthcare provision for the poorest.
— Education: ensuring effective access
to education for poor children (including from ethnic minority
groups) and improving the quality and effectiveness of teaching
in Gansu province.
— Economic reform: helping provinces
to tackle the reform of state-owned enterprises; proposals being
developed to support reform of the system of social security provision.
— Environment: the existing programme
includes work on water pollution, water shortage, air pollution
and toxic and hazardous wastes; proposals for future interventions
focus on environment-poverty linkages through support for water
resource and environmental management.
113. DFID also provides direct support for
the activities of non-governmental organisations such as the Save
the Children Fund, and has also provided emergency assistance
to China. Following the major floods in 1998, DFID supported school
and health facilities reconstruction, restoration of water supplies
and food aid with a grant of £5.8 million.
114. The Aid and Trade Provision scheme
(a mechanism for softening the terms of commercial financing with
the aim of supporting sustainable development) has been discontinued,
but DFID is continuing to manage existing commitments and projects
through to completion.
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