Written evidence submitted by Save the
Children UK
SUMMARY
1. Save the Children has 14 years experience
of working with some of the most marginalised children in China
and has benefited from strong support from DFID to our China programme
over a number of years. We are the only international NGO highlighted
in the DFID China country programme profile, reflecting our cooperation
in working together with minorities in Yunnan and Tibet on basic
education and on water and sanitation.
2. DFID has a very clear, logical and determined
analysis, rationale and strategy in relation to its pull back
from funding programmes in China. While recognising and accepting
the arguments DFID presents, we disagree with the absolutism of
the strategy. We believe it is not the time for DFID to stop all
its grant aid to in-country programmes and research. Given the
acknowledged quality of and respect for the DFID programme in
China, it could play a very significant and effective role in
targeting support to the needs of the most vulnerable during a
time of rapid change.
3. More research is required to understand
the massive and incredibly rapid change taking place in China
and its impact on vulnerable groups, including children. The change
is well documented, but its impact on these groups is still not
fully understood.
4. China has made and continues to make
extraordinary gains for the majority of the population. It is
right that DFID starts to withdraw from support to this. However,
it should now develop options for better targeted and more flexible
responses to those at the margins of society. This can best be
achieved by funding research and pilot interventions supported
by DFID's experience and credibility.
5. DFID should aim to integrate learning
from pilot interventions into Chinese social policy and practice
so that, alongside the mainstream, policies and practices are
put in place to meet the needs of the most marginalised, disadvantaged
and hard to reach.
WHY SHOULD
DFID INVEST IN
CHINA
6. It is estimated that 300 million people
in China will migrate from rural areas to the cities over a 20
year period.[15]
It is a challenge for services to respond to such rapid change.
Children and families are on the move, into unknown situations,
often splitting families for long periods for wage earning. China
must, at the same time, also cope with the left behind children
and families in rural areas which are often depleted of health,
education and service professionals, who themselves have migrated
to the cities in search of improved living standards.
7. China has made remarkable progress in
reducing poverty. Between 1991 and 2004 maternal mortality declined
from 80 to 48.3 deaths per 100,000 live births, and under-5 mortality
dropped from 61 to 21.5 deaths per 1,000 live births. These gains
mask dramatic differences between rural and urban populations,
as well as between eastern and western provinces, including Tibet
and Xinjiang. For instance, in 2005, the under 5 mortality rate
in urban areas was 10.7 per 1,000 live births while in rural areas
it was as high as 25.7 per 1,000 live births.[16]
8. These trends are now bottoming out. It
is not a straight line to achieving poverty reduction; the poorest
and most marginalised are often the hardest to reach. There are
at least 40 million people with an average annual income of less
than 650 RMB (US $78) and over 60% of these people live in the
rural western provinces of China. The government of China states
that more than 100 million people live in poverty according to
the $1 a day income standard.
9. China has proven it has the economic
and administrative muscle to achieve change on a grand scale,
but has recognised that special efforts need to be made to reach
the most vulnerable, groups which all governments, including the
UK, struggle to cope with. The March 2007 People's Congress gave
particular emphasis to the issues of equitable health investment,
quality education, and protection for vulnerable children, in
particular the estimated 40 million children "left behind"
in their home communities by parents who have migrated for work.
10. With vast foreign exchange reserves,
China clearly does not need large amounts of aid money to drive
its development progress. But with millions of people falling
through the loose weave of China's social protection nets, what
is required is support that is attached to development knowledge
that can pilot and demonstrate options for the future which will
target those currently trailing in the wake of economic progress.
11. Save the Children has proven that by
working in partnership with the relevant district and provincial
authorities, and targeting advocacy in the right way, innovative
development models which target the most vulnerable can be incorporated
into policy and practice. This has included improving quality
of education for ethnic minority children, demonstrating the ability
of community protection mechanisms to support children most at
risk of trafficking and other forms of abuse, and providing alternative,
non custodial, approaches to youth justice.
WHY NOW?
12. During this period of fast growth, the
Government of China is concentrating on the biggest benefit for
the biggest numbers. But its own policy pronouncements recognise
the threats of widening inequality. The Gini coefficient measure
of income inequality had risen to levels comparable with those
in South America at 0.47 by 2005 and is still rising.[17]
By 2004 the maternal mortality rate in small and medium cities
had declined to 15.3 deaths per 100,000 live births, but still
stood at 96 deaths per 100,000 in remote rural areas.[18]
These inequalities are widening rather than narrowing.
13. China is undergoing the largest rural—urban
migration in history, with an estimated 300 million people moving
to cities over the next 20 years helping to shift the human race
into a majority urban species.[19]
Migration and industrialisation are interdependent, and are accompanied
by social, financial and environmental costs which are felt most
severely by the poorest. As many as 50% of births to migrant women
are estimated to take place at home.
14. Migrants face enormous challenges and
discrimination in accessing services in their destination areas.
Many of these barriers are linked to the out of pocket expenditure
required for basic health and education. Local authorities struggle
to respond to the needs of the poorest migrant children and families
within the normal policies and practices. The transient life of
migrants, the problems of registration, the poor initial levels
of education and health awareness, poor living conditions and
the lack of community support combine to provide great problems
for those authorities whom Save the Children works with as they
try to deliver appropriate support.
15. Many local authorities are keen to explore
solutions. These authorities should now consider and adopt pioneering
ways to assist these vulnerable populations. There is a real opportunity
to ensure economic growth produces more equitable outcomes for
the poorest. Social and health policy and practice trialled during
this period of change will shape it for many years to come.
16. Budget support has its limitations.
DFID's strategy for its projected remaining aid support to China
is to implement the programmes to which resources have already
been allocated, providing large scale support to health and education
sectors. China can now afford and knows how to do this sort of
work. It is not the most effective use of aid nor will it ensure
they reach the most vulnerable.
RECOMMENDATIONS
17. The priority, to which Save the Children
can contribute, should be a targeted aid programme that comes
with development knowledge and expertise to help find ways to
respond to those at the margins, particularly migrants and their
families, both in the cities and those left behind.
18. This requires a flexible development
fund devoted to research and pilots that bring world experience
on development issues to marginal, hard to reach children in the
transition to an industrial and increasingly urbanized society.
The Chinese authorities have shown their willingness and ability
to translate learning from such pilots into on-going policy and
practice. Their respect for DFID and its work is a significant
asset in this.
19. DFID's current strategy includes a welcome
engagement with China as it starts to become a development assistance
actor in its own right elsewhere in the world, particularly in
Africa. This further strand of work by DFID would also help inform
learning for other countries as they struggle to cope with urbanisation
and changes in the rural social economy.
15 International Cooperation and Social Poverty
Relief Department of the State Council Leading Group Office of
Poverty Alleviation and Development. 23.08.2006. Back
16
National maternal and children surveillance report (2005). Back
17
World Bank. Back
18
Joint Review of the Maternal and Child Survival Strategy in China,
Unicef, UNFPA, WHO and the Chinese Ministry of Health, December
2006. Back
19
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, 2003. Back
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