China's Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) on Tuesday jointly announced the launch of a strategic plan in a bid to reduce hunger in China and other developing countries.
As a collaboration among the MOA, WFP and other partners, the five-year plan lasting from 2017 to 2021 aims to help realize the goal of ending hunger, achieving food security and improved nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture, one of the 17 goals raised by the UN for its 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, according to the launch event.
By implementing the plan, China and WFP hope to bring about several outcomes, including reducing the stunting rate among Chinese children, providing smallholder farmers with better conditions and access to markets, as well as improving South-South cooperation between China and other developing countries.
The plan will not only help people in remote and poor areas in China, but also serve as an example for other developing countries to reduce poverty and hunger, said Sui Pengfei, director-general of International Cooperation of the MOA.
He added that this will be a new starting point for cooperation between China and the WFP.
More than 30 million Chinese people were assisted by WFP's projects from 1979 to 2005. China, for its part, lifted 700 million people out of poverty over the past 30 years and has vowed to eradicate poverty in the country by 2020, making its experience in reducing hunger an example for countries seeking to replicate such success.
In 2005, the year it stopped receiving food aid from WFP, China became the world's third-largest food aid donor, following the United States and the European Union.
As China is a source of inspiration for other developing countries and cooperation with them, as well as an increasingly important donor, the partnership between China and WFP is especially meaningful, said Stanlake Samkange, Policy and Programme Director of WFP.
"China has transformed itself over the past three decades, reducing hunger and improving the livelihood for millions of people," said Qu Sixi, country director of WFP China. "WFP could help the Chinese people and share China's rich experience in an innovative way."
