Key facts: China

Last updated: May 2008

Back to China country page

Back to top

DFID: Working to reduce poverty in China

Education | Health | HIV and AIDS | Water and sanitation | Sustainable development | Climate change | International Development | Millennium Development Goals

DFID's 2007/08 programme in China cost a total of £33.4 million. Funds were provided entirely on grant terms. For details of DFID-supported projects in China, see DFID’s programme in China.

Our relationship with China on international development issues has deepened in recent years, in line with the eighth Millennium Development Goal (see below). Our main focus is on:

• China’s relations with Africa
• aid harmonisation and effectiveness
• facilitating learning from China’s own experience in poverty reduction
• UK/China dialogues on sustainable development, climate change and energy security.

With the World Bank, we are also involved with China’s own domestic programmes on basic education, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) control, health systems reform, and water and sanitation - areas where China faces particular challenges and where DFID has a comparative advantage because of its previous experience in these sectors in China. This involvement includes committing £22 million to a World Bank project that will improve income generation opportunities, basic rural infrastructure, health, and education for about 1.4 million poor people in Sichuan, Guangxi and Yunnan. We expect to phase out this bilateral work by 2011.

Education

DFID has committed £25 million to a World Bank project that will improve the quality of and increase access to education in 112 counties in five provinces with a total school-age population of 2.4 million.

DFID also has two new basic education projects of its own, totalling £33 million. These will also improve the quality of and increase access to education for more than 5 million disadvantaged children, particularly girls from ethnic minorities, in five provinces over the next five years. These projects are building on valuable lessons learned in Gansu province over the past six years, many of which have now been taken up in national policy.

Back to top

Health

DFID has committed £27 million to a World Bank project on TB control, covering 16 provinces with a total population of 688 million. With the help of this project, the proportion of TB patients who are correctly diagnosed has increased to over 70%, and of the patients who receive treatment, more than 85% are cured.

So that more poor people can benefit from basic services, DFID has provided more than £31 million to strengthen China’s health system. This has led to an increase in immunisation and to more skilled health personnel attending births. In addition, DFID projects have piloted medical insurance and financing schemes to enable poor people to access health care. The lessons learned in these projects are now being reflected in national policy.

Back to top

HIV and AIDS

Since 2000, DFID has committed more than £55 million to HIV/AIDS work in China. This includes a new £30 million commitment to work there on projects with the Global Fund for HIV and AIDS. DFID projects have successfully piloted harm reduction techniques, including ways to decrease needle-sharing and increase condom use, which have now been taken up in national policies and plans.

Back to top

Water and sanitation

DFID is helping - through commitments totalling more than £35 million - to improve water security through better water resource management and the enhanced delivery of water and sanitation services. A key success has been the introduction of water user associations, which have now been adopted in national policy. DFID’s planned rural water project will focus on the integration of water supply, sanitation and hygiene promotion services to achieve better health outcomes for 800,000 people, and provide replicable models that can be adopted across China.

Back to top

Sustainable development

DFID, along with other UK government departments, is engaged in a high-level partnership with China about sustainable development. This covers four themes:

• sustainable consumption and production
• natural resources management
• sustainable urban communities
• governance for sustainable development.

A new theme, on financing for sustainable development, is expected to start in 2009.

Some 20 Chinese and UK ministries and agencies are involved in a wide range of SDD activities, including staff exchanges and workshops, as well as in the more than 30 projects covering the four themes. Full details can be found on the SDD factsheet. The real-life story China's farmers go organic looks at the agricultural work being done under the ‘natural resources management’ theme.

Back to top

Climate change

Working closely with other UK departments and Chinese government partners, DFID is promoting a visible and accelerated shift to a low-carbon economy in China and helping to create the conditions necessary for an ambitious post-2012 agreement. This includes co-funding (with the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, DEFRA) a project looking at how Chinese agriculture can adapt to climate change both nationally and specifically in Ningxia.

DFID is also working with the World Bank and the Asia Development Bank to make the Clean Energy Investment Framework and the Climate Investment Funds operational to increase investment in low-carbon technologies and in financing for adaptation in China.

Back to top

International development

DFID, the development banks and our Chinese partners in the ministries of commerce, foreign affairs and finance hold high-level discussions every six months on a range of international development issues. The £4 million we have committed to this will be used to support research, analysis and capacity-building to encourage greater collaboration between China, the UK and the international community to support growth and poverty reduction internationally but particularly in Africa.

We are also on the board of trustees of the China International Poverty Reduction Centre, with the aim of helping other developing countries to learn from China’s experience.

More about China and Africa

Back to top

Progress towards Millennium Development Goals

China has made some progress towards the MDGs, especially the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, attaining universal primary education, and improvement in maternal health.

MDG 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Very likely to achieve this MDG.

MDG 2: Achieve universal primary education
Already achieved this MDG.

MDG 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
Possible to achieve if some changes are made.

MDG 4: Reduce child mortality
Already achieved this MDG.

MDG 5: Improve maternal health
Very likely to achieve this MDG.

MDG 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
Possible to achieve if some changes are made.

MDG 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
Possible to achieve if some changes are made.

MDG 8: Develop a global partnership for development
Although China is not required to carry out the obligations under MDG 8, it has always regarded strengthening cooperation with other developing countries as an important cornerstone of foreign policy. As a result, good progress is being made in most of the areas covered by this MDG.

Back to top

Back to China country page