Following the successful recent Forum on China-Africa Co-operation (Focac) meeting the two-day Africa-China Poverty Reduction and Development Conference, a sub-forum of Focac, commenced in Johannesburg today. The Conference focuses on addressing poverty reduction and sustainable development in South Africa and on the African continent generally. It aims to provide a learning platform on how poverty affects rural women and youth and the different practical strategies that could be harnessed to support and move marginalised and vulnerable groups out of poverty, similar to what China has accomplished in terms of their Millennium Development Goals.
With the first meeting held in 2010, this 6th successive annual meeting focuses on practical problems African nations face in their poverty reduction and development endeavours and promote candid exchanges and dialogues to foster effective co-operation between China and Africa. The duration of the conference will see updates on cooperation thus far, implementation of various measures as discussed in previous years, and importantly will focus on poverty reduction and development in Africa in context of the recent $60 billion (R860bn) pledge by Chinese President Xi Jinping towards the continent’s social and economic development.
As exchanges in the field of economic development and trade deepen and expands, both China and Africa are eager to learn from, and cooperate with each other to promote social development and overcome poverty. In particular, African countries show stronger interest in drawing from China’s development experience. Since its inception in 2010, the Africa-China Poverty Reduction and Development Conference covered a wide range of issues from agricultural modernisation, special economic zones, and development of the small and medium-sized enterprises to industrialisation. In these areas, both China and African countries have accumulated experience from the past, and are facing challenges at present as well as in the future.
In October 2015, Minister Gugile Nkwinti and Minister Liu Yongfu of the People’s Republic of China’s State Council Leading Group of Poverty Alleviation and Development signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Cooperation in the field of Poverty Reduction. A Specific Agreement was also signed between Minister Nkwinti and the IPRCC on knowledge sharing, exchanges, research and support to the National Rural Youth Service Corps. This conference falls within the ambit of the MOU and Specific Agreement.
2015 is the last year for the Millennium Development Goals, and also a beginning year for post-2015 Global Development Agenda. Poverty reduction and development of Africa is not only of strategic importance for the African people, but also for the development of China. The Africa-China Poverty Reduction and Development Conference, incorporated as a sub-forum of FOCAC, will become an important meeting to follow up the recent Chinese financial pledge towards the continent’s social and economic development pledge in terms of global poverty reduction and development cooperation.
The conference is hosted by the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, P.R. China and the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (DRDLR), South Africa and is attended by 200 high-level participants from South Africa, China, other African countries and international organisations. In addition, the International Poverty Reduction Center in China (PRCC) together with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) actively engage many multilateral and bilateral development agencies to join in this dialogue process. This helps effective mutual exchange of Chinese and African lessons in poverty reduction and development.
