BEIJING, Nov. 24, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) today signed a partnership agreement in Beijing with the Huayi Brothers Foundation to contribute towards ethnic minority women empowerment and development. This is part of a wider UNDP targeted poverty alleviation project, which aims for the poorest and most vulnerable in ethnic minority regions increasingly to participate in and benefit more equitably from China's social and economic development through their traditional skills and crafts.
At the Global Poverty Reduction and Development Forum held recently in Beijing, President Xi Jinping announced that China will lift 70 million people out of poverty in the future five years. This was a major move to respond to the new global Sustainable Development Goals adopted in New York by world leaders from 193 member states of the United Nations, including China. One of the overarching goals of this new agenda commits to end poverty in all its forms everywhere.
China's biggest challenge is to overcome the high levels of poverty in ethnic minority regions. Ethnic minority groups constitute 9 percent of China's national population, but make up almost one third of its poor. Women in particular are at more of a disadvantage than men in terms of education, paid work and healthcare. They tend to have an unequal say in community planning and decision-making processes.
UNDP has been working with the Chinese Government over the past 10 years, focusing on combining traditional and innovative practices to create new employment opportunities and alleviate poverty in 27 minority areas in Yunnan, Qinghai, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia in China. With the support of Huayi and other partners, UNDP will focus the project on three pilot sites in Qiandongnan area, Guizhou Province, with a key focus on Miao ethnic communities. UNDP will leverage experience from previous successfully projects on culture-based development to empower ethnic minority women use their traditional skills and crafts to improve livelihoods and socio-economic status while preserving their cultural identity.
"Reducing poverty is the number one goal of the SDGs and targeted poverty alleviation is central to China's new 5 year plan. This project, particularly working with ethnic minority, is a great pilot with potential for scaling up at a later stage to help contribute to these goals," said Patrick Haverman, Deputy Country Director of UNDP China at the signing ceremony. "With Huayi's support we are confident we can enable the ethnic minority women to lift themselves out of poverty and contribute to their overall well-being."
Huayi Brothers Foundation has a strong history in giving education to children, specializing in showing educational movies in schools for migrant worker children, left-behind children or those in particularly impoverished areas all over the country. The signing event witnessed Huayi commit to promoting women's empowerment and development in ethnic minority regions. Ms. Sun Amei, Head of the Foundation noted at the ceremony that "by assisting the development of ethnic minority women, it also guarantees the development of children." Huayi will join the project steering committee, where they will contribute financial support, and know-how as an experienced charity organization, both as a member of the committee and in the future as a continued partner to UNDP China.
UNDP partners with people at all levels of society to help build nations that can withstand crisis, and drive and sustain the kind of growth that improves the quality of life for everyone. On the ground in 177 countries and territories, we offer global perspective and local insight to help empower lives and build resilient nations. www.undp.org
Get in touch : UNDP on Weibo | Media Contacts | WeChat ID: undpchina
