BEIJING, June 20 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- China's 2005 Human Development Report, an assessment of the nation's progress in confronting the destabilizing development gaps that have emerged between urban and rural communities, coastal and interior regions, women and men and other segments of society, is one of five Human Development Award winners whose authors will be honored by the United Nations at a ceremony in New York this week.
(Logo: http://www.prnasia.com/sa/20061107113358-34.jpg )
The independent Report, commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme and entitled Development with Equity, is the first of its kind by China-based researchers and scholars to take a hard look at some of the most critical human development issues facing their nation, including inequality between urban and rural dwellers and between men and women. Experts say that the China study is remarkable not only for its findings but also its frank discussion of obstacles to reform in China, such as corruption.
"This Award is a great honour not only for the authors but also everyone else who made the tremendous effort to make this research work, accomplished independently by Chinese scholars, a success," the Report's main authors Li Shi and Bai Nansheng said in a joint statement. "We believe the analytical results and policy implications provided in this Report have brought about a significant influence on reforming the national development strategy in China."
Since the report was released, the Chinese Government has taken a number of measures in recent years that reflect the vision of human-centred development that the report embodies. Agricultural taxes are now being abolished, compulsory education for the rural poor is being promoted through the renovation of school buildings and distribution of free textbooks, and more than 150 million farmers are now enrolled in a pilot medical insurance scheme for rural areas.
The Report states that while the number of people living in absolute poverty in rural China has dropped from 250 million to 26 million since the late 1970s, in many rural areas the public health care system is near collapse, maternal mortality is nearly twice as high in as in cities, and women are 2.6 times more likely to be illiterate than men. These challenges, according to the authors, could undermine the country's rapid advances, which have seen GDP increases of approximately 10 percent per year over the same period.
The authors also cite the traditional Chinese 'Hukou' system -- a nationwide household registry that restricts where a person may work and live-which they say discourages people from pursuing jobs and education opportunities elsewhere and fosters discrimination against China's 140 million rural migrant workers.
"China has made some remarkable progress in human development. But the Report shows there is still work to be done," said Kevin Watkins, director of the Human Development Report Office headquartered in New York. "When a country's economic gains are being shared very unequally, everyone ultimately loses. Only through free and equal access to education, health care and jobs can a country attain its full potential in human development."?
The Report urges widespread reforms, including increasing investment in public education, providing universal access to health care, curbing corruption by making the Government more transparent, reforming the tax code, and widening access to the judicial system so victims of discrimination have a better chance of obtaining redress.
The team behind the Report will be presented with a United Nations Human Development Award for excellence in policy analysis and influence at a ceremony at the UN Headquarters in New York on 20 June. They will be joined in the spotlight by four other winning entries hailing from India, Costa Rica and Guinea-Bissau, along with an Asia-Pacific regional report on trade. At the event, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will also present a lifetime achievement award for contribution to human development to the Inuit climate change activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier.
Judges for the Human Development Awards include Crown Prince Haakon of Norway, Princess Basma of Jordan, President Jorge Quiroga of Bolivia and Dr. Gita Sen of Harvard University and the Indian Institute of Management. Previous awards were given in 2000, 2002 and 2004.