Chinanews.com, Beijing, October 3, title: Interview with Qu Sixi, representative of the World Food Program in China: China has set a glorious example for the world in the field of poverty alleviation
Author Liu Xu Bo Wenwen
2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations and the final year of China's fight against poverty.
Recently, Qu Sixi, the representative of the World Food Program in China, accepted an exclusive interview with a reporter from China News Agency in Beijing. He spoke highly of China's achievements in poverty alleviation and looked forward to a higher level of cooperation between WFP and China in the future.
Qu Sixi, the representative of the World Food Program in China, was interviewed by a reporter from China News Agency.
Photo by Liu Xu
Talk about poverty alleviation: China sets a glorious example for the world
The United Nations World Food Program (WFP), as the frontline agency of the United Nations to fight global hunger, has been committed to enabling everyone to get the food they need and live an active and healthy life since its establishment in 1961.
Every year, the World Food Program provides assistance to more than 90 million people in about 80 countries. It is a humanitarian organization at the forefront of the global fight against hunger.
The World Food Program ships China-aided food to vulnerable groups in other developing countries.
Photo courtesy of the World Food Program
As the largest humanitarian aid agency in the United Nations system, the assistance activities of the World Food Program include relief assistance and development assistance.
"The goal we pursue is to'relieve the poor', to improve global food security and nutrition, and to pursue'everyone has food.'" Qu Sixi said, "There is no doubt that China has set a brilliant future for the world in this regard. A great example."
The World Food Program launched a pilot project for small farmers in zinc-rich potato in Gansu.
Photo courtesy of the World Food Program
Qu Sixi's analysis pointed out that China's per capita natural resources are relatively scarce. Compared with global per capita resources, China's arable land and grassland area are only one-third of the world average, and water resources are only one-fourth of the world's average.
"China's entire arable land area only accounts for 9% of the world's total, but the population accounts for 20%. China makes good use of 9% of the arable land and solves the food problem of 20% of the world's people."
"Over the past 40 years, China has made tremendous progress in all aspects, and the achievements in food security and poverty alleviation are even more obvious to all. China has lifted more than 800 million poor people out of poverty and has contributed more than 70% of the global poverty alleviation. It can be described as a shining example." Qu Sixi said, "More importantly, while achieving its own development, China has also tried its best to help other developing countries and bring out its own experience and technology in the past 40 years. Come and share with other countries."
Ecuadorian agricultural experts participated in a training course on rice and duck breeding system in Changsha, Hunan.
Photo courtesy of the World Food Program
Qu Sixi said that China has always been an active advocate, contributor and participant in South-South cooperation.
In March 2016, the World Food Program and the Chinese government signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation, aimed at ending global hunger by strengthening cooperation.
The World Food Programme has established the China Center of Excellence for South-South Cooperation to promote South-South cooperation with China in four key areas, namely: value chain construction that connects smallholders and markets; post-harvest loss, processing and storage management; climate change response capacity building And disaster risk control; coping strategies to achieve zero hunger and nutritional improvement.
“During the epidemic, we also used online communication and production of training videos to share China’s technical experience with more countries.” Qu Sixi said, “We look forward to helping developing countries improve through cooperation with China. Improve food security and nutrition, and achieve the goal of ending hunger and promoting sustainable agricultural development."
Talk about anti-epidemic: China's anti-epidemic achievements provide support for the world
At the beginning of 2020, a new crown pneumonia epidemic has become a global health crisis.
"After the outbreak of the new crown epidemic in China, China was united and took very rapid, timely and strict and meticulous measures." Qu Sixi said, "So far, it should be said that China's domestic epidemic control is very good. This achievement is a global response. The epidemic has built confidence, and the recovery of China's economic production and social life has also provided strong support for the recovery of the global economy."
“After China has achieved relatively good results in the fight against the epidemic, it has quickly developed extensive cooperation with other countries, especially providing assistance to many developing countries.” Qu Sixi said that during the epidemic, the World Food Program served as the United Nations system. The largest humanitarian aid agency inside has been closely following the development of the epidemic, adjusted its own business, and carried out multi-level cooperation with China.
The World Food Program has assisted Chinese companies in helping Africa fight the epidemic and is transferring anti-epidemic materials to Somalia.
Photo courtesy of the World Food Program
On the one hand, the World Food Program has set up a global humanitarian emergency response hub in China to deliver supplies and rescue personnel to countries and regions in need.
So far, the anti-epidemic materials sent out by this temporary emergency hub account for more than 80% of the anti-epidemic materials delivered by the entire United Nations humanitarian emergency logistics network, which has provided great help for global anti-epidemic assistance.
The World Food Program has set up a temporary emergency hub in China to deliver anti-epidemic relief supplies.
Photo courtesy of the World Food Program
In addition, during the epidemic, the World Food Program cooperated with relevant Chinese departments and enterprises to provide food assistance to some countries in Africa and deliver anti-epidemic materials to these countries through the WFP logistics system.
"It should be said that during the epidemic, the cooperation between the World Food Program and China should be very close." Qu Sixi said, "According to the predictions of relevant agencies, affected by the epidemic, the number of hungry people in the world will definitely increase this year. We must ensure that The continued implementation of the existing projects must also take into account the newly added population in need of assistance. Therefore, we must consider various factors and preparations more fully than before, and develop more extensive and fuller cooperation with China in the future."
Talking about the future: providing a platform for higher-level cooperation
"The World Food Program is one of the few United Nations agencies that entered China earlier. We have been closely cooperating with the Chinese government and relevant departments in the development process of China's agriculture and rural areas, especially in the development process of poor areas." Qu Sixi introduced that from the 1980s to the 1990s, China used to be one of the major recipient countries of the WFP.
With the rapid development of China's economy and the advancement of the process of eliminating hunger, China has gradually transformed from a recipient country of the World Food Program to an important donor country for the World Food Program's global operations.
"From a recipient country to a donor country, this is a huge change!" Qu Sixi believes, "According to the current new situation, I believe that the cooperation between the two sides will be demonstrated at a higher level and in an innovative way of cooperation. Higher level."
The World Food Program's kiwifruit value chain poverty alleviation project in Jinzhai, Anhui.
Photo courtesy of the World Food Program
Currently, the World Food Program has some small and innovative cooperation projects in China.
Take the pilot projects for improving the nutrition of preschool children in Xiangxi, Hunan and Jingxi, Guangxi as examples. Based on the experience of the global school feeding project, the WFP has effectively improved the pilots by improving the dining conditions and nutritional diet of preschool children in rural kindergartens. The nutritional status of children in the project area, in conjunction with the targeted poverty alleviation policy, implement targeted assistance to poor households in the project area, help poor households increase their income, and promote local economic and social development.
Qu Sixi said that in the next stage, the World Food Program will also carry out the third phase of the pilot project in Gansu.
The World Food Program has launched pilot projects to improve the nutrition of preschool children in Xiangxi, Hunan and Jingxi, Guangxi.
Photo courtesy of the World Food Program
Qu Sixi said that this series of pilot projects is a microcosm of the cooperation between the World Food Program and China, and there is still a lot of room for cooperation between the World Food Program and China.
"In China, we can help China's agricultural and rural development; internationally, the World Food Program is a platform for China to show its image as a responsible power and realize the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind." Qu Sixi said, "We look forward to more Partners come to this platform to do practical work together to support China’s social and economic development, and provide opportunities for China’s higher-level international cooperation.” (End)