China, IFAD work together for global sustainable development

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) recently published an article on its official website written by its associate vice-president Donal Brown. Titled "Sustainable development can solve rural China's climate challenges", the article gives a positive assessment of an IFAD-supported rural revitalization demonstration project in Central China's Hunan province, based on Brown's personal field surveys and observations.

The article noted that Hunan, like the rest of China, has experienced dramatic changes in recent decades. In 2021, China declared it had eradicated extreme poverty and achieved extraordinary rural transformation. Faced with the impact of climate change, sustainable development is a must to protect vulnerable groups, support agricultural and rural development and consolidate the outcomes of poverty alleviation. To that end, the IFAD-supported project provided local farmers with new plant varieties, irrigation facilities and organic fertilizers, effectively enhancing the capacity of local crops such as kiwifruit to resist flooding and drought. The project also provided funding, training and job opportunities aimed at keeping more young people in rural areas and contributing to rural vitalization.

Since 2018, the China-IFAD SSTC (South-South Triangular Cooperation) Facility has shared local knowledge and proven solutions from China with 38 developing countries in areas such as climate adaptation and agricultural productivity. In June, China announced it would make an additional donation worth $10 million to the China-IFAD SSTC Facility to support agricultural development in Global South countries. China is further deepening cooperation with the IFAD in areas such as eradicating rural poverty, improving food security and nutrition levels, promoting agricultural and rural development, and advancing knowledge sharing.

On the sidelines of last year's first high-level conference of the Forum on Global Action for Shared Development, the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA) signed an agreement with the IFAD to jointly promote the implementation of the Global Development Initiative (GDI), making the IFAD the first United Nations agency to collaborate with the CIDCA on GDI implementation.

In June, the CIDCA and the IFAD held their first department-level meeting to push for the implementation of the cooperation document. Last month, Donal Brown came to Beijing to attend the second high-level conference of the Forum on Global Action for Shared Development, participated in a group meeting with CIDCA Vice-Chairman Zhao Fengtao as a senior representative from the UN, and delivered a keynote speech to the sub-forum "Promoting modernization of the Global South – new pathways, new vision".

Currently, both sides are actively discussing the use of satellite remote sensing and communications technologies under the Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund to help Tanzania enhance its agricultural and climate adaptation capabilities.

In addition, China and the IFAD plan to carry out more practical cooperation via platforms such as the Global Development Promotion Center Network and the Global Development Project Pool to jointly implement the GDI and the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.