United Nations World Food Programme in China 1979Celebrating 30 Years - 2009 of Cooperation WFP United Nations World Food Programme www.wfp.org.cn Cover photo: Vietnamese refugees in Yunnan cooking meal CHA_198412_WFP-Unknown_0001 Table of Contents photo: Donors to WFP China Operation 1979-2008 Maize donated by China to Zimbabwe (in alphabetic order) ZIM_200901_WFP-Richard _Lee_0013 - Argentina - AusAID - Australia - Austria - Canada - Central Emergency Response Fund (UN) - China - Denmark - European Union - Finland - France - Germany - Ireland - Italy - Japan - Netherlands - New Zealand © Copyright - Norway World Food Program China Oce, 2009 All rights reserved. Information from this publication may be freely reproduced as long as credit is given. - Saudi Arabia Disclaimer - Sweden The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion - Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency whatsoever on the part of the World Food Program concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. - Switzerland Enquiries may be directed to: - TNT United Nations World Food Program - UK China Oce United nations Building - US 2 Liangmahe Nanlu Beijing 100600 People’s Republic of China Email: [email protected] Phone: +86 10 85325228 Fax: +86 10 6532 4802 Website: www.wfp.org.cn CONTENTS WFP food warehouse in Shandong 01 1979-2009 02 THE BEGINNINGS 04 FROM RELIEF TO DEVELOPMENT AID 08 GANSU: A SUCCESS STORY 14 THE PEAK YEARS 16 PARTNERSHIP: IFAD 20 PARTNERSHIP: AusAID 22 A CRUCIAL FORCE: TARGETING & EMPOWERING WOMEN 24 RESPONDING TO DISASTER: 1998 FLOODS 26 PHASING OUT: THE PHILOSOPHY 28 PHASING OUT: ON THE GROUND 30 LESSONS LEARNED 32 CHINA HELPS OTHER DEVELOPING COUNTRIES 34 RESPONDING TO DISASTER 38 CONCLUSION: LOOKING FORWARD WFP food warehouse in Shandong Chinese Ambassador to Ethiopia, His Excellency Lin Lin visiting WFP-assisted school in Mekele in 2007, tasting school meals donated by China. 1979-2009: Celebrating 30 Years of Cooperation Originally established in 1979 as a means of providing relief through food assistance, the partnership between the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the People’s Republic of China (China) expanded and transformed over the past 30 years. Together, WFP and the Chinese government helped to develop wide ETH_200712_BJN-Fengli_Yuan_0013 areas of remote rural China, moving millions of Chinese out of absolute poverty. As China demonstrated ETH_200712_BJN-Fengli_Yuan_0013 remarkable growth and achieved food self-suciency, it gradually shifted from a recipient to a donor to WFP. Today, WFP and the Chinese government are collaborating to provide food assistance to millions of impoverished individuals around the world, working toward the common MDG goal of eliminating global hunger. 1 Vietnamese refugees working at a state farm in Hainan THE BEGINNINGS n thirty years of operating in China, WFP ran more In 1979, approximately 252,000 refugees, mostly I than 70 projects and donated almost 4 million tons Vietnamese citizens of Chinese origin, ed into China’s of food, reaching over 30 million beneciaries in every southern provinces. The arrival of the refugees placed a province and autonomous region on the country’s heavy burden on Chinese authorities. Now an actively mainland. Previously uncultivated, mountainous terrain engaged member of the international community, was rendered productive through terracing, irrigation China was willing to cooperate with UN agencies and and infrastructure projects. WFP Food-for-Work (FFW) indicated to WFP that it would welcome food aid to schemes assisted communities to forge a living from help the new arrivals. their scarce land. An increased focus on the role of women led to Food-for-Training (FFT) programs that Working together, Chinese ocials and a WFP project helped all villagers – male and female – unlock their planning mission led by WFP’s acting Executive potential. Director Bernardo de Azevedo Brito agreed to move the refugees from the labour-intensive projects where The current relationship between WFP and China they were initially sent to state farms on the tropical developed from tentative beginnings. Although the island of Hainan and in southern Yunnan Province. This People’s Republic of China was ocially recognized as rst cooperative project provided food assistance as the country’s sole legitimate government in a United part of the refugees’ wages while they extended farms Nations resolution in October 1971, the Chinese and constructed dams, sluices, and irrigation canals. government did not seek international aid until 1978 when China began to rapidly open up to the outside The success of this initial food aid project prompted world and reform. Chinese government ocials to welcome WFP 2 Vietnamese refugees in Yunnan waiting for food distribution Exterior of WFP China Oce assistance for future development projects. The Chinese government realized the important role SETTING UP WFP CHINA HEADQUARTERS IN BEIJING that WFP could play in helping to ease the burden of “In the beginning, we had nothing. We had to sit on providing food for those Chinese who were living in packing cases in the oce because there were no tables absolute poverty, estimated to be around 250 million or chairs. Eventually, we ordered furniture and stationery people in 1978. from Hong Kong, we got a typewriter – a manual one – and we started to decorate the oce. In those days, the Acknowledging China’s desire to avoid dependence idea of foreigners working in China was not like today. on international food aid, WFP entered China with the China had just started to open its doors to the outside goal of helping people feed themselves. Establishing world and we had to learn everything from scratch.” its permanent presence in Beijing in September 1981, a small team of four – one international ocial and three – Gong Jianying, WFP China AdministrativeSecretary, local sta members – set up their headquarters in the then Programme Ocer United Nations Development Programme building located in the city’s Sanlitun diplomatic quarter. Thirty years later, the same building still houses the WFP oce. 3 Farmer in Mizhi County, Shaanxi Province, carrying home his food ration donated by Canada FROM RELIEF TO DEVELOPMENT AID nitial WFP development projects in China began Early projects such as this laid the foundation for I by focusing on specic sectors of the agricultural a number of successful local ventures, such as the economy such as forestry, sheries and farming and establishment of bottled water plants and yoghurt some were carried out in partnership with the World factories. Eventually, these ventures were transferred to Bank. “Dairy Development in and around Six Major the private sector where they still function today. Cities” was one WFP project aimed to help meet the growing demand in the dairy sector. From 1983-89, the However, initial cooperation between WFP and China project achieved its aim by doubling milk production on development aid projects was not an easy transition in six major cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Wuhan, for a country that experienced decades of collectivism. Nanjing and Xian. Rapid changes following China’s opening up and reform of the 1970s and 80s included the establishment of the Household Responsibility System that transformed the face of the Chinese countryside. For the rst time since collectivisation began in 1952, individual farmers were granted arable land use rights, which were distributed based on the size of one’s family. This led to a progressive loosening of government control over the sale of farm produce, enabling families to sell their own products on the open market. Milk cow farm in Wuhan 4 As farmers were gradually introduced to a growing Nevertheless, in tune with the Chinese Government’s free market economy, the Chinese government saw own concerns about the country’s uneven agricultural productivity as a high priority and started development, WFP decided to shift away from projects implementing large agricultural sector projects. China’s in the more developed eastern seaboard regions. total agricultural production began to show remarkable Instead of projects aimed at creating more diverse growth rates, and WFP was given the opportunity to sources of protein to the urban Chinese diet, WFP’s play a role in China’s transformation. attention would be focused on the less-developed inland regions that were being increasingly left behind. When WFP development interventions began in the early 1980s, China witnessed an astounding growth in Lunch at Food-for-Work site, Mizhi County, Shaanxi farmers’ incomes, averaging 15 percent per annum from 1978 to 1984. This impressive surge, triggered by a huge increase in agricultural production, was accompanied by dramatic changes in the composition of farmers’ incomes. As WFP gained momentum in China during the early 80s, and as cooperation deepened, the Chinese government encouraged more provinces to prepare project proposals to submit to WFP’s governing body for consideration. The number of WFP projects steadily increased, and the Beijing oce found itself needing more local and international sta. The momentum of reform combined with the eectiveness of the Chinese government’s THE DECISION TO FOCUS ON THE WEST implementation strategies proved to be a winning combination during initial cooperation with "In turning away from the relatively