UNFPA Governing body approves new country programme for China

A baby boy in rural Hainan, province of China. (Photo courtesy of William A. Ryan/UNFPA)

The Executive Board of UNFPA recently approved the sixth UNFPA programme of assistance to China, totaling USD27 million over five years.
As they did so, Board members and other United Nations countries praised UNFPA as a “force for good” that promotes and protects human rights, implicitly repudiating a claim that the Fund abets coercive practices.
Ten European countries that provide most of UNFPA’s funding said that the Fund’s support to China had played “a crucial and catalytic role…. It successfully demonstrates that a client-oriented quality of care approach to reproductive health and family planning is a viable alternative to a target-driven administrative system”.
In a statement on their behalf by the United Kingdom, the countries declared: “unequivocally… in our view, UNFPA’s activities in China, as in the rest of the world, are in strict conformity with the unanimously adopted Programme of Action of the ICPD, and play a key role in supporting our common endeavour, the promotion and protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms”.
The ten European countries aligned themselves with the statement by South Africa on behalf of the Group of 77 – a coalition of 132 developing countries and territories – which also strongly endorsed UNFPA’s work in China.
“In geographical areas where UNFPA is working, the client-centered service not only provided choices to many ordinary people, particularly women, but also improved the reproductive health situation in these areas”, the Group of 77 stated. “The programme has contributed to the improvement of reproductive health and family planning services, strengthened the capacity of family planning workers and has enhanced the access of women to quality services and informed choices”.
The Fund will continue to give priority in 2006-2010 to reproductive health and HIV/AIDS prevention, concentrating its assistance in 30 Chinese counties that have experimented with ways to improve services and give clients control over reproductive decisions. During the last country programme, China adopted national standards that incorporate approaches used in the UNFPA counties, including the removal of targets and quotas.
After UNFPA-supported counties lifted birth-spacing requirements, four provinces followed suit. Others are considering similar moves. UNFPA will continue to strongly advocate for a rights-based approach and an end to coercion.
(Source: UNFPA press release, 30 January)