(focus on china-africa cooperation) unicef representative in china ailing sang: china-africa south-south cooperation benefits children
2024-09-03
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china news service, beijing, september 3, title: unicef representative in china sang ailing: china-africa south-south cooperation benefits children
china news service reporter bo wenwen
"south-south cooperation is a powerful tool to help achieve children's health, education and protection." amakobe sande, unicef representative in china, said in an interview with china news service recently that the cooperation projects between unicef and china in africa demonstrate the results of south-south cooperation and bring real benefits to children.
sang ailing said that although africa has made progress in child survival and development in recent decades, due to factors such as climate change, regional conflicts, and the covid-19 pandemic, many children's most urgent needs still remain to be met, including providing medical services, improving malnutrition, ensuring access to safe drinking water and sanitation facilities, and responding to the school dropout crisis.
she further cited the example that sub-saharan africa still faces the highest risk of child mortality in the world, with deaths of children under five in the region accounting for about 56% of the global total in 2021. in terms of immunization, half of the 20 countries with the largest number of "zero-dose" children in the world are in africa. at the same time, extreme weather and regional conflicts have caused millions of children in africa to be displaced and lose the opportunity to receive education.
to address these challenges, sang ailing said the chinese government provides support to unicef projects in more than a dozen african countries, including her own country, kenya.
a premature baby in sierra leone receives care in the neonatal intensive care unit. the ward equipment was jointly provided by the chinese government and unicef. the photo was taken in 2021. (photo courtesy of unicef)
for example, unicef has cooperated with the chinese government to implement the "project to improve maternal, newborn and child health in eight african countries" in eight african countries, including the democratic republic of the congo, ethiopia and kenya, to train local medical staff.
"the trainees' feedback on the training was very positive. in a follow-up survey, 94% of the respondents said their skills had improved." sang ailing said that these projects have fully drawn on china's experience in maternal, newborn and child health, helped reduce the mortality rates of maternal, newborn and children under 5 years old in african countries, and promoted exchanges and cooperation between china and africa.
in july this year, unicef and the chinese center for disease control and prevention signed a memorandum of cooperation, aiming to fully mobilize their respective resources to support africa in improving its primary medical and health system.
speaking of this cooperation, sang ailing believes that it will help promote the prevention of infectious diseases in africa and establish a reliable supply chain for health supplies. at the same time, it will provide training for health workers, strengthen their ability to collect health information and disease data, and explore innovative solutions in the field of digital health services.
sang ailing noted that africa has the youngest population structure in the world, but faces severe challenges of digital divide. many african countries lack the necessary infrastructure and digital solutions to achieve internet access and digital learning.
she pointed out that china has achieved fruitful results in public digital education and has become one of the global lead countries for the "public digital learning portal" project jointly managed by unicef and unesco. this project will help narrow the digital divide and ensure that more african children and young people can benefit from digital learning.
the 2024 forum on china-africa cooperation (focac) summit will be held in beijing with the theme of "joining hands to promote modernization and build a high-level china-africa community with a shared future". sang ailing told reporters that she had participated in two focac summits and this would be her first time to attend the summit as the unicef representative in china.
the picture shows unicef representative in china ailing sang. (photo courtesy of unicef)
in her view, the focac summit is an important platform for strengthening south-south cooperation between china and africa, ensuring that the needs of vulnerable groups such as children and women are given priority in international development cooperation. "i hope that this summit will add impetus to the process of sustainable development and modernization, thus benefiting children and their families."
sang ailing expects that this summit will cover five areas of cooperation. first, in accordance with the 2040 agenda for african children and the au's 2063 agenda, invest in human capital development. second, strengthen health system construction to make health care services more resilient and fairer. third, invest in education, build digital education infrastructure, provide reasonably priced internet access services, learning platforms and equipment, and focus on cultivating young people's professional skills. fourth, share china's successful experience in related fields to address malnutrition and food security issues. fifth, invest in climate-smart basic services for children to respond to emergencies caused by climate change. (end)
