Knowledge-sharing and partnerships are key to eradicating poverty and hunger by 2030

A high-level delegation of the Government of China, representatives from Italy, several African countries and United Nations officials, participated today in a workshop aimed at boosting the sharing of knowledge and building partnerships to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals on eradicating hunger and extreme poverty by 2030.

The workshop, attended by over 90 international experts, and including participants from academia and the private sector, was jointly organized by the three Rome-based UN agencies - the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the World Food Programme (WFP) – and the International Poverty Reduction Center in China (IPRCC) and the China Internet Information Centre (CIIC).

Discussions focused on how to best share knowledge and promote partnerships that establish efficient mechanisms in support of Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular, SDG1, No Poverty and SDG2, Zero Hunger.

Representatives from China, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, FAO, IFAD and WFP presented and discussed successful models, good practices and enabling policies for poverty reduction and hunger eradication. The workshop also served to strengthen the basis for the establishment of a regular forum to convene development and government agencies, academia and civil society to discuss and share experiences on poverty reduction and hunger eradication. 

Mr. Ou Qingping, Vice Minister of The State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development introduced China’s “decisive progress in the uphill anti-poverty campaign”. “After five years’ hard work, 68.53 million people have been lifted out of poverty. Poverty incidence rate dropped from 10.2% to 3.1%. This time, China beat itself and accomplished the greatest achievement in the history of China’s poverty reduction,” he said.

“This workshop, since its successful convening in 2017, has received a large amount of positive responses from all stakeholders. Now we are successfully convening the workshop again in Rome. This indicates that a new cooperative relationship for poverty reduction is coming into shape,”he added. 

According to Dr. Benjamin Davis, Strategic Programme Leader and Senior Economist at FAO, despite the progress achieved in the past decades, about 783 million people continue to live in extreme poverty ($1.90 a day). “many countries have already developed successful policies and programmes that are lifting people out of poverty and hunger and that serve as examples for others,” he said, “knowledge sharing through South-South and Triangular Cooperation is a very powerful tool to facilitate the exchange of lessons learnt and best practices among countries of the global south.”

Paul Winters, Associate Vice-President of the Strategy and Knowledge Department of IFAD reiterated the key focus of the partnership workshop in his opening remarks. He said, “The partnership workshop provides a good opportunity for all the participants to share the results generated from the projects and efforts in poverty reduction and at the same time reflect on these results. We should think of the policy decisions and practices we have taken to achieve the results. ”

Stanlake Samkange, Senior Director of Strategic Coordination and Support of WFP gratulated China on the country’s achievement in poverty reduction over the four-decade journey of Reform and Opening-up Policy. He noted,”China has lifted more than 700 million people out of poverty over the forty years of Reform and Opening up. As a champion in the global poverty alleviation cause, China’s success in the poverty alleviation serves as a good example for the rest of the world. WFP, IFAD and FAO are willing to continue working with China under the South South Cooperation framework to promote the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals. ”

UN Rome-based Agencies and China Committed to Fight Poverty and Hunger

FAO, IFAD, WFP, IPRCC and CIIC also issued a Joint Communiqué on Strengthening Partnership for the Eradication of Poverty and Hunger through Knowledge Sharing, Exchange and Cooperation. The agencies agreed to develop and strengthen their partnership by enhancing knowledge cooperation between China and the Rome-based agencies on poverty reduction and hunger eradication agendas and by reinforcing South-to-South and Triangular Cooperation in poverty reduction. 

Recognizing Global Efforts on Poverty Reduction  

As part of the efforts to enhance knowledge sharing in poverty reduction, the Global Solicitation and Challenge Prize on Best Poverty Reduction Practices was presented at the workshop. The prize was jointly launched by CIIC, IPRCC, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, FAO, IFAD, and WFP at the 2018 China Poverty Reduction International Forum that took place on May 23 in Beijing.

As the first global solicitation for poverty reduction case studies, this initiative seeks to obtain 100 case studies that have proven to be successful in fighting poverty. 

Mr. Zheng Wenhua, special assistant of editor-in-chief of CIIC, introduced that case studies, papers, concept notes and other relevant knowledge products will be showcased in the Global Poverty Reduction Online Knowledge Sharing Database (http://case.iprcc.org.cn/) launched last year.