25 November 2008
DFID's international seminar series turned its focus to the social aspects of China’s 30 years of reform at two events in Beijing last week.
These discussions took place at a crucial historical moment, with the social impacts of the global financial crisis becoming apparent and the central and provincial Chinese governments announcing the equivalent of around £1.4 trillion to stimulate the country's financial system.
During the first seminar, hosted by DFID, the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) and the International Poverty Reduction Center in China (IPRCC) over the 17 and 18 November, it was made clear that there are no simple lessons from China’s 30 years of reform. Successful development and poverty reduction, it was found, consist of constant policy innovation and the ability to adjust to newly emerging challenges.
As has been demonstrated during the recent global research programme conducted by UNRISD and funded by DFID, good social policies not only improve the delivery of services and enhance social protection, but are vital to building the preconditions for economic growth. For example, the right health and education policies can create a productive labour force, and public policies and social services can lay the foundations for the ‘social contract’ that must lie behind any economic success. Read more on the UNRISD and the IPRCC websites (open in new windows).
The Beijing seminar included presentations showing how social policies established in the pre-reform period led to key achievements in primary health care and education, despite very low levels of Gross Domestic Product. After the liberalisation policies of 1978, social development indicators did not improve as much as economic indicators, but were not neglected either.
A presentation by Professor Zhang Xiulan of Beijing Normal University highlighted how China’s government has emphasised social policy as a key instrument for political and social stability, most recently - as professors Guan Xinping and Li Shi also stressed - as part of attempts to reduce inequalities and create a more harmonious society. Social policy will also be critical in the response to economic crises and resulting social tensions. Professor Zhang will be elaborating on these themes in her lecture at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), Sussex on 27 November.
On 20 November at a subsequent Beijing seminar, Professor Wang Xiaoyi of the China Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) spoke of how, despite poverty reduction and improvements in the welfare of the Chinese people, the challenges to public policies have not disappeared, and the need for more universal policies are in fact more apparent.
CASS research has shown that, as the difference between the average income and the official poverty line has increased, the poverty line has become meaningless in Chinese villages. Social factors are rapidly becoming more important than traditional issues such as hunger. For instance, marriage costs have increased faster that people’s incomes, and at the centre of people's feelings of deprivation are the lack of social security and social support.
With the nature of poverty changing, Professor Wang concluded that policy needs to become more responsive to diversity and local realities, and move away from targeted projects to more universal and inclusive policies. The presentation will soon be available at the new website of CASS's Centre for Rural Environmental Social Studies -CASS Chinese language website (opens in a new window).
Bookmark with:
What are Bookmarks?
