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Co-operation in Chengdu: evaluating aid effectiveness in China

21 January 2009


Watch Mike Foster's video report from his trip to China. View in high-resolution on YouTube

Mike Foster MP, Minister for International Development, recently visited China on a fact finding trip, to canvas Chinese views on the effectiveness of DFID’s programme in the country, particularly with the Ministries of Commerce, Health and the National Development and Reform Commission.

Whilst in Beijing, he discussed development issues relating to the forthcoming high-level Economic and Financial Dialogue with China, as well as new proposals for co-operation in food security and agricultural research. These are a response to the Prime Minister’s letter to Premier Wen last September, and will be one of the development deliverables announced at the UK/China Summit in London on 2 February.

The Minister then flew to Chengdu, where he saw some of the devastation caused by the earthquake last May. He visited Hanwang, a town of around 50,000 people, which was completely destroyed. The numbers are overwhelming: around 80,000 people died; 6.5 million homes were destroyed; 5 million farmers lost their harvests; 10 million people lost their water supply; 7,400 schools were destroyed or severely damaged; 11,000 health institutions were damaged; 34,000 km of roads were badly damaged; 61,000 km of power transmission lines were brought down, and over 9,000 km of water supply pipes were damaged in urban areas alone. The majority of this damage occurred in just a few minutes.

DFID provided £2.2 million in immediate humanitarian assistance in the aftermath of the earthquake, mainly in the form of tents. We also provided £350,000 to the International Labour Organisation to help people affected by the earthquake to their re-launch their businesses; the Minister met with some of the participants on the resulting courses.

Back in Chengdu, Mike met with peer educators for commercial sex workers and injecting drug users and the Gay Care NGO to learn more about the way in which DFID and the Global Fund are helping to reduce the spread of HIV and AIDS. In a meeting with the Sichuan poverty alleviation office, he also learnt about the challenges of reducing poverty in Sichuan and the progress of a jointly funded World Bank/DFID project which aims to meet some of these challenges; Sichuan is a province with around 90 million people.

Finally, he met with the Vice Governor of the province of Sichuan, who thanked Mike for DFID’s support to the province over the last 10 years.

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