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In September 1990, UN held the World Summit for Children.
On that occasion, all participants passed the "World Declaration
on the Survival, Protection and Development of Children" and the
"Plan of Action for Implementing the World Declaration on the Survival,
Protection and Development of Children in the 1990s". In 1991, the
Chinese government signed the two documents and subsequently formulated
the "National Programme of Action for Child Development in China
in the 1990s" in 1992 (referred to as "NPA" below), which
established the main goals and tasks in child development before the end
of the 20th century. In the past 10 years, in terms of implementing the
"World Declaration on the Survival, Protection and Development of
Children", the "Plan of Action for Implementing the World Declaration
on the Survival, Protection and Development of Children in the 1990s"and
NPA, the Chinese government has made unremitting efforts and has made
great progresses that attract worldwide attention.
1. Formulation of the National Programme of Action-the "National
Programme of Action for Child Development in China in the 1990s",
the start of follow up action of formal initiation
In 1992, according to the Ten-Year Plan For National Economic and Social
Development and the Eight Five-Year Plan of the PRC, taking into consideration
the current situation of child development in China, having referred to
the 24 global goals of child development, the Chinese government formulated
the National Program of Action for Child Development in China in the 1990s.
The NPA, the first NPA focusing on children and aimed at promoting child
development, has put forward goals and strategic measures for child development
in 1990s and marked the start of follow-up actions of the 1990 World Summit
for Children has been initiated. After this, relevant Ministries/Agencies
and all the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly
under the State Council, as well as prefectures and 99% of all counties,
formulated their own NPAs and plans for implementation.
2. Implementing effective measures to promote the realization of NPA
2.1 Establishing and improving structure of organization to guarantee
implementation
The Chinese government established and strengthened the organization-----the
National Working Committee for Children and Women to improve the status
of women and promote child development. In 1998, although China carried
out downsizing reform in government departments, not only did it keep
the NWCCW, but even reinforced this organization. The number of member
units increased from 19 to 29, including 24 governmental agencies and
5 NGOs. All 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, as well
as 80%prefectures and counties also established the Working Committee
for Children and Women. The establishment of these committees incorporated
the implementation of NPA into government work and helped to form a working
pattern of unified implementation by government,sectoral responsibility
and common participation of all circles of society, and set up a working
system and operating mechanism linking the central government with the
grassroot , and a single section with various sections.
2.2 Seeking to the "first call for children" principle and
increasing the government leadership of the work for children and women
In 1996 and 1999, two national working meetings on the work of women and
children were held by NWCCW to study and deploy the work for children.
In the third session of the 9th National People's Congress, both government
work report delivered by Premier Zhu Rongji and the Tenth Five-Year Plan
For National Economic and Social Development of the PRC urged the conscientious
implementation of the NPA for children and women. The NPAs of all provinces,
autonomous regions and municipalities have been incorporated into the
local economic and social development plans, working agenda and responsibility
mechanism of objective management. The government at all levels increased
investment in the fields of education and health for children. During
1993-1999, the annual appropriation for compulsory education from central
government increased from 33.356 billion yuan to 94.724 billion yuan or
by 19% annually. The financial input for Maternal & Child Health care
and epidemic disease prevention for women and children increased from
305 million yuan and 1.203 billion yuan, respectively, in 1990 to 1.046
billion yuan and 3.388 billion yuan in 1999. This represents an annual
increase of 15% and 12% respectively. The investment in water supply in
the water-scarce rural areas reached 31 billion yuan in the 1993-1999
period.
2.3 To develop and improve the laws and regulations and protect Children's
legitimate rights in accordance with laws.
The Chinese Constitution clearly stipulated the principle of protecting
children. Since 1990's, a series of laws and regulations have been enacted,
including the Law for the Protection of Minors; the Law on Education;
the Law on Teachers; the Law on the Protection of Women's Rights and Interests;
the Law on Maternal and Child Health Care; the Law on the Protection of
Handicapped People; the Labour Law; the Law on the Prevention and Control
of Infectious Diseases; the Law on the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency
and the criminal law and the Law on Adoption have been revised, which
formed a sound legal system for protection of children and provided legal
guarantee for the promotion of child development.
While implementing the NPA, the Chinese government has made unreserved
efforts in fulfilling all the obligations specified in the "Convention
on Child rights" to ensure all the Children could enjoy the equal
rights of survival, development, participation and protection.
2.4 Monitoring and evaluating the goals for child development so as
to guarantee the scientific and standardized implementation of the NPA
We have established a monitoring and statistic indicator system, a monitoring
and evaluation agency and a review and reporting system. Based on the
annual report, we conducted the mid-term and final review, which provided
scientific data for us to follow the situation of child development, to
forecast its trends as well as to develop new plan.
2.5 Broad social mobilization so as to exert the influence of the NGOs,
communities, families and the mass media
The women's federation at all levels, the Youth League etc. actively participated
in the child's work through organizing parents school, holding child's
out-class activities and summer camp, assisting the drop-out children,
organizing training workshop, lectures and going to families to do advocacy,
counseling and distributing IEC materials, etc. The central and local
mass media put the "priority of children" and child rights into
the most important content for advocacy, and to promote an intimate atmosphere
to "respect children and protect children".
3. Significant achievements in implementing the NPA, basically realizing
the main goals of child development.
The implementation of the NPA witnessed a significant achievement with
the great effort made in the past 10 years. 21 out of the 24 global decade
goals have been achieved. The status and environment for children to develop
were improved significantly. Their rights of survival, development and
being protected and participation were effectively guaranteed. Therefore,
the overall quality of children has made further improvement.
--- The child mortality rated reduced and health status improved.
The number of maternal and child care establishments has grown to 3,180
in 2000, forming a fairly sound three-tier maternal and child care network.
The mortality rate of infants and children under five dropped to 32.2
бы and 39.7 бы by 2000, from 50.2% and 61бы respectively in 1990. The maternal
mortality rate dropped to 53 per 100,000 live births in 2000 from a baseline
of 94.7 per 100,000 live births in 1989. Immunization coverage rates of
four vaccines are all higher than 90%, and polio has been eliminated.
The prevalence of the stunt under the age 5 has decreased from 21% in
1990 to 10% in 2000. The salt has almost been iodized universally.
--The coverage rate of the compulsory education increased and the
gender gap in enrollment rate narrowed.
China's nine-year compulsory education has been realized among 85% of
the population and areas. The enrollment rate of the primary school raised
from 96.3% in 1990 to 99.1% in 2000. The disparity between male and female
children in the enrolment of primary schools in China has been narrowed
steadily, dropping to 0.07-percentage point by 2000 from 2.9 percentage
points in 1990. The 5-year completion rate of the primary school education
has increased from 71.4% in 1990 to 94.5% in 2000. The illiteracy rate
of young adults (people aged between 15 and 40) has dropped to below 5%
in 2000.
--- The Natural Environment has improved for children.
China views environmental protection as a basic national policy, and aims
to protect natural resources, so as to provide better living conditions
for children's survival and development. In 2000, 92.38% of the rural
population has the access to clean water, and the sanitation latrine coverage
reached 44.84%.
-- Special protection given to children in special needs.
The orphans, the disable children and street children received special
care and protection from the government. There are 110 child welfare institutes
all over china, caring a total number of more than 34000 orphans. Also
9 "SOS" villages are either completed or in the process of construction,
taking in more than 900 orphans. In addition, there are nearly 10,000
rehabilitation centers, stations or classes, and 127 street children protection
stations. The number of disabled students increased to 371,625 in 1999.
The enrolment rate of the blind, hearing and mentally disabled children
was 73.4% in 1999. Dropout children have also been assisted to resume
studying. In addition to the government input, the Youth league and Women's
Federation have also mobilized more than RMB2 billion through Project
Hope and Spring Bud Programme for more than 3 million drop-out students
and girl students.
As a populous developing country, and also constrained by the economic
condition, we are still facing a lot of challenges. Three goals, namely
the reduction of MMR, the elimination of NNT, and the control of HIV/AIDS,
have not been achieved. There are also disparities in the development
of children among different regions. The overall situation of Child development
needs further improvement, and more favorable environment for child development
needs to be created. The healthcare, education and child protection among
the floating population need to be solved. The prevalence of HIV/AIDS
positive among children is keeping increasing. All these issues will be
the priority in our future agenda.
4. Development and adoption of the NPA for 2001-2010, shaping the
goals and strategies of child development in the 21st century.
The first ten years in 21st century will be the most important period
for the country's economic and social development. To further promote
the sustainable child development, bring up high quality personnel fitting
to the needs of the 21st century. At the same time, China has been drafting
the 2001-2010 National Programme for the Development of Children. The
State Council adopted it on April 20th 2001. The new National Programme
for the Development of Children provides a comprehensive review of the
current situation of the development of children, and puts forward goals
for 2010 for the survival, protection, development and participation of
children, and strategies and measures for realizing the goals. There are
four main areas including children and health, children and education,
children and environment, and children and legal protection with special
goals and strategies to be applied in each section. There are totally
18 major goals, with 55 supportive indicators and 66 strategic measures.
The National Programme will be the guidelines for the national action
in child development, to further promote the healthy and sustainable child
development.
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