The World Bank approved
two projects for China totaling US$211.59 million on Tuesday. These projects will benefit some of China’s
poorest provinces, and assist the government's efforts to promote
growth and development opportunities in these regions.
One of the projects is to improve the quality of education in
some of the poorest townships and villages in western China, while
the other to fight grassland degradation through implementing
better management of valuable grassland areas
Basic Education Project in Western Areas of
China
The US$100 million loan will be used to improve access to and
completion of affordable and quality basic education for poor boys
and girls in some of China's poorest provinces and regions.
The World Bank loan is blended with a $34.4 million grant by
the United Kingdom's Department for International Development
(DFID) to reduce the effective interest rate on the Bank's 20-year
loan. This project builds on and extends the experience of previous
bank and DFID-funded basic education projects. Since 1981 the Bank
has supported fifteen education projects in China, and this time
the project supports the attainment of universal primary education
and expansion of lower secondary education in poor and minority
areas and will build stronger institutions to increase the quality
of education in China.
Although educational progress in China has been impressive,
disparities remain in basic education development, with imbalances
in the availability of educational services between the
economically advanced and underdeveloped regions. Generally, urban
and coastal areas have achieved the goal of nine-year basic
education, but many poor, sparsely-populated and remote areas have
not achieved basic education targets. "A priority for the
Government is to close that gap by increasing access to quality
basic education for all of China's poorest children and DFID and
the World Bank are supportive of this policy", said Eduardo Velez,
World Bank Task Manager for the implementation of the project.
The project will be implemented over a five-year period to
support the universal completion of nine years of quality
compulsory education for children in Sichuan,
Gansu,
Yunnan
Provinces, Ningxia
Hui and Guangxi
Zhuang Autonomous Regions. The project has three main
components: improving schools facilities, strengthening management
administration, and implementing strategies to improve the quality
of teaching and learning.
By project completion, access to a higher quality basic
education for rural children will be increased - with indicators
such as literacy and numeracy rates expected to improve. The number
of dangerous classroom buildings will be reduced and a stronger
community voice in the management of the schools is expected.
Finally, principals and teachers will be better equipped to deliver
a higher quality education. At end, improved basic education will
enable disadvantaged groups in China to take advantage of economic
and social opportunities.
The Gansu and Xinjiang Pastoral Development
Project
This US$ 111.59 million project, which includes US$ 10.5 million
of Global Environment Facility support, will assist the government
in mitigating the degradation of natural grasslands which have been
harmed by previous mismanagement and inappropriate
policies. By fighting grassland degradation the project will
improve the capacity of China's pastoral areas to support
biodiversity and livestock - and benefit the population living in
those areas.
"The Global environment objective of the project is to maintain
and nurture natural grassland ecosystems to enhance global
environment benefits", said Task Manager Sari
Söderström. "More specifically, the project aims to mitigate land
degradation, conserve globally important diversity, and enhance
carbon sequestration".
Gansu and Xinjiang
are a critical environmental areas for China, both listed as
priority areas in the Biodiversity review of China, because they
contain many grassland endangered species. By promoting better
resource management of these areas, the project aims to help China
promote more sustainable development.
The project supports resource management through establishing
improved livestock production and promoting marketing systems that
would increase the income of herders and farmers in the project
areas. By empowering farmer and herder households in the project
counties to better manage their grassland resources and improve
forage and feed production on arable lands, the project will help
them increase their incomes through more efficient and quality
focused livestock production - which should be sufficient to
generate marketable surplus to improve living standards.
The project's components include:
(1) Grassland management and forage
improvement to reverse the current trend of grassland degradation,
and to contribute to improving counties people's livelihoods, by
introducing sustainable grassland-based livestock production
systems, biodiversity, and global environmental values;
(2) Livestock production improvement to
develop sustainable livestock production systems through
improvements in animal genetics and management using
environmentally sound technologies;
(3) Market systems development to promote the
development of a functioning market system through improved market
infrastructure;
(4) Applied research, training, and extension
to develop and promote the establishment of integrated management
systems that enable household livestock producers to raise the
quality of fiber, meat, and milk products derived from grazing
livestock, and decrease the number of grazing livestock, resulting
in improved grassland condition without economic loss;
and
Project management, monitoring, and evaluation to develop and to
strengthen the overall project implementation, and to promote
effective community participation in project activities.
"Over the long-term, the project should be able to contribute to
improved biodiversity conservation, carbon sequestration, watershed
protection, and reduced soil erosion - these global and long-term
environment improvements will benefit the farmers and herders alike
- and China as a whole", added Sari
Söderström.
(China.org.cn September 11, 2003)