By Charles Onunaiju
It has been five years since China through the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) President Xi Jinping proposed the Global Development Initiative in his speech to the general assembly of the United Nations in 2021. In his speech, he highlighted the significance of the year for China. It was both the one-hundred-year anniversary, since the founding of the Communist Party of China (1921) and the 50th anniversary of the restoration of China’s legitimate seat at the United Nations. The speech came against the background of the then, ravaging covid-19 pandemic and je observed that “Our world is facing the combined impacts of changes unseen in a century and the covid-19 pandemic.
The year also coincided with the China’s crucial policy outcome of the end of absolute poverty and a contribution of about 70% to global poverty reduction. On account of these, China brought her unique national experience in successful eradication of one of mankind’s most enduring scourge; poverty to the international domain. The elimination of absolute poverty has been an existential battle and from the time of the 18th National Congress of the CPC and the election of Xi Jinping to the central leadership of the party and the country, the work on the poverty elimination became the core focus of the party and the state. And with an uncommon devotion, it won the battle and delivered the solemn pledge to the Chinese people to bring about moderate prosperity in all respects in the life of the people. With a reputation of the epic achievement, China’s pledge and commitment to help drain the swamp of global poverty is not empty or impulsive.
Therefore, when president Xi Jinping introduced the Global Development Initiative by way of offering Chinese experience and practical contribution to engaging issues of global development, the world took adequate notice. The structural inadequacy in the flow of international public goods, most evident in the decline of western development assistance to the developing countries especially in the Global South, produced a critical lacuna in global development outlook.
China emerging from the historic and epic defeat of extreme poverty stepped up to the global podium to bring the issue of inclusive and shared development to the sharp focus. The seminal initiative for inclusive global development focused on the then urgent imperative to contain and defeat the vile covid-19 pandemic and to put countries in better shape to recover from the after effects of the deadly virus. Vulnerable regions of the world including Africa where the virus was most disruptive of the socio-economic landscape were clearly brought to the core of the recovery efforts launched by Beijing under the framework of the Global Development Initiative. Food security and poverty alleviations were critical measures contained in the GDI framework to ameliorate the social and economic disruptions of the virus.
The GDI emphasizes development as a priority and closely aligns with the central task of implementing the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development of the United Nations. It aims to deepen cooperation and through specific projects, promote policy dialogue, experience sharing, capacity building and tangible cooperation in various fields and participation by all parties. The GDI embodies the earnest aspirations of the international community to coalesce and an extensive united front on the core issue, central to all mankind.
China’s successful practice of inclusive national development trajectory reveals the immense power of human will be supported by correct policy choices and driven by leadership suffused with integrity and competence. The vital clue from China is that inclusive and sustainable development is possible. The credibility of China national development practice, especially the epic defeat of poverty has tremendous global implication and consequently rallied broad consensus on the China’s proposed Global Development Initiative, GDI. Five years down the line, the initiative has evolved from a Chinese proposal into a major global public good attracting broad participation from the international community and delivering tangible benefits to ordinary people across the world. Up to now, more than 130 countries and international organizations have endorsed the GDI and participated in relevant cooperation programs, resulting in the implementation of 1,800 livelihood-oriented projects and the training of 200,000 people in various professions, costing over 23 billion U.S dollars of mobilized funds.
Over the past five years, China has widely shared the Juncao technology, which uses grass to cultivate edible fungi that has in no small measure helped to alleviate poverty, and also the sustainable satellite 1 that enables synchronized data sharing and the MAZU platform, a disaster monitoring and early warning system to support countries in the Global South improve disaster prevention and mitigation capabilities. The GDI is focused on people-centered. Inclusive, innovation driven and eco-friendly development principles and more importantly promote tangible outcomes.
The past five years have demonstrated the resulted oriented nature of the GDI and served as a beacon of hope for common development for all mankind. With the passage of time, the significance of the initiative is being felt by more countries in the world, especially in the Global South that strives earnestly to fill in their respective development gaps. At a tense moment in the international systems when few powers are busy with undermining the development of others through protectionism and geo-political confrontation, China has been steadfast pushing forward shared development through advancing the Global Development Initiative (GDI).
The principles of the GDI which is centered around inclusive and sustainable development partnership, mutual respect and win-win outcomes in cooperation are clearly different from ideologies that triggers geopolitical rivalry and seek unilateral gains.
In the past five years, China has launched more than 30 cooperation mechanisms and platforms to support Global South countries in enhancing their capabilities, thereby raising positive feelings towards China, across the world. According to the latest survey by the Pew Research Center, more people have a favorable view of China than the United States of America, in most of the 36 countries surveyed. People in many of the 17 middle-income countries surveyed see China as a more reliable partner than the United States and are more likely to say that China contributes to peace and stability around the world.
As its economy maintains high quality growth driven by innovation and greater openness, China continued to share significant opportunities for global development. Its innovations, such as open-source large language models, make new technologies affordable and drive shared development. Its cost-effective new energy products enrich global supply and promote green and low-carbon development.
Chinese manufacturing equipment exports and outbound investment help advance industrialization in developing countries, while cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative improves infrastructure in many partner countries and expands their potential for development.
The implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for sustainable development has been behind schedule. With less than five years left for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), only 36 percent of assessable SDG targets are on target or making moderate progress, nearly half are moving too slowly, while 15 percent have even gone into reverse.
The urgent need for common development among humanity underscores the pressing relevance of the GDI. As a member of the Global South and a major country, China has promised to align its growth with the common good of the world, and steadily advance the implementation of the GDI together with other countries for new progress in shared and sustainable development.
In the past five years, since the introduction of the GDI, China has stayed true to its commitments and it is no doubt, that Beijing would not waver in its pledges that the sunshine of shared development and its corollary of poverty alleviations is felt at every corner of the globe.
