WFP eyes stronger co-op with China on poverty relief

BEIJING - The world's largest hunger-fighting humanitarian agency said Monday it is looking to build a stronger partnership with China by cooperating with the country's growing private sector and exporting its successes in reducing poverty.

The World Food Programme (WFP) wants to tap into the expansion of China's private firms for cooperation opportunities in humanitarian aid both at home and abroad, Brett Rierson, director of WFP's China Liaison Office, said in an interview with Xinhua.

The United Nations agency has cooperated with China's Internet giant Tencent to run an online donation platform, gongyi.qq.com, to feed hungry children and is approaching deals with more companies in the country's booming Internet industry for similar projects, Rierson said.

Over 100,000 netizens have donated 1.87 million yuan ($296,000) via Tencent's donation platform since it was launched in September 2011 to help fund a "school feeding" program that provides meals for school children in poor regions of western China and in Cambodia, according to WFP figures. Tencent donated another 1 million yuan to the program.

"What we've found interesting about this was the (Chinese netizens') absolute interest in what we call 'benevolence beyond borders,'" Rierson said, describing their online donations as "voting with their fingers."

He expected more opportunities to work with China's Internet firms, noting that there is a lot of interest from China's Web industry in working with international partners and the WFP has a well-developed Web presence.

For example, the WFP has fed 5 million people globally through Freerice, an online educational game launched in 2007 that allows players to raise rice for those in need, he added.

Outside China, several Chinese firms, including both State-owned and private companies, are in talks with the WFP to join open tenders for the agency's food procurement in Africa and Asia, Rierson noted.

Moreover, he believes the WFP will be a very good partner for Chinese companies going abroad, due to its strength in positive local community-building activities.

Cooperating with the WFP in humanitarian projects that give back to the local community can help Chinese firms gain permissions and local public support for their overseas operations, he explained.

Meanwhile, the official hailed China's achievement of lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty in the past 30 years, and said he looks forward to bringing China's experience to other countries.

When the WFP was invited into China in 1979, the country was an assistance recipient. At that time, one in three Chinese were hungry and now the percentage is less than one in 10 and falling rapidly, Rierson said.

China has made unprecedented progress in alleviating poverty and become an increasingly important partner in the humanitarian industry, he commented.

"My own aspiration would be that China makes its greatest export its ability to end hunger. That would be also be unprecedented in human history," Rierson told Xinhua.

Over 30 million people benefited from poverty-alleviation projects jointly conducted by the WFP and the Chinese government, such as the construction of roads, bridges, irrigation systems and sanitation projects, since the agency entered China.

The WFP and the government's expertise in building economic infrastructure to fight hunger and poverty can easily be taken abroad, as China has the most diverse land mass on Earth and every agricultural type, Rierson said.

"We can take a specific example from China and take it to Africa, specifically. There's just fantastic potential to do that," he said.