Mr. Chen Wei, President of China Agricultural University, 

Mr. Zhao Changbao, Director-General of Research Center for Rural Economy of MARA 

Mr. Li Youxiang, Chairman of China Agriculture RE

Mr. Samuel Collin Ssenyimba, Senior Project Officer of Gates Foundation 

Mr. Miguel Solana, Team Leader, Insurance and Risk Finance Facility, UNDP 

Excellencies, 

Distinguished guests, 

Colleagues and friends, 

Good morning! 

On behalf of UNDP China, it is a pleasure to welcome you to Beijing for the Financial Resilience in Agriculture Community of Practice 2026. 

I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to our colleagues from UNDP’s Insurance and Risk Finance Facility, our partners at China Agricultural University, China Agriculture Reinsurance Corporation, and all the experts and representatives from governments and institutions who have travelled from across the world to join us here in Beijing. 

As we gather today, the stakes for agriculture, and the farmers who sustain it, are rising sharply around the world. 

Globally, smallholder farmers produce around a third of the world’s food and are critical to advancing progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals – our shared blueprint to safeguard people and planet by 2030. 

However, these farmers are highly exposed to increasingly severe and frequent climate shocks, without the financial protection they need to recover and adapt. 

This not only has a significant impact on the livelihoods of vulnerable communities in rural areas but also results in price volatility and disruptions across the value chain. 

As such, there is an urgent need for countries to build systems that can manage risk at scale – systems that protect livelihoods, strengthen food security and underpin more stable and resilient rural economies. 

Across the world, we can in fact already see this shift taking shape: from fragmented pilots towards coordinated approaches embedded within national financial and development systems. 

But this transition remains uneven.  

Many governments are still at an early stage of the journey and are looking for practical pathways forward. 

This is precisely why this forum is important. 

Over the past three years, the Community of Practice has become more than a platform for dialogue.  

It has become a space where countries learn directly from one another, exchange practical experiences, and accelerate solutions that can be adapted and scaled in different contexts. 

Today, we are especially pleased to host this gathering in China. 

Through sustained public investment and close coordination between Government and the private sector, China has built one of the world's largest agricultural insurance systems with annual premiums of more than 22.8 billion US dollars and over 700 tailored insurance products. We will hear more about this over the next three days.

This system is also connected to China’s wider national development strategies such as rural revitalization and food security. 

At the same time, China increasingly serves as an important partner in global development cooperation. 

Indeed, many countries across the Globe are facing similar challenges and have similar questions:  

• How to protect smallholder farmers from growing climate risks, 
• How to mobilize investment into rural economies, and  
• How to build agricultural systems that are productive, inclusive and resilient. 

No country has all the answers. Yet every country has valuable experiences to share.  

As China advances rural revitalization and agricultural modernization, there is growing opportunity to translate domestic innovation into global knowledge insights that can also benefit other developing countries. 

Ultimately, the fact that representatives from 28 countries have gathered here today reflects a shared recognition that resilience can be built, that solutions do already exist, and that collective action can help bring them to scale. 

UNDP is proud to support this process.  

As a trusted development partner working in more than 170 countries and territories around the world, UNDP is uniquely positioned to connect experiences across regions, facilitate policy dialogue, and help transform promising innovations into scalable solutions. 

Let us use this opportunity not only to exchange ideas, but to advance practical cooperation that strengthens financial resilience for millions of farmers and contributes to more sustainable, inclusive, and resilient food systems. 

I wish you a productive and inspiring Community of Practice. 

Thank you.