Xining, Beijing, 29 September 2025: The United Nations’ children, development and population agencies, UNICEF, UNDP and UNFPA, today announced a joint programme to support national and regional government to build child-friendly, climate-resilient and prosperous rural communities in four regions of Western China.

The programme, titled ‘Building Child-Friendly, Climate-Resilient, and Prosperous Rural Community in The Western Region of China’, has secured US $5.5 million in funding. It will be implemented by the three UN agencies in collaboration with the Ministry of Commerce and local government counterparts, including the Qinghai Provincial Department of Commerce, Qinghai Provincial Department of Science and Technology, the Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture Government, and the Governments of Gonghe and Guide Counties.

“There is a global shared understanding on the importance of sustainable development,” Governor of Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture Gama Pengcuo said. “We need to work more closely together in order to optimise our resources and promote high-quality economic and social development. This will improve people’s well-being,” Governor of Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture Gama Pengcuo said.

Under the joint programme, UNICEF will address critical development gaps in climate resilience, inclusive public services, green livelihoods and health equity, particularly for women, youth, children and ethnic minority communities. UNDP will focus on three key areas: supporting green skills and economic development, strengthening local finance mechanisms, and facilitating the exchange of knowledge and lessons learned. UNFPA will strengthen knowledge and life skills of adolescents and youth and promote inclusive care systems for older persons to strengthen community resilience and intergenerational solidarity.

“Every child deserves to grow up in a community that is responsive to their needs and can deal with the impacts of climate change,” UNICEF Representative to China Amakobe Sande said. “UNICEF’s expertise will build on learnings from our successful sanitation project in Qinghai, which will now be scaled up. We aim to strengthen child-friendly and climate-smart social sector infrastructure and services, empower communities, and develop scalable models that can inform similar efforts in other rural areas across China and beyond.”

“By strengthening climate-smart services, green livelihoods, financing mechanisms, and capacity on the ground, this joint programme will not only improve lives in Hainan TAP today but also shape a model of rural transformation that is resilient, inclusive, and rooted in the needs of local people,” UNDP Representative to China Beate Trankmann said.

“UNFPA is committed to empowering young people with the skills, knowledge and opportunities they need to thrive, while supporting older persons through comprehensive care and promoting well-being across generations,” UNFPA Representative to China Nadia Rasheed said. “Through this innovative joint programme, we are collaborating to enhance health, education and care services – with a focus on youth, women and older persons – to build child-friendly, climate-resilient, and prosperous rural communities where everyone can flourish.”

The programme launch was marked by a visit to Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai Province by the three UN Representatives. They visited a Hainan high school and vocational college, as well as Gonghe County Agricultural Production Demonstration Park and Longyangxia Hydropower and Solar Thermal sites, all of which are making positive impacts in one of the China’s most ecologically fragile and socioeconomically vulnerable regions.

The location of the programme lies within fragile alpine ecosystems with underdeveloped infrastructure. Despite ongoing investments in rural revitalisation, critical gaps remain in areas such as climate-adaptive water and sanitation systems, adolescent health education, green skills development, and localised financing mechanisms for sustainable development.

The programme aims to achieve the following broad outcomes:

1. Reduce poverty and improve lives – addressing relative and multi-dimensional poverty and ensuring more people benefit from sustainable economic opportunities through improved access to childcare, education, healthcare services. This includes sexual reproductive health and rights, elderly care, housing and social assistance.
2. Sustainable livelihoods – capacity building for young people to promote sustainable livestock and vegetable farming, processing, marketing, renewable energy development and other green industries.
3. Strengthened capacity – enhancing local capacity to mobilise and manage financial resources for sustainable and inclusive development.
4. Climate action and resilience – creating infrastructure and services to support climate resilience in schools, kindergartens, healthcare facilities and community centers. This will support China's transition to a people-centred, inclusive and low-carbon economy.

Tackling climate change is an issue of increasing importance to children. UNICEF’s global ‘Children’s Climate Risk Index’ ranks China 40 out of 163 countries in terms of the impact of climate change on children (in the top 25 percent). Climate change is making extreme weather events like droughts longer and more severe, damaging food production and children’s health. More than 110 million children in China are experiencing water scarcity.

The new programme aims to supports China’s national development priorities, including the Rural Revitalization Strategy, the 14th Five-Year Plan’s Regional Development Strategy, and the State Council’s work on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Demonstration Zones, while contributing to SDG targets. It will benefit vulnerable populations, especially ethnic minority women and girls, children, adolescents and the elderly – all of whom face barriers to accessing essential services and development opportunities.