Experts and officials shared their insights on poverty reduction cooperation and sustainable development during the 2025 International Seminar on Global Poverty Reduction Partnerships.
Individuals and representatives of organizations who submitted case studies during the 6th Call of Global Solicitation on Best Poverty Reduction Practices Campaign and other attendees pose with their award certificates at the 2025 International Seminar on Global Poverty Reduction Partnerships on December 10, 2025.
The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030, adopted by all the United Nations member states in 2015, are facing a number of challenges, with factors such as climate change, regional conflicts, and economic recession all impacting particularly the state of global poverty governance.
As a platform to address this through exchanges and technical collaboration, the 2025 International Seminar on Global Poverty Reduction Partnerships was held in Beijing on December 10, 2025.
Themed “Strengthening Partnerships to Address Poverty Reduction Challenges,” nearly 200 officials and guests from 17 countries and seven international organizations, sat down to discuss new paths to promote the sustainable development of global poverty reduction and food security.
Co-hosted by the International Poverty Reduction Center in China, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the World Food Programme (WFP), and the China Internet Information Center, the case-sharing session highlighted several positive initiatives being undertaken.
Seven representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA), the Ministry of Commerce, the WFP, Guangdong Province, and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region shared cooperative projects to showcase innovative practices and successful experience of different organizations in poverty reduction efforts.
Education and Employment Assistance
Yantian District, located in the eastern part of Shenzhen, south China’s Guangdong Province, is a coastal urban area with beautiful scenery and innovative industries. Thanks to the development dividends brought by the reform and opening-up policy over the past 47 years, Yantian has written a new chapter in innovative cooperation.
Since partnering with Leye County, Baise City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, in 2016, Yantian has explored a unique assistance path through cooperation between governments, schools, and enterprises. It has built a bridge for young people in south China’s western region to change their destiny.
Li Zhong, secretary of the CPC Yantian District Committee, said that it helped Leye eradicate poverty in 2020 through cooperation in five fields including industries, employment, education, health, and ecology. During the process, Yantian has prioritized education assistance. Young people in Leye faced difficulties in vocational education and employment, while enterprises in Yantian were in great need of high-skilled specialists.
In 2021, governments of the two regions launched a joint project, creating a close loop where schools customize courses based on enterprises’ needs and enterprises in return provide internship positions and then job opportunities for students who pass their assessments.
The model knocked out two challenges in one go. Over the past four years, it has helped 669 young people enroll in schools, 524 of whom worked in Yantian District after graduation. Some students also chose to pursue further education or to join the military for more life options. Meanwhile, enterprises saved an average of RMB 700,000-1,000,000 annually on recruitment costs.
“Guided by market demand, we always focus on employment assistance and students’ all-round development. We have improved the cooperation project to create replicable cases to share. As of now, the model has been applied in more targeted areas, benefitting more young people, therefore consolidating our poverty alleviation achievements, advancing coordinated development among different regions, and promoting rural revitalization,” Li said.
Jiao Xiaoqiang, an associate professor at the College of Resources and Environmental Sciences of China Agricultural University, is instructing African students during field trials at the Thuchira Science and Technology Backyard in Malawi on November 12, 2023.
South-South Agricultural Cooperation
Over the past four decades since its establishment, the Foreign Economic Cooperation Center of MARA has participated in South-South agricultural cooperation through multiple ways including investment and trade, regional cooperation, and policy research. The center has helped developing countries enhance their comprehensive production capacity in the sector.
Jin Ke, director-general of the center, shared two successful cases. Under the framework of South-South cooperation of the FAO, the center’s first phase project in collaboration with the Namibian government was implemented from 2015 to 2018 and achieved remarkable results. It sent 150 Chinese agricultural experts to the country, introduced 15 rice varieties, and promoted techniques such as raising seedlings and mechanized transplanting. The local sowing and transplanting periods have been reduced from nearly five months to about two months, and the cumulative planting area also expanded to over 6,000 hectares, saving considerable labor costs.
In addition to introducing technology, it has organized more than 20 training sessions for over 500 local people, cultivating a group of agricultural technical experts. In the product processing sector, Chinese experts also optimized the local rice grading process, helping farmers expand sales channels and improve income. The results were highly recognized by the FAO and Namibian government. The second phase of the project was launched in September 2023.
In 2024, the center, Shanghai Ocean University, and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries of Cambodia jointly launched a smart aquaculture pilot project under the China-ASEAN Smart Farm Integrated Development Pilot Program. The project focuses on the digitalized cultivation of giant river prawn larvae. It has established three smart farming demonstration sites in Cambodia’s Takeo Province, covering an area of 36.6 hectares.
Through the application of intelligent technologies, it has increased the breeding density by 100 percent, and the survival rate of prawns has risen from 40 percent to 75-80 percent. Under a symbiotic model of rice and prawns, the survival rate of the larvae has also advanced from 30 percent to 70 percent.
Moreover, it has trained over 200 farmers and technical officials. The farmers’ annual household income per hectare has also increased three-fold. More sustainable development momentum has therefore been injected into the local freshwater aquaculture industry.
“Since 2004, we have organized over 200 training sessions focusing on fields including poverty reduction, food security, agricultural technology innovation, and climate change. It covered more than 7,000 participants in more than 100 countries and regions, cultivating a large number of professionals for global poverty reduction,” Jin said. He added that the center is ready to deepen cooperation with all parties to share China’s experience, in a bid to contribute to achieving the SDGs for 2030.
Empowering African Farmers
Today, Africa still struggles with pressing challenges in food security. According to the latest analysis released by WFP in May 2025, more than 36 million people in West and Central Africa are struggling to meet their basic food and nutrition needs. Affected by drought and regional conflicts, rice cultivation in West Africa was reduced into a fix.
Feng Yan, program officer at China Center of Excellence for Rural Development of WFP, shared how her center helped enhance smallholders’ productivity in West Africa. At project sites in Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea, they face severe food security issues. The low rice productivity and post-harvest loss rates are primarily responsible for farmers’ low income there.
The project is sponsored by the Gates Foundation and implemented in collaboration with the WFP and local centers of excellence in rural development. By providing two kilograms of rice seeds, 16,000 kilograms of fertilizer, and small agricultural machinery from China, it has enhanced local productivity. In Côte d’Ivoire, rice yields per hectare increased from nearly one ton to about three tons, while in Guinea, an annual growth rate of two to three percent has been reached.
Meanwhile, the China Center also focuses on how to reduce post-harvest grain losses. It helped improve two local rice processing chains and mini grain storage facilities, which shortened post-harvest losses by 15 percent as a result. In addition, customized training on the technical and management skills of the rice production chain has benefited nearly 1,500 local farmers.
Over and above technological empowerment, the project also organized three tours for industry chain study in China, inviting local officials and farmer representatives to learn the technology and equipment operation. With the promotion of Chinese farming techniques, rice productivity, farmers’ incomes, and women’s rights in both regions have been improved. The cooperation not only alleviated the food crisis in West Africa, but also provided a duplicable Chinese solution for global poverty reduction.
Feng said that the introduction of Chinese equipment and rice varieties are key factors that tailored to local needs, which has greatly improved local grain production capacity. “We have connected the international organizations with China’s technological expertise. We worked together with the African countries, regional governments, and local communities to advance the project, which aligns with the core principles of South-South cooperation,” Feng said. “The dispatched Chinese technical teams have provided strong training support, including the deployment and maintenance of equipment, effectively empowering local development.”
