Health and education are two important fields in which China and
UNICEF can work together to help Africa in the future, says Gnilane
Senghor, senior program officer with UNICEF China in Beijing.
African children are in jeopardy as "malaria is killing a child
every 30 second in Africa," says Ms Senghor, who is from Senegal
and has being working at UNICEF China for six years.
The disease claims more than one million lives each year
worldwide, and 80 percent of them occur in Africa, according to a
report by World Health Organization and UNICEF in 2004.
Given China today is such a big producer of commodities, Senghor
said: "It can cooperate with UNICEF, a world leader in the
procurement of supplies for children."
In 2005, UNICEF bought US$1.1 billion worth of commodities, a 38
percent increase over the year before. US$26.3 million was direct
procurement from China, and there was probably 3 times more through
indirect procurement (meaning commodities produced in China, but
not bought from China), she said.
Senghor said there is much China could to do to help the
children of Africa survive, such as providing mosquito nets and
medicines like artemisinin to treat malaria, as well as other
pharmaceuticals and vaccines.
She added that to be able to buy vaccines from China, UNICEF
needs these vaccines to be certified and meet international
standards.
"There's a unique opportunity for China, and for Africa as well,
to save children," Senghor said. "Through UNICEF, African countries
can get more medicines at low cost."
Apart from the material assistance to Africa, "China could also
offer 'software' support."
She said "China could play a prominent role when it comes the
quality of education, for it has meaningful experience in basic
education, especially in early childhood education and distance
education. And African countries would benefit a lot if China could
support them to increase access and the quality of education, and
eventually reach the goal of education for all."
"Africa definitely is a priority for UNICEF worldwide because
it's far lagging behind compared to China, and China could share
the same priority in a sense of cooperation," Senghor said.
(China Daily November 3, 2006)
