The National Working Committee on Children and Women (NWCCW) under the State
Council, the coordination and consultation organ of the Chinese government in
charge of women and children's work, plays an important role in coordinating and
promoting relevant government departments to do women and children's work well,
as well as in formulating and organizing the implementation of the outlines for
the development of women and children, providing necessary human, financial and
material resources to the work on women and children and to the development of
women and children's cause, and guiding, encouraging and supervising the work of
its subordinates in all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities
directly under the central government. The current NWCCW is headed by a
vice-premier of the State Council, and is composed of 33 member units
(ministries, commissions under the State Council and non-governmental
organizations - ed.) each having one of its vice-ministerial-level officials as
a member of the NWCCW. To date, working organs on children and women have been
set up by the people's governments of all provinces, autonomous regions and
municipalities directly under the central government, prefectures
(prefecture-level cities and leagues) and counties (county-level cities,
districts and banners) across China's mainland, which are under the direction of
officials of governments at the corresponding level. An effective working system
has been built within these working committees to coordinate the functional
departments and urge them to perform their duties. Their expenditures are
covered in the financial budgets of the governments at the corresponding level.
The Chinese government attaches importance to the role of non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) related to the development of women. The All-China Women's
Federation, All-China Federation of Trade Unions, Central Committee of the
Communist Youth League, China Disabled Persons' Federation and China Association
of Science and Technology have all effectively pressed ahead with their gender
equality work in line with their respective guidelines. The All-China Women's
Federation (ACWF) is the largest NGO in China dedicated to promoting gender
equality and women's development. It has an organizational system that covers
women's federations and group members at various levels, and enjoys wide
representation and mass involvement. The ACWF and local women's federations play
a significant role in uniting and motivating women to participate in the
country's economic construction and social development, encouraging them to take
an active part in the democratic management and supervision of state and social
affairs, and representing and safeguarding the rights and interests of women as
a whole. In recent years, government departments have cooperated with women's
federations and other NGOs to organize all kinds of activities to effectively
utilize social resources for the promotion of gender equality and women's
development.
The central and local treasuries have both increased their inputs for the
implementation of the outline for the development of women year by year, and
optimized the allocation of resources to facilitate women's development. Since
2000, quite an amount of funds have been appropriated from the central and local
treasuries to help achieve the key and difficult objectives that are difficult
to fulfill in the outlines, with priority being given to the western and
poverty-stricken areas. In 1990, the state input into women and children's
health care and epidemic prevention and treatment stood at 305 million yuan and
1.203 billion yuan, respectively, which rose to 1.046 billion yuan and 3.388
billion yuan in 1999, and further to 1.579 billion yuan and 9.054 billion yuan
in 2003. The state also pays great attention to the collection and study of
statistics about the situation as regards women, and has set up a special organ
to monitor and assess the implementation of the outline, and formulated a
statistical monitoring indicator system and assessment program. In addition,
networks for statistics monitoring and working systems have been established in
various provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the
central government. With the continuous improvement of the statistics-gathering
and analysis systems by the departments concerned and gender statistics
indicators added, a complete national gender statistics system has taken shape
and is being constantly improved. Over the past decade, materials on gender
statistics have been compiled and published by the state departments of
statistics.
The Chinese government sets great store by cooperation with the United
Nations and other international organizations, and has actively strengthened its
exchanges and cooperation with other governments and women's organizations
around the world. China is serious about implementing international conventions.
In May 2000, it submitted to the United Nations The Report on the Implementation
Result of the People's Republic of China of the "Beijing Declaration" and the
"Platform for Action" Adopted by the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995;
in February 2004, it submitted The Fifth and Sixth Regular Reports on the
Implementation of the UN "Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women;" and in March 2005, it submitted The Report on the
Implementation of the People's Republic of China of the "Beijing Platform for
Action" (1995) and the Document of Results of the 23rd UN General Assembly
Special Session (2000).
