On October 14, the 2024 Global National Assessment Capacity Conference opened in Beijing. During the conference, a plenary session on China was held, where attendees deeply discussed the positive role China's assessment system has played in recent years in implementing the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, foreign aid, and poverty alleviation.
As the largest developing country, China's development endeavors are an essential part of the implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. According to assessments by the International Research Center for Sustainable Development Big Data, currently, China has already achieved 126 indicators ahead of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development goals, accounting for 55.5% of all indicators. In recent years, China has placed great emphasis on public policy assessment, treating it as an important means of modernizing the national governance system and governance capabilities, forming a public policy assessment system with Chinese characteristics.
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Lung Guoqiang, Deputy Director of the Development Research Center of the State Council, stated that scientific assessments can accurately judge progress, promptly identify issues, and continuously improve decision-making. "At present, the implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has reached the final stage of tough challenges. China will continue to share its experiences and practices in the field of assessment, working with other countries to jointly promote the realization of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda goals," said Lung Guoqiang.
"Assessment is a key link and important means for China to achieve modernization of the national governance system and governance capabilities in the field of foreign aid. Compared to the history of foreign aid development, foreign aid assessment work started relatively late, going through a process of exploration from nothing to something, from individual cases to the norm, and from single to comprehensive," introduced Liu Junfeng, Deputy Director of the China International Development Cooperation Agency. In 2017, foreign aid projects began to fully implement pre-project assessment, process supervision assessment, and post-implementation effect assessment. After the establishment of the CIDCA in 2018, a supervision and assessment department was specially set up, initially constructing a Chinese characteristic foreign aid assessment system.
"To date, hundreds of various assessments have been carried out in the field of foreign aid, and the assessment work procedures have been continuously standardized. In the future, we hope to actively carry out North-South dialogues and South-South cooperation in foreign aid assessments with all parties to build a closer partnership," said Liu Junfeng.
Ruan Jianhong, Deputy Director of the National Bureau of Statistics, introduced China's practices and experiences in conducting rural poverty statistical monitoring in poverty alleviation. She stated that rural poverty monitoring is an important part of the Chinese government's statistics and has played a significant foundational role in China's poverty alleviation efforts.
"In recent years, the National Bureau of Statistics has not only provided data support for the Chinese government to formulate poverty reduction policies and monitor the effectiveness of poverty reduction through research and formulation of rural poverty standards, establishment and improvement of poverty monitoring systems, and conducting national poverty alleviation surveys, but also used monitoring survey data to provide statistical information services for the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals monitoring and the World Bank's update of international poverty standards, calculation of China's and the global poverty incidence rates, and other work," said Ruan Jianhong. "Next, the National Bureau of Statistics will continue to improve the institutional system of poverty alleviation monitoring, further strengthen domestic and international cooperation, and conduct in-depth monitoring, evaluation, and research analysis."
Improving assessment capabilities and strengthening supervision issues are key to implementing various development and reform tasks. In this regard, Zhang Sixun, Deputy Secretary-General of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that in more than 20 years of exploration and practice, the National Development and Reform Commission has established and improved the national development planning assessment system in terms of scale assessment; established a macro policy orientation consistency assessment mechanism in policy assessment; and established a major project post-evaluation mechanism and other assessment mechanisms in major project assessment, which are of great significance for improving the scientific nature and effectiveness of planning and giving full play to the strategic guiding role of national development planning in economic and social development. "In the future, we are willing to strengthen exchanges and cooperation in the field of assessment with all parties, jointly carry out assessment theory and method research and practice, and contribute more Chinese experience to enhancing the global national assessment capabilities," said Zhang Sixun.
"China's audit institutions focus on economic construction and high-quality development work, playing an important role in the links of supervision and protection, standardization and promotion, and decision-making consultation by fully and objectively revealing problems, scientifically and accurately proposing suggestions, and urging rectification and system improvement," said Cui Zhenlong, Director of the Economic Responsibility Audit Department of the Audit Office.
At present, a new round of technological and industrial revolutions is developing in depth, and various uncertain factors such as geopolitical risks, trade frictions, and anti-globalization are superimposed, posing new challenges to national assessment capabilities. Gou Husheng, Chairman of China International Engineering Consulting Corporation, said that facing the increasingly complex international environment, China's engineering consulting industry should continuously innovate in consulting concepts, methods, and means, actively use modern technological means such as artificial intelligence and big data to improve industry assessment capabilities, and jointly promote the enhancement of national assessment capabilities.