By Alessandra Tisot
The 17th National Congress gives Chinese leaders a unique opportunity to find ways to make financial services more accessible to the rural poor. That was the goal of one set of proposals already unveiled this year. Such a push is to be applauded, since limited rural access to financial services is a major barrier preventing the weakest from finding opportunities to take part in the mainland's impressive development.
This harmonious vision of inclusiveness cannot be realised, however, as long as access to these services remains limited for the most vulnerable – including people living with HIV, their families and affected communities. Millions of people affected by HIV are restricted by the loss of security, livelihood options and human development potential. To compensate, Beijing should explore explicit provisions for HIV/AIDS in the current thrust to expand rural financial services.
The HIV/AIDS crisis clearly has implications far beyond the health sector. It relates squarely to human development issues of poverty, gender and good governance, not only in China but around the world.
Families with one or more members living with HIV/AIDS often face rapidly mounting difficulties, including a deepening cycle of poverty, limited access to education and higher vulnerability in terms of social status, legal rights and institutional discrimination.
Up to three-quarters of China's estimated 650,000 people living with HIV/AIDS are rural poor, concentrated in Yunnan, Guangxi, Henan and Xinjiang. Microfinance can be an impressive tool for the social and economic empowerment of thousands of women, men and children living with HIV/AIDS, and their families. Measures must also be taken to counter discrimination against such people in microcredit programmes generally.
There are already examples of micro-finance supporting people living with HIV/AIDS on the mainland. A recent pilot project in northwestern China — jointly implemented by the UN Development Programme, China International Centre for Economic and Technical Exchanges and the National Centre for STD/ Prevention and Control — shows clearly that such families can be effectively integrated into a microfinance programme.
This pilot project has directly benefited more than 130 families by giving them targeted access to microcredit services and training. Some families used the financing for animal husbandry or to expand their existing household enterprises, raising their incomes as well as living standards and self-confidence.
The potential benefits for China's national support and care programmes are timely as well, as the country steps up its efforts to fight. Access to financial systems can play a key role in that development. Microfinance is such a powerful mechanism for empowerment and reducing poverty. While the poor have little physical or financial capital, there are no limits to their creativity, innovation and entrepreneurial spirit.
Many men and women living with HIV have improved their quality of life through access to microcredit. This clearly demonstrates that what affected families need is opportunity, not charity. In this regard, microfinance taps into one of the great driving forces that makes it possible to achieve the UN's Millennium Development Goals – including the goals of halving poverty, halting and reversing HIV/AIDS and eliminating discrimination.
Beijing is to be commended for putting such emphasis on extending the reach of the financial system in rural areas. Now it has the opportunity to show global leadership once more: by including explicit provisions on HIV/AIDS, it can ensure that this critical financial thrust doesn't leave behind some of its most vulnerable citizens.
About the author:
Alessandra Tisot is the deputy country director of the UN Development Programme in China.