China, UN partners to boost smallholders' climate resilience

China and United Nations partners launched a new initiative Thursday to help boost smallholders' climate change resilience under the South-South Cooperation Framework.

Under the new initiative, institutions from China and United Nations partners, including the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, will enhance their collaboration to better equip smallholders to deal with challenges by facilitating policy dialogues and supporting capacity building to help countries enhance value chain development for the benefit of smallholders in rural areas.

With a lack of knowledge and financial support, smallholders in the developing and least developed countries are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Strengthening their resilience is quite urgent, said United Nations Under Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ESCAP Shamshad Akhtar.

Xie Zhenhua, China's special envoy for Climate Change Affairs, said China is committed to sharing its experience with developing countries in order to help smallholders improve their capacity to adapt to climate change, especially in the areas of agricultural early warning systems and capacity for disaster risk reduction.