UN agencies help nation on key fronts

About 500,000 doctors have benefited from the training, and due to the project's success, the World Bank has expanded the model to another 285 counties, Ahonsi added.

With the arrival of the 21st century, Ahonsi said China needed to tackle its ageing population, low birth rate and massive urbanization.

UNFPA's main work centered on helping the country move from an administrative approach to client-focused family planning as well as establishing a system for universal access to sexual and reproductive health services.

In 2014, the agency worked with authorities in Wugong county, Shaanxi province, Changfeng county, Anhui, and Jing'an county, Jiangxi, to tackle gender imbalance, in cooperation with the National Health and Family Planning Commission and the China Population and Development Research Center.

The project helped in amending some gender-discriminatory regulations in nearly 100 villages, supporting women's rights and interests in areas such as land ownership and political participation.

On arrival in China, UNFPA launched its first Country Programme, a long-term approach to addressing population issues.

The agency has launched eight Country Programmes, each having its own phased approach and lasting four or five years, coinciding with the nation's different development stages.

The latest program, which runs from 2016 to next year, is aligned with national priorities outlined in the 13th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development for the same period, and will contribute to the UN Development Assistance Framework.

The ongoing program focuses on areas ranging from sexual and reproductive health to youth issues, from gender equality and empowerment to population dynamics.

Since taking up his role in China in 2017, Ahonsi said he has sensed the rapid changes in the country's economic and social development, and the growing role it plays on the world stage.

He added that is also worth learning of the achievements China has made regarding its population policy and the improvements to sexual and reproductive health services.

"China is slowly transitioning from a 'program country' that receives development assistance to a 'partnership country' that supports the development of other countries," he said. "And the UN can play a supportive and facilitating role during China's transition."