Support for Africa

While calls for enhanced inclusion of African representation in the UN system remain unfinished business, China has found many means of assisting Africa through specialized UN agencies. A major turning point for China’s involvement in the UN system was in the early 1980s when the country started making contributions to agencies such as the UN Development Program (UNDP), UN Capital Development Fund, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, UN Population Fund, UN Industrial Development Organization, and World Food Program among others. These contributions have benefitted African countries as these agencies are targeted at developing nations where Africa constitutes the largest number of states.

A shining example of China’s support for African countries is in the UN peace and security arena where China has received accolades from not just African leaders but the UN system in its entirety. Although civil wars have considerably subsided on the continent, some regions and countries remain trouble spots. China’s active involvement in Un-led peace and security efforts can be traced to its 1989 deployment military observers in Namibia during a transition in the southern African nation. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Chinese peacekeeping forces were sent to Western