This year marks the beginning of China's 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026- 2030). The causes of women, children and their families have been included in the country's overall development plan. Women's federations, at all levels across China, have begun marching on a new journey, under the guidance of the new blueprint.
While adhering firmly to the Outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People's Republic of China (2026-2030), the women's federations have been taking concrete measures while contributing to the writing of a new chapter in the advancement of women and children's causes.
Service Compounds Help Women, Children Obtain Happiness
The Outline calls for the creation of an enabling social environment to develop the causes of women and children, and to improve supportive policies for the development of families.
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Yuhao Space of Darongzhai Community, in Chongqing's Rongchang District |
Chongqing Women's Federation, the women's federation of Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, launched Yuhao Space, an initiative that builds community-based compounds, which provide comprehensive services that benefit women and children.
By providing childcare, employment support and family education guidance services, Yuhao Space helps create friendly environments for women and children in the "15-minute community life circle," which encourages communities to offer accessible and shared services to residents within a 15-minute walk distance.
Seventy-four of these spaces, at the city level, have been established in Chongqing between October 2023 and June 2026. These spaces have benefited more than 330,000 residents.
Yuhao Space serves mainly women, children and their families. These spaces have been established in community service centers and public venues that provide nursing, cultural and/or sports services.
In those spaces, women's federations have organized grassroots governance discussions, women's voluntary-service activities and children's participation in urban planning, all to inspire women, children and their families to become involved in social governance.
For example, Nanhu Community, in Nan'an District, organizes tea-culture communications in Yuhao Space, to help residents solve disputes and better communicate with their neighbors.
Hehuaping Community, in Banan District, has invited an artists' association to work with Yuhao Space to build fine arts facilities and improve community-based catering services.
Zhengjie Community, in Tongliang District, has encouraged social organizations and volunteers to work with Yuhao Space, by setting up a dining hall, a food market and a tea garden, to meet residents' needs.
Chongqing Women's Federation plans to enhance the roles played by Yuhao Space in serving women, children and their families, and in increasing their sense of gain and happiness.
Creating Friendly City Atmosphere to Highlight Priority, Equality, Participation of Children
The Outline also proposed the construction of child-friendly cities. As a national-level pilot, Yangzhou, in East China's Jiangsu Province, has included construction of a child-friendly city in the outline of its 15th Five-Year Plan for economic and social development.
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Yangzhou opens child-friendly public-transportation lines. |
Yangzhou Municipal People's Congress has included legislation and survey research — on regulations to promote preschool education and a school-familysociety collaboration mechanism in education — in its legislative work plan for this year.
Yangzhou has integrated child-friendly concepts into the city's overall development. On March 1, 2025, regulations promoting construction of a child-friendly city in Yangzhou took effect. The priority, equality and participation of children, combined, have become an indispensable part of everyday life for residents in Yangzhou.
In recent years, Yangzhou has completed child-friendly renovation projects in 33 schools, 15 parks, 50-plus residential communities and nine city-level reading facilities.
The city has promoted construction of child-friendly hospitals, opened child-friendly public-transportation lines, and renovated parent-child, picture-book reading facilities. Yangzhou's efforts for improving child-friendly facilities in an airport have been included in the Child-Friendly City Development Report of China (2025).
In terms of legal education and the protection of children and teenagers' rights, Yangzhou became the first city in Jiangsu to release a convention document, which aims at improving children and teenagers' interactions on the Internet. Yangzhou also established China's first barrier-free, legal-education base for children and teenagers.
The city introduced cyber-spacerights-protection courses for minors, and those courses have benefited 400,000 children and teenagers in Yangzhou and its neighboring area.
In November 2025, Amakobe Sande, Representative of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to China, praised Yangzhou for its efforts to protect children's rights and interests and promote the development of children.
With the municipal government's guidance, and given the support and participation of communities, schools and families, Yangzhou has adhered to the principle of creating a safe, inclusive and empowering environment to foster children's healthy growth and development.
Federation Empowers Women's Development in New Business Forms
The Outline urges support for the development of new forms and models of business, such as rural industries, cultural tourism and rural e-commerce, and also for the protection of women's equal rights and interests in employment.
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| A craft-making training session organized by the women's federation of a rural livestreamers' union in Luohe |
Zhang Fen is president of the women's federation of a rural livestreamers' union in Shabei subdistrict, Yancheng District, in Luohe, a city in Central China's Henan Province.
Zhang has witnessed how women have obtained job opportunities, while working at home, after they have participated in craft-making training organized by the women's federation.
Yancheng District is in downtown Luohe. The e-commerce and livestreaming business forms have been developing rapidly in recent years. Women make up more than 70 percent of workers in the area's livestreaming sector.
The women's federation of Yancheng District established a women's federation for the rural livestreamers' union based in Shabei. More than 40 women, from all walks of life, are executive committee members of that union's women's federation. The union has attracted 1,000- plus women, and it has organized 40-plus training sessions to help and empower 4,050 women.
In addition to providing craft-making training, the rural livestreamers' union's women's federation has organized family education service activities, to help women better balance work and life. The federation has also organized parent-child craft-making and reading activities, to enrich their lives. Stories about "Most Beautiful Families" and family virtues are shared during the federation's events.
On the journey of advancing Chinese modernization, women's all-round development, children's healthy growth and families' happiness will surely lay a solid foundation for the harmony of society, and will surely pool the strength for realizing the grand blueprint of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
Photos from Office of Chongqing Municipal Working Committee on Children and Women, Yangzhou Women's Federation and Luohe Women's Federation
(Women of China English Monthly July 2026)
Editor: Wang Shasha
