Guaranteeing the Achievement of Sustainable Development Goals 3 and 4 through Temporary Guardianship in Times of Sudden Public Emergencies: Analytical Evidence from China’s Policies during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Shiqing Chen and Yanqiong Zhang ()
Additional contact information
Shiqing Chen: School of Law, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9YL, UK
Yanqiong Zhang: School of Humanities and Law, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 13, 1-21

Abstract: The requirements for children’s health, well-being, and education are covered in Sustainable Development Goals 3 and 4. In response to the crisis in survival and development sustainability faced by children during the COVID-19 pandemic, China adopted the temporary guardianship system. The purpose of this study is to examine whether this system does contribute to safeguarding children’s sustainable development, well-being, and health. The study adopted a descriptive qualitative approach with content analysis and applied qualitative document analysis of relevant regulations. Data were obtained through 12 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with the institutional staff and individuals. The results indicate that the multiple supports provided to children during the COVID-19 pandemic by the institutions and individuals responsible for assuming temporary guardianship were basically adequate to meet the needs for achieving children’s objective well-being and sustainable development and safeguarding their health. Despite some deficiencies, the temporary guardianship system is worthy of becoming a sustainable system for supporting children’s sustainable personal development and safeguarding their health and well-being, and of serving as a blueprint for other countries to pursue Sustainable Development Goals in times of sudden public emergencies.

Keywords: SDG 3; SDG 4; children’s objective well-being; sustainable development; children’s health; temporary guardianship; COVID-19 pandemic; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/13/5672/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/13/5672/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:13:p:5672-:d:1428051

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().