WHILE most of the countries paid just lip-service to the cherished goal of poverty alleviation, there are confirmed reports that China succeeded to lift about 100 million people out of the poverty during the last eight years, a miraculous achievement that speaks volumes about the hard work done since the 18th Communist Party of China (CPC) National Congress in 2012 and the dynamic leadership qualities of President Xi Jinping.
The Chinese leadership succeeded in their endeavour to address the challenge of poverty by focusing on rural areas where the natural environment is harsh.
The Chinese President affirmed in 2012 that the country needs a new concept, a new system and a new approach to help 98.99 people shake off poverty and in the subsequent year he introduced the idea of ‘targeted poverty alleviation ‘ under which tailoring relief policies to different local conditions became a guiding principle in China’s fight against poverty.
To realize this objective, the central authorities carefully made policies, prepared projects, arranged funds and carried out evaluations, while those at the provincial level did their best to determine goals, allocate funds and conduct inspections.
The grassroots organs monitored progress of projects and the use of funds and personnel to ensure that the goals set are met in the given timeframe. President Xi gave two assurances and three guarantees to the rural population – their food and clothing needs will be met and that they had access to compulsory education, basic medical services and safe housing.
He also introduced the idea of having a database of the poor and the process of registration of the poor population enabled China to gather the poverty status and data specifically from each person, household and village for the first time in history.
The poverty alleviation strategy focused on creating and supporting sustainable micro-businesses, relocating people from remote areas, ensuring the accessibility of education and training, providing ecological compensation for those living in environmentally vulnerable areas and ensuring social security, medical subsidies and direct payments to those who cannot work.
It was because of the well-knitted policy that apart from sustenance allowance to the poor, all 832 impoverished counties across the country have carried out more than 1 million industrial projects and built over 300,000 industrial bases ensuring employment opportunities for people.
The strategy adopted by China can serve as a model for other countries including Pakistan that are struggling to overcome the challenge of abysmal poverty.
