China beefs up efforts in rural poverty reduction
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-10-06 10:53

In addition to government efforts, China has taken a number of steps to mobilize and organize people in all walks of life, including in the eastern coastal provinces and in multi-level party and government organs, to join the development and construction effort in poverty-stricken regions.

The government has organized 15 eastern provinces and municipalities to support development in 11 corresponding poverty-stricken provinces, autonomous regions and cities in western regions. It has organized 116 central party and government organs and 156 large state firms to help and support 481 key targeted counties. And it has organized all social sectors to participate in the process of closing the country's yawning income gap.

The Glorious Enterprise program encourages private firms to invest in impoverished areas. The Hope Project organized by the Communist Youth League Central Committee sponsors children in poor households to finish compulsory education. The non-communist parties in the country organized the Knowledge-oriented Poverty Alleviation Program, utilizing their own advantages to help poor regions extend practical technologies. The Happiness Project organized by the Chinese Population Foundation sponsors poor mothers, and the Women-oriented Poverty Alleviation Program organized by the All-China Women's Federation aims to increase women's income.

From December 2005 to February this year, the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (CFPA), the largest of its kind in the country for poverty relief, invited bids from 10 Chinese and foreign NGOs for implementing a village-level poverty alleviation project in 22 key poverty-stricken villages of east China's Jiangxi Province, under the entrustment of Jiangxi Provincial Poverty Alleviation and Development Office.

Six NGOs were chosen in April 2006. They were Heifer Project International from the United States, Jiangxi Provincial Association Promoting Mountain-River-Lake Regional Sustainable Development, Jiangxi Youth Development Foundation, The Ningxia Center for Poverty Alleviation and Environment Improvement, China Association for NGO Cooperation and Research Association for Women and Family.

Under the scenario, the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Jiangxi Provincial Poverty Alleviation and Development Office will provide a budgetary allocation of 11 million yuan (1.35 million dollars) to the six NGOs for implementing the project in six townships in the counties of Le'an, Xingguo and Ningdu in Jiangxi Province. Each village is to gain access to 500,000 yuan. The project is scheduled to complete in 2007.

Farmers who are accustomed to government-sponsored poverty relief are amazed at the new mode. "NGOs are different from government projects in poverty relief. NGO workers would come to our homes and talk patiently on everything with each of us," said Dong Xiaoping, a farmer with Liukeng Village in Le'an County.

"If we succeed in accomplishing the project, we may find a way to improve the management mechanism of domestic poverty reduction funds and promote the subsistence and development of domestic NGOs," said Duan Yingbi, president of the CFPA.

With assistance from government and all walks of life, China also highlights the approach for poverty relief -- to support poor people and encourage them to overcome the common attitude of "wait, depend on, and ask" and establish a spirit of self-reliance and hard work, said Liu Jian.


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