The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development covers 17 goals, the first of which is “no poverty”, namely: end poverty in all its forms everywhere. (Click here for details)

Under this major goal, there are seven targets, the first of which is “By 2030, eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere, currently measured as people living on less than $1.25 a day”. (Note: In October 2015, the World Bank raised the standard of extreme poverty to less than $1.90 per person per day.)

Current Status: Global Poverty Reduction Process Still Has a Long Way to Go

About the world

From the historical perspective, the overall scale of the global poor population is declining. According to the World Bank’s report in 2018 named “Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2018: Piecing Together the Poverty Puzzle”, calculated by purchasing power parity and measured by the international poverty line of less than $1.9 a day, the number of people living in extreme poverty worldwide has slowly declined since the 1990s, from 1.895 billion in 1990 to 1.729 billion in 1999. Since the beginning of the 21st century, under the strong driving force of poverty reduction in East Asia, especially outstanding achievements in China, the global population in extreme poverty has been sharply reduced, from 1.352 billion in 2005 to 736 million in 2015. In the four years mentioned above, the global incidence of extreme poverty was 35.9%, 28.6%, 20.7% and 10% respectively.

(UN photo)

From the perspective of future developments, the size of the world’s extremely poor population is expected to decrease from 656 million in 2018 to 479 million in 2030. By 2030, the year to reach the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the world’s extremely poor people will be increasingly concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa, where the region’s extremely poor population accounts for 86.8% of the total. This means that the effectiveness of poverty reduction on the African continent will play a key role in the global poverty reduction process.

About China

On October 17, 2019, the Global Poverty Reduction and Development Forum was held in Beijing. Foreign guests praised China’s poverty reduction achievements and its great contribution to global poverty reduction.

Huge revolution: Wujiatai Village, Wanzhai Township, Xuanen County, Hubei Province has changed from a poverty-stricken village to a tourist destination, with scenery everywhere. (Source: www.enshi.cn)

Shangnan Road in Rangtang County, Sichuan Province is nearly 40 kilometers long, winding among the mountains with an altitude of more than 3,000 meters. After the reconstruction and expansion of Shangnan Road at the end of 2017, it facilitated the travel of Tibetan herdsmen and became the “Heaven Road” for local Tibetan herdsmen to get rid of poverty and become rich. (Source: Xinhua)

According to the UN’s Millennium Development Goals Report 2015, China’s contribution to global poverty reduction exceeds 70%. China has played the role of a locomotive in global poverty reduction.

According to the White Paper on China’s Food Security issued by the State Council Information Office, the number of rural poor people in China was 16.6 million at the end of 2018, a decrease of 82.39 million from 98.99 million at the end of 2012, according to the current rural poverty standards. With an average annual poverty reduction of over 13 million, the national poverty rate has dropped from 10.2% to 1.7%. Compared with 770 million people at the end of 1978, the cumulative poverty reduction was 750 million.

According to the international poverty standard of $1.9 per person per day by World Bank, China contributes more than 70% to global poverty reduction. China is the country with the largest poverty reduction population in the world and the first country in the world to achieve the poverty reduction goals of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

October 17th is the sixth national “Poverty Alleviation Day” and the 27th International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. It is only one year away from the goal of completing poverty alleviation in 2020. To win the battle against poverty is the bottom line task and strict requirement for building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way.

In a word, the goal of poverty alleviation in the new era is to achieve “two guarantees” by 2020: to ensure that the poor people in rural areas can get rid of poverty, and to ensure that all the poor counties can get rid of poverty. However, with the continuous progress of poverty alleviation, the rest poor population suffers from “poverty in poverty”, and it is extremely difficult to lift them out of poverty. Therefore, it is necessary to further strengthen poverty alleviation and development, consider the factors of “Two No-Worries and Three Guarantees” as a whole, and focus on the four issues of “who need support”, “who to help”, “how to help” and “how to quit”. The poor population should be recorded in files and cards and managed through the computer, with precise policy and “targeted therapy” adopted for them, and “flood irrigation” changed into “precise irrigation”. We should adhere to the combination of poverty alleviation and mental support. We need to combine developmental poverty alleviation with supportive poverty alleviation, increase industrial poverty alleviation and realize the coordination of “hematopoiesis” and “blood transfusion”. We need to effectively integrate poverty alleviation and rural revitalization, form a dual drive of poverty alleviation and revitalization, and consolidate the achievements of poverty alleviation by implementing the Rural Revitalization Strategy.

Article source: People’s Daily Online, www.jcrb.com, People’s Daily, Nanfang Daily

●Cases

Shenzhen: Partner Assistance to Alleviate Poverty

Shenzhen’s “partner assistance” involves 34 counties (cities, or districts) in six provinces (autonomous regions, or municipalities directly under the central government). Since 2012, the city has invested about 27.2 billion yuan of financial assistance funds, and has sent about 3,100 officials, medical workers and teachers. Shenzhen has assisted in the construction of about 30,000 major public service and infrastructure projects, including those related to education and health, industrial facilities, rural housing reconstruction, highways and village roads, farmland and water conservancy. Shenzhen has trained about 20,000 officials and talents in the areas it assists.

In recent years, Shenzhen Municipality has achieved good results in national assessments on partner assistance and the poverty alleviation cooperation between the East and the West, and in provincial assessments on partner assistance and targeted poverty alleviation. Shenzhen’s partner assistance office has won the title of “advanced group in the national poverty alleviation system”.

Building Shenzhen’s Brand Projects in Aiding Xinjiang

Since the launch of a new round of aid to Xinjiang in 2010, Shenzhen has invested a total of 6.982 billion yuan of financial funds for targeted poverty alleviation, industrial aid, education aid, talent aid, exchanges and integration. In Kashi City, Shenzhen has a number of benchmarking projects and boutique projects, including Kashi Shenzhen Industrial Park, Kashi Shenzhen City, Kashi University, Kashi Free Trade Zone, and Shenzhen-Kashi Science and Technology Innovation Center.

Shenzhen Municipality has given 1 billion yuan in the construction of Kashi University. (Source: yuanjiang.ts.cn)

Shenzhen has had Futian District carry out accurate poverty alleviation in Taxian County. Futian District Government has invested 240 million yuan to help Taxian fight poverty in an all-round way. The Shenzhen Energy Futa photovoltaic power generation project has been connected to the grid for power generation. The Taxian County People’s Hospital passed the assessment for a 2A hospital in March 2019. The Shenta Middle School has officially opened. Other key projects such as the introduction of improved yaks and species reform have also made breakthroughs. A series of measures have been taken to ensure that 16,806 poor people from 4,140 poor households in Taxian County get rid of poverty on schedule.

Pushing Forward Assisting Projects in Tibet

Shenzhen’s partner assistance to Tibet started in 1995. It has successively supported Nyingchi Prefecture, Medog County, Zayu County and Zayu Farm, with a total investment of 1.355 billion yuan. Since July 2016, Shenzhen has provided overall partner assistance to Zayu County and Zayu Farm, and implemented a number of projects to benefit people’s livelihood, gather and warm people’s hearts.

Shenzhen Municipal Government has built the Tibet Intangible Culture Museum jointly with Vanke Group. (Source: www.banyuetan.org)

The relocation project of Muben Village was carried out to move nearly 200 villagers of 30 households in Muben Village, which was the most remote and impassable village in Zayu County in Nujiang River Valley and had high risk of geological disasters, to Gonggu Village in Upper Zayu Township, where the climate is suitable and resources are relatively rich, to enrich the people and consolidate the border near the village. The Shenzhen Municipal Government invested 100 million yuan to build the Tibet Intangible Cultural Heritage Museum, while Vanke Group was responsible for the construction. The project was completed and officially handed over in June 2019. Baoan District paid 50 million yuan to assist the construction of Zayu County People’s Hospital (Tibetan Medicine Hospital), which had been started. Nanshan District and Overseas Chinese Town Group invested 200 million yuan in the development and construction of Nyingchi OCT International Automobile Camp, and no less than 5 million yuan of the project’s income will be used each year to support the precise poverty alleviation work of Zayu county.

Carrying Out All-Round Partner Assistance in Guangdong

Since 2013, Shenzhen has invested 14.727 billion yuan in supporting Heyuan and Shanwei, focusing on targeted poverty alleviation, industrial co-construction, infrastructure construction, people’s livelihood and other key work, and continuously reinforcing support. Shenzhen has helped 24,063 poor households and 83,951 poor people in 323 villages in Heyuan and Shanwei. Since 2016, Shenzhen has sent 464 officials, set up 10 county-level working groups and 323 village-level working teams, invested 2.04 billion yuan, and implemented 5,533 village projects and 53,000 household projects. From 2016 to 2017, Shenzhen helped 61,400 poor people get rid of poverty.

Article source: www.banyuetan.org

●Background

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 

On January 1, 2016, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including 169 targets, of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development — adopted by world leaders in September 2015 at an historic UN Summit — officially came into force. Countries will mobilize efforts to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change, while ensuring that no one is left behind.