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 sixth of which is“Ensure significant mobilization of resources from a variety of sources, including through enhanced development cooperation, in order to provide adequate and predictable means for developing countries, in particular least developed countries, to implement programmes and policies to end poverty in all its dimensions.”

●  Current Situation

About the World

Progress Against Poverty Continues but Has Slowed, Jeopardizing Achievement of the Goal

The decline of extreme poverty continues, but the pace has slowed, and the world is not on track to achieving the target of ending poverty by 2030. Extreme poverty today is concentrated and overwhelmingly affects rural populations. Increasingly, it is exacerbated by violent conflicts and climate change. Tackling the remaining pockets of extreme poverty will be challenging due to their persistence and complexity—often involving the interplay of social, political and economic factors. Effective social protection schemes and policies, along with government spending on key services, can help those left behind get back on their feet and find a way out of poverty.

The share of the world’s population living in extreme poverty decreased to 10 percent in 2015, from 16 percent in 2010 and 36 percent in 1990. More than one billion people have lifted themselves out of poverty over the past 25 years. Much of this progress was in Eastern Asia, where the poverty rate fell from 52 percent in 1990 to 10 percent in 2010 to less than 1 percent in 2015. More recently, Southern Asia has made impressive inroads against extreme poverty, helping to reduce the global rate further. However, the pace of change is decelerating. The nowcast shows the 2018 rate of extreme poverty at 8.6 percent, and baseline projections suggest that 6 percent of the world’s population will still be living in extreme poverty in 2030, if current trends continue.

(United Nations)

Extreme poverty remains stubbornly high in low-income countries and countries affected by conflict and political upheaval, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Among the 736 million people who lived on less than $1.90 a day in 2015, 413 million were in sub-Saharan Africa. This figure has been climbing in recent years and is higher than the number of poor people in the rest of the world combined. Forecasts suggest that without significant shifts in policy, extreme poverty will still be in the double digits in sub-Saharan Africa by 2030. About 79 percent of the world’s poor live in rural areas. The poverty rate in rural areas is 17.2 percent—more than three times higher than in urban areas (5.3 percent). Close to half (46 percent) of extremely poor people are children under 14 years of age.

About China

China’s Achievements in Poverty Alleviation are Amazing, and the Experience Enlightens the World

To solve the historical and global problem of poverty alleviation, China’s achievements have attracted worldwide attention and praised by foreign media. From a global perspective, China’s achievements in poverty alleviation are particularly impressive. Over the past 40 years of reform and opening up, in accordance with the World Bank’s international poverty standard of $1.9 per person per day, China has lifted more than 800 million poor people out of poverty, contributing to more than 70 percent of the world’s poverty alleviation. China is the first developing country in the world to achieve the poverty alleviation goals of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals.

According to the white paper “China’s Food Security” released by the Information Office of the State Council, according to the current rural poverty standards, the number of rural poor in China was 16.6 million by the end of 2018, a decrease of 82.39 million compared with 98.99 million at the end of 2012, and the incidence of poverty decreased from 10.2 percent to 1.7 percent. The figures of China’s ongoing poverty eradication fight are amazing. Currently, only 2 percent of China’s population lives below the poverty line. According to China’s goals, by 2020, the remaining 30 million people will be lifted out of poverty.

Qinghai Province carries out the activities of “poverty alleviation through lens to deliver blessing, sending hundreds of blessings photos to farmers”. (Source: p.51vv.com)

“Since the reform and opening up, the incidence of poverty in China has decreased by nearly 95 percentage points. The country with 1.4 billion people has accomplished this task.” The Russian newspaper Nezavissimaia Gazeta (meaning Independence News) listed a series of figures and exclaimed that the speed of China’s fight against poverty was impressive.

Nowadays, “poverty alleviation” has become an indispensable perspective for foreign media to observe China and tell China’s stories. According to BBC, poverty reduction is an important part of China’s “economic miracle”. CNN marveled at China’s “serious” attitude towards poverty alleviation and its “amazing” investment of effort.

Test source: un.org, people.com.cn

●  Cases

About the World

Poverty Alleviation of Rural Tourism in Pai, Thailand

In recent years, Thailand's tourism has developed rapidly. In 2017, the total number of foreign tourists to Thailand exceeded 35 million, with an increase of 8.77 percent over 2016, generating more than 1.82 trillion baht (about 360 billion yuan) for Thailand’s tourism industry, an increase of 11.66 percent over 2016. The development of Thailand’s tourism industry has greatly promoted poverty alleviation by tourism. Besides Doi Tung,  Pai County is also a typical case. Pai County is a remote border town in Thailand. However, through efforts, Thailand has built it into a paradise to experience a leisurely life and attract tourists from all over the world.

Natural scenery in Pai County. (Source: mafengwo.cn)

The first is to define the main positioning of rural tourism. Pai County actively develops slow-life experience projects for rural tourism. Various leisure restaurants and bars have been built in the county. The construction design highlights the living characteristics and romantic life atmosphere. A variety of exotic flowers and plants are planted in the front and back of the house, and the interior is decorated with wooden products to create an antique atmosphere, as well as a warm and comfortable living atmosphere.

Strawberry fields in Pai County (Source: sohu.com)

The second is to actively develop unique tourism products. Relying on the boundless pastoral and mountain resources around, Pai County offers sightseeing tours and leisure experience activities, so that visitors can experience the true pure romantic charm of nature. According to the different holiday needs of consumer groups, Pai County actively design and develop different leisure and holiday packages such as field leisure vacations, rural sightseeing tours and farm life experience tours.

The third is to provide high-quality tourism services, and form a reputation. Pai County has conducted the digital construction for the Internet, provided tourists with efficient and convenient services, carried out training of languages of the main tourist source countries among personnel engaged in the service industry, and improved the overall quality of the industry.

About China

Helping the Nation Overcome Poverty, and Decoding the Poverty Alleviation Model of Shenzhen

On September 21, 2019, the 2nd Seminar on Shenzhen Special Economic Zone’s Poverty Alleviation Practice, Exploration and Cooperation was held in Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center. Focusing on the theme of “telling the story of Shenzhen’s cooperation and helping the country to overcome poverty”, representatives from Party committees, governments, enterprises and social organizations, as well as the main leaders of the media in areas getting Shenzhen’s counterpart assistance and cooperation and exchange, discussed and interacted from different perspectives, summarized and refined the poverty alleviation model of Shenzhen, and contributed wisdom to win the fight against poverty and build a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way.

A scene of the seminar. (Source: sznews.com)

In the process of targeted poverty alleviation in the new era, enterprises play irreplaceable key roles as market players and innovators. In the front line of the areas aided by Shenzhen, many enterprises from Shenzhen actively participate in poverty alleviation and have made positive contributions to accelerating the economic and social development of poverty-stricken areas and people’s poverty alleviation. In their theme speeches, Representatives from Tencent, Ping An, Vanke and other Shenzhen enterprises respectively demonstrated their experiences in conducting poverty alleviation projects.

The news media plays a role of “bridge” in collecting information, gathering resources, contacting relevant parties and promoting communication. In order to better create a good social environment and public opinion support for winning the fight against poverty and building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way, the seminar invited the leaders of 20 mainstream media in the 12 areas involved in Shenzhen partner support and cooperation, including Zhaotong in Yunnan, Baise and Hechi in Guangxi, Bijie in Guizhou, Kashi in Xinjiang, Heyuan and Shanwei in Guangdong, Harbin in Heilongjiang, Ganzi in Sichuan, Wushan in Chongqing, Gannan in Jiangxi and Linzhi (Nyingchi) in Tibet.  Focusing on the themes of what poverty alleviation cooperation means in new area, the new achievement on poverty alleviation cooperation, the publicity reform by the press in Shenzhen and those areas, and the new aspirations of poverty alleviation, etc., in combination with the situation of poverty alleviation between those areas and Shenzhen, they discussed and exchanged their experiences and suggestions, from the perspective of publicity, to help win the poverty alleviation battle.

Affordable houses in Kashi built by Shenzhen. (Source: thepaper.cn)

At present, Shenzhen is involved in partner support, poverty alleviation cooperation between East China and the West China, comprehensive partner assistance, and cooperation and exchange with relevant areas in 10 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in November 2012, Shenzhen has invested about 30 billion yuan of government fund to help build about 40,000 large projects including public service facilities, education, health and infrastructure, such as rural roads and farmland irrigation. Shenzhen has also trained 40,000 cadres and professionals in those areas, and guided more than 2 million entrepreneurs and migrant workers from those areas to Shenzhen. Up to now, 1.16 million poor people have been lifted out of poverty in relevant areas assisted by Shenzhen. In recent years, Shenzhen has achieved fruitful results in poverty alleviation, which has been highly recognized for many times by the Poverty Alleviation Office of the State Council and the Party committees and governments of the areas assisted by Shenzhen.

Text Source: sohu.com, sznews.com

●  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.