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 seventh 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

Global Poverty Situation and Alleviation Measures

Globally, 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.

Increase economic growth rate and vigorously develop agriculture: To speed up economic growth is a long-term strategy to get rid of poverty. Practice has proved that maintaining high-speed economic growth can increase the per capita income and living standards of residents, and reduce the total number of people living in absolute poverty.

Increase investment in human capital and improve the quality of the population: the improvement of population quality, especially education, plays an inestimable role in poverty reduction. South Korea, Indonesia, and Malaysia attached great importance to the role of education in reducing poverty. In the process of labor transfer, they focused on strengthening education and training of rural populations, and successfully resolved the transition of surplus agricultural labor to the secondary and tertiary industries.

In the process of transferring the agricultural population from rural to urban areas, poverty may be exacerbated, if we do not pay attention to the development of human resources. For example, in the 1980s, a large number of rural poor people who migrated to cities in India lacked sufficient cultural knowledge and labor skills in India , and it was difficult for them to find jobs in cities, resulting in many “slums” in cities.

Children are playing in the Kibera slum in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. (Source: Xinhuanet.com)

Establish special employment projects and poverty alleviation systems: In South Asia, Africa, and Latin America, establishing special employment projects and poverty alleviation systems are direct and effective ways to reduce poverty on a large scale. There are two forms of poverty reduction systems commonly used in developing countries: one is to establish a self-employment system; the other is to implement public engineering projects.

Implement prices and social security policies, and improve income distribution relations by adjusting economy structure and employment structure: For developing countries, poverty is affected by changes in average income as well as social income distribution relations and social security policies. To end this, many developing countries are paying more and more attention to improving the relationship of social income distribution through adjusting the economy and employment structure and price policies; as well as improving social security and insurance systems such as education, medical care and health, and improving the living conditions of the poor.

Test source: xinhuanet.com

About China

Key Points of Cyberspace Poverty Alleviation in 2019 was Released for Implementation

In April 2019, the Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Poverty Alleviation Office of the State Council, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued the key points of cyberspace poverty alleviation in 2019. According to the notice, it is necessary to thoroughly implement the work of cyberspace poverty alleviation, conscientiously implement the guiding opinions on the three-year action of winning the battle against poverty, focus on the deeply poverty-stricken areas, special poverty-stricken groups and the poor households on records, fully explore the potential of Internet and information technology in accurate poverty alleviation, solidly promote the in-depth development of cyberspace poverty alleviation, and constantly stimulate the inward power of poor people and areas for self-development, in order to make new and greater contributions to the battle against poverty. The key work points of cyberspace poverty alleviation in 2019 deployed 25 key tasks in seven aspects.

The site of a poverty alleviation project through cultural tourism in Cliff Village, Zhaojue County, Sichuan Province. (Source: sohu.com)

Test source: f.china.com.cn

●  Cases

About the World

Brazil’s  “Development Pole”  Strategy and Tourism Poverty Alleviation 

The tourism anti-poverty strategy model based on the “development pole strategy” is implemented under the guidance of the “development pole” theory. The basic idea is to adhere to the principle of unbalanced regional development, that is, to first select and cultivate the tourism as a “development pole” to become the driving force of regional economic development. To this end, the Brazilian government has made key investments in the  “development pole” and formulated special preferential policies. Firstly, tourism, as the  “development pole”, enjoys favorable trade policies in terms of taxation, import and export. Secondly, in terms of fiscal policy, it is stipulated that enterprises developing and running tourism can be sponsored by the “Amazon Development Private Investment Fund”, and can enjoy exemption from profits tax and other benefits. At present, Brazil has initially formed a tourism “development pole” network that drives economic development throughout the region, and has achieved significant results.

In order to effectively play the leading role of tourism as a “development poles”, Brazil has adopted a series of policies and measures: First, it has established a special development agency to guide and organize the development and planning of destination tourism, and form a top-down national support system. Its structural system is mainly composed of the Ministry of the Interior, the Development Administration, the Special Economic Zone Administration and project development companies. Second, it has developed and implemented tourism development plans for backward areas. The purpose is to promote the economic development of the Amazon region through tourism development and construction, especially to vigorously develop agricultural tourism, adjust the regional industrial structure layout, optimize the regional development structure, and drive regional economic development. Third, it has implemented various encouragement policies to promote the “development pole”, including fiscal stimulus to raise development funds and lead private investment to tourist destinations, budgetary allocations to ensure funds needed for regional tourism development and to enable smooth implementation of development plans, strengthening the development of regional infrastructure such as transportation, hotels and accommodation, and attracting foreign investment to participate in destination tourism by opening up free trade zones, reducing land use fees, etc. Fourth, it has actively improved the quality of workers in tourist destinations. The Brazilian government established the Northeast Education Fund to improve the quality of workers at destinations through teacher training, free textbook distribution, and launching a “distance teaching program”.

Manaus, the capital of Amazon state, is located on the left bank of Negro River, a tributary of Amazon River. (Source: mafengwo.cn)

Text Source: msweekly.com

About China

Shenzhen: Social Forces Attracted for Targeted Poverty Alleviation

The 7th China Charity Fair was opened in Shenzhen on September 20, 2019. Concentrating on the theme of “focusing on poverty alleviation and creating a better life together”, the fair mobilized the whole society to participate in poverty alleviation. The exhibition had four sections: exhibition and exchange, seminars, resource matching, and supporting activities. Three exhibition halls were set up for the battle of poverty alleviation, poverty alleviation through consumption, and public welfare experience, respectively. It focused on the special resources and poverty alleviation needs of deeply poverty-stricken areas, showed and introduced the typical cases, innovative models and outstanding results of poverty alleviation by social organizations, caring enterprises and other social forces in. It provided valuable experience and successful reference for social forces to participate in poverty alleviation.

The opening cenemory of “The 7th China Charity Fair”. (Source: sztqb.sznews.com)

In the seminar section, which is closely related to the theme of poverty alleviation, the fair organized a high-end international public welfare seminar, and organized nine sub-topic seminars and eight interactive salons focusing on the practice and exploration of poverty alleviation by social organizations, enterprises, cyberspace, media, finance and cooperation. Over 200 domestic and foreign experts and scholars in the field of public welfare and charity gathered to exchange wisdom. Leaders of a large number of well-known enterprises and funds, such as CNNC, Sinopec, Country Garden, Yili, Ping An, Vanke, Huaneng, BMW, Tencent, etc., exchanged ideas and shared the successful experience of poverty alleviation in China and the world.

According to preliminary statistics, a total of 133 poverty alleviation projects achieved resource matching during the fair. The project matching amount exceeded 5.8 billion yuan, and orders were placed for more than 1.6 billion yuan of various types of products for poverty alleviation through consumption.

Text Source: sztqb.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.